Just curious, How many of you after a day of flying and coming home with your in flight battery pack half drained, just charge it from there or drain it before they charge it ? What is the proper procedure for NiCd and NiMh flight packs? Thanks guys , Happy Flying!!

I cycle my nicads every several months, not on a weekly basis. In fact, if I have had only one flight on a pack and am going to go flying again within a few days, I don't even bother to recharge. But, I DO put a DVM on it to measure the pack with a load, just to be safe... But this way, I'm not trying to charge a lightly-used pack.

Bob

Mst of the time I just re-charge overnight, then put the packs on a timer and charge for an hour every night to keep them topped off. Every onece in a while ( couple of times a year) I do discharge them before fully chargeing them.

bhady

Right now I have a timer that starts the Friday night before I fly, so I just hook every thing up and charge them from there. I do not know of a proper procedure, but on a no fly day, I'll try to cycle everything. The only NiMh's I have are my transmitters, and I cycle them in the winter.

Cycling is only necessary to check the parameters of the battery.
Therefore, no need to do this on a weekly basis.
Once or twice a year should be sufficient.
Good Luck,
KW_Counter

Unless your on a battery program which you are not, randomly cycling your batteries is of little or no value. Cycling to check for condition and trends is a good idea but takes some work and record keeping

Hmmm... Sounds like a subjective question. I got to the point where I just left my aircraft and support stuff in the back of my enclosed truck overnight. I ran a HD 12V constant power line to the back and plugged in a small inverter to which I plugged in walwarts. When I got home I just plugged everything in and let it go till the next day.

There is an interesting point here though. The packs I was charging were between 600 and 1100mAH. Charging these packs at 50mA for 8 to 18 hrs , regardless of their current state, was harmless and topped them off nicely. I have peak charged these and other packs in my vehicle on the way to the field but I wouldn't recommend that after flying in place of an overnight charge.

To you, Rotten40851, I will say that it IS best to play it safe and fully charge before heading to the field. Once you are past the initial few cycles of your packs it is safe to charge them at any residual state. Always check with a loaded DVM before the first flight. Cycle your packs every couple months or when you feel it's needed.

I guess what you choose to do will depend on the size of your packs and your charging versatility.

Pretty much all of the advice you get here is going to be good advice. Find yourself a baseline and go from there.

Good Luck!!