hi guys

OK i got the swallow ACDC charger for Christmas (thanks to my wife) - though i seem to have some problems with discharging to a set voltage. I am using 6 cell (7.2v) 2200mah nicad packs and a 7 cell (8.4v)1700mah nicad pack.
What kind of discharge amperage should I be using for this? I problem I've had with the voltage - i'd put the 7 cell on to discharge to 6.5v, and after a few minutes it would stop (END) at 8.4v - what's going on? to get it lower I dropped the voltage to 0.0v, and it ended up stopping at about 4.8 or something.
Could the problem be that the batteries are of the cheaper variety and have not been looked after incredibly well?

I charged one of my 6 cells to 7.2 v @ 5A and it took about 5 minutes....but didn't run for long. then I charged a 7 cell to 8.4 @ 5A and it took 25 minutes. So I don't really know what should be expected or not. I just want to be able to discharge to a certain voltage (1v/cell).
Do I need to do some cycles?

Thanks
K

The charger should automatically discharge to about 1.1 volt per cell and you should discharge at about 400 mah's.

Your charge rate is too high. The 2200 mah battery should be charged safely at about 2.2 amps if broken in and the 1700 mah battery at 1.7 amps. If the batteries were new they should be slow charged at 170 and 220 mah's and discharged at about 400 mah's a few times to brake them in.

OK thanks. I'm still having some problems with it, ie I don't think there's a problem with the charger (i hope not), but with its operation. eg, I but an 8.4v 7 cell nicad on to discharge, to some ridiculous voltage (ie 1v - because I couldn't figure out if the discharge voltage is shown as per cell or for the whole pack); the discharge took 75 minutes. Then when I take the battery off, I check it with a multimeter and it shows 8.4v!!!!!!!!! what the hell's going on? Of course i'll call my LHS but don't want to appear as a deadhead...
any advice would be tops, especially from people who already have this one.
ta
k