crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

I just bought one of these Elite's and have read the instructions. But this "C" stuff "Amp" stuff and others confuses me. I was definatly NOT good at school so I need some basic dummy information.
I have these batteries, could anyone give me the specs on how to set my charger to peak charge and to discharge? I have the temp sensor to;

JR Sport 2700mah NIMH 4.8v
Expert 1500mah NIMH 4.8v
Expert 2700mah NIMH 6v
JR 1100 NICAD 4.8v

and my TX battery for my 8103 with a 800mah NICAD volt unknown right now.


I need a REAL breakdown step by step what to do. I dont want to mess anything up or have to go to a dictionary to figure out what anyone says. I appreciate for what anyone does. THANKS!!

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Its pretty simple, set the cell count and capacity and hit charge.

Dont worry about tinkering with custom settings.

So for your reciever pack set 4 cells, 2700mah and press charge/discharge or cycle and hold it till it beeps.

Also despite what the destructions say, you can use 2 memory locations at the same time.

For the transmitter pack set it to 8 cell.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

go to the manual menu, enter the number of cells (4.8v -> 4 cells, 6.0v -> 5 cells, TX -> 8 cells.
Enter the capacity of the pack, then press and hold charge until it beeps.
That is it. The green lite will come on and when it starts blinking your batteries are charged.

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

Ok, will do. One thing though, on my 2700mah battery which is brand new and on its 3rd or so cycle, I caint get it past 700mah in charge or discharge. I tried it with my older accu-cycle (all black one) and the closest I could get was 1800mah. That was it.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

NiMH need charged over night to get whats called a formation charged. In that one case you might want to set the charge current at 270 mah or whatever is closest to that and let it charge for a while.

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

what about Amp settings? Mine has that.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

.27 amps, closest is probably a quarter amp (.25a) NiMH packs take a few cycles to reach full capacity, dont panic yet.

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

ok, i have tried adjusting it a bit and hopefully it will do its thing this time. i will keep u all informed.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

You will not get the rated capacity from the charger unless you set up the conditions simular to the manufacturer's specs.
For example, the charger will turn off at 1.1 volt per cell. The MFG cells are tested to 0.9 volt per cell. makes a big difference when testing for rated capacity.

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

so what should I do?

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

You would need to go in and change the following settings.
cut off 0.9v/cell
Discharge C/5
Charge C/10
You would set it to cycle 5 times and then go from there.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Geistware is right, you wont get exactly factory numbers unless you test with the same specs they use.

That being said, the default settings are a touch on the conservative side and will work well, its best unless you know what you are playing with, not to mess with them. You will get quite satisfactory results with the defualt settings.

Just my 2 cents

H. Wayne S

My Feedback: (18)

Miles, I have a question for you, same charger, On my Ultimate, I have 4 2700 6V Batteries, 2 Rx's. ( 2 on ea. Rx) Flew almost 2 gallons out today, Lots of flights. Started recharging tonight. The 2 batteries on one Rx one will only charge to 98mh and the other to 774mh Both show 6.86 & 6.78v What gives here.
Also, on the 35% 260 same batteries same charger, the batteries will not charge through the switches, only direct connect. JR HD Gold switches. Any ideas? [sm=confused.gif]
Wayne S.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

You have to disconnect dual batteries to charge them correctly.

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

I can still only get about 1500 mah out of it. What is odd is this, I give it a charge through the Elite and the mah meter will only show aobut 700mah and if I let it cool and recharge it, it says maybee a little more or a little less. Nothing like the accu-cycle I use all the time. (the older one)

H. Wayne S

My Feedback: (18)

Disconnect Duel Batteries? Odd, I have had this setup on many, many planes and never had to disconnect them before. Maybe I did not explane the setup correctly. One Rx. Two batteries, Two switches. Each Battery has it's own switch. It should not matter what is connected where if both switches are off.

BocaBen

The JR HD switches only cut the positive side (red wire). The negative (Brown wire) is going through.
If you have 2 batteries connected to the same receiver, the negative sides are connected together, even when the switches are off.
It seems like the Elite charger does not handle common ground correctly.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Wayne,
What has been said is true.
The elite does not function well with common grounds.
Your HD switches have two contacts, but both are connected to the positive side only.
You have to disconnect the packs from the common ground to get them to charge properly.
If you remember my setup with the deans connectors on the batteries, I just disconnect them to charge.
I will also recommend that you cycle those 2700maH NiMH packs to make sure that you have full capacity.
Last week my engine was running bad and I found out that my ignition pack was low after 3 flights.
I cycled it and only got 530maH from the pack. It took 5 cycles to get the 2700maH pack to 2100maH.
I will probably cycle it again this week to get more out of it.

I have used the Elite since it was introduced and the only two issues I have is the two charge circuits are NOT independent and you can only use it to check voltage on the trickle charge screen. Other than that, it is a good charger.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

I didn't know about the common ground thing either, though with todays battery systems available I dont see the point of dual switches and packs. The fact is I learned about it reading an article in R/C Report by Dick Pettit who prowls these parts so I'm sure he'd be happy to explain it better, the only reason I remembered it was because technical facts stick in my mind.

One duralite 4000 mah pack is 2s2p so you have battery redundancy, and a switch safe regulator will fail powered on so you have switch redundancy. Less weight, less complicated, more flights. I use them in all my helis and have never had an issue, I ordered a set for the Funtana 100 I'm building just so I dont have to worry about battery issues.

pettit

My Feedback: (23)

You cannot effectively charge 2 batteries (NiMH, Nicad) when they are plugged into 2 separate charge switches that are plugged into the same receiver.

The problem lies within the circuitry in the chargers, well, most of them.

The battery negative terminals are NOT at system ground potential. They are above ground with an electronic "charging switch" between them and system ground.

Since the 2 battery negative terminals are connected together by the ground wires in the 2 charging switches that are plugged into the same reciever, battery ground is not system ground.

All you can do is either charge one battery at a time or pull one charge switch lead from the receiver, effectively breaking the common ground.

And, NO, there are no charge switches that switch both positive and negative. All have common unswitched grounds.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Dick,
According to hobby services, the futaba switch disconnects both positive and negative leads.
I don't have a futaba switch to test this, but this is what I was told when I first brought this issue up with the.
My problem is that the HD switch decreases the effective resistance of the switch contacts by 50%.
Anything else is just not feasible.
What I don't know is if the electronic switches are on the positive lead only or both leads?

H. Wayne S

My Feedback: (18)

Well, well, If you do not learn something new every day, that day was a total loss.
Learned something. Day is not a loss. This really explains a lot of questions and doubts I have been having lately about the batteries and the charger. I have 4 Elites' and was about to get upset with them and the batteries.
Miles, I did cycle them before I installed them in the plane, brand new, 2700mh rating, I got over 3000mh on each one.
It is no big deal to unplug the 2 batteries in the 260, but-- the 4 in the Ultimate are going to present a problem. I'm, going to have to re-engineer some wiring.

BarracudaHockey, Please accept my appoligies.
Thanks, All
Wayne

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Wayne,
If your two receivers have seperate grounds (electrically isolated) then you can take one elite and connect it to a pack on the left (Channel 1) and right (channel 2) of the elite.
Now the only common is the battery and you may have to use two seperate batterys.
With two seperate batteries then charging will not be a problem.

H. Wayne S

My Feedback: (18)

Will try that.
Thanks,
Wayne

pettit

My Feedback: (23)

Like I said earlier, I don't know of ANY power switch that switches both negative and positive leads, Futaba included.

Electronic switches switch positive only too.

The only way to check it is to get out your ohmmeters and prove it for yourself.