Diesel Power

Hi

Wondered how you folks feel about this charger? Also, what does cycling batteries mean?

Thanks

guver

My Feedback: (325)

It's a great buy. The worst thing about it is it's 3 amp limit on ac and it's limits chargeing higher cell counts on either ac/dc.

I think it is a better deal than nost $40 chargers unless you will exclusively use it on AC power.

gerwen

Good value, easy to use.

Mine wouldn't charge 8 cells at more than ~1 amp though. No matter if i was on AC or DC.

rccarfrk

I got one of these chargers, and I wanted to know what would be a good way to charge some brand new batteries. I have read it's better to slow charge them for the first time.

2400 mah NiCd - would charge at 1.2 amps for two hours
3000 mah Nimh - would charge at 1.5 amps for two hours

These would be for the first charge. Then I could up the amps for a quicker charge later after use.

I thought I have heard that peak chargers like this don't charge new batteries well and sometimes false peak.

I just want to get a good initial, full charge without blowing them up.

Thanks!

guver

My Feedback: (325)

The slow charge for new batts cannot really be done by a peak charger very easily. It uses a rate od c/10 for 15 hrs.

On your batts it would be 240 ma and 300 ma.

rccarfrk

Would I expect the charge to last 1 hour each respectively at those levels?

I know the max amps on AC current is 3 for this charger, so I'd expect no more than 1 hour to charge that 3000 mah battery, correct?


I know these may seem like basic Q's, but I have been out of the r/c world for about 15 years. The last charger I used I set for 20 minutes at the maximum amps to charge my 6 cell nicd battery. These peak chargers are all new to me. The directions on the charger seem easy enough to follow, but like I said before, I thought I had read peak chargers don't do a good job for the first charge, sometimes peaking too soon leaving a less than full charge.

Thanks for any advice.

guver

My Feedback: (325)

Well, you are right about a peak charger not being able to do a "formation" charge because it is a 15 hr and forced charge. The peak needs to be ignored.

The charge will last 1 hr or so if the discharge rate is at 3 amps, same as the charge rate being at 3 amps will last for an hr.

It is a rate, like a 3 gallon bucket being filled or emptied at a rate of 3 gals/hr

kx250ryder

This was my first peak charger well, at least in the last decade, had an old Tekin before that. It is really easy to use (it can't get much easier). Set the current, mAh, and delta peak value, and you are done. Plus, it has 10 memory slots so you don't have to re-enter everything each time you charge. Great charger if you don't need to do li-po packs or discharging.

Now, I use it in conjunction with my MRC Super Brain 977 (aka. pimp-diggity-superfly-mac-daddy-of-batteries), and I can charge my radio batteries, receiver batteries, and 12 volt starter box battery all at once (since the Super Brain 977 can do two different packs/battery types at once).

Worst case, if every battery is totally dead, between the two chargers I am never more than a couple hours away (usually more like 30 minutes just to top them all off) from having everything charged.

As for cycling, look up the moderator Red Sholefield [sic], he knows alot about this subject.

EDIT: Here is the link - http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com