Hello

I am new to the RC world, a few years ago I bought an electric RC plane from Cox, the F4U Corsair. Unfortunately since I bought it, I have not had the time to try to assemble it and fly it due to my job and also being a caregiver to a family member. The RTF kit sat on my closet for maybe 3-4 years. This summer I wanted to try to fly it, but when I tried to charge it, the led in the charger was not lighting up. According to the box, its suppose to light up when charging. The plane has a NiMH battery. Since it has sat in my closet forthat long, is the battery dead? I am using the charger that came with the kit. Or could the charger be defective? I would appreciate any info you can give me.

Hi, welcome to RCU. The charger can't go bad setting , but the battery sure could. I have a few ideas you can try , but may require some outside help.

Try a different charger or battery. Replace battery of get it tested somehow. A minimum of a starting and charging volt reading would be helpful in diagnosing this over the net.

Probably the battery but you can check the charger with just a multi meter to see if is putting out any juice.

I tried a different charger from the second kit and the same thing happens. I will check my charger with a multimeter and see if there is any power output.If I have to replace the battery, does anyone know where I can get them?

Depending upon specs there may be many places to buy them. Tower,Hobbyking,hobbypartz,batteryspace,CBP, many others.

Before buying a new charger, check that your battery is fully discharged.<div>
</div><div>My brother purchased a small RTF RC car last summer and we had the same issue - no charge on the NiMh, and the charger would refuse to light up. 

For most chargers to work, they need to "sense" the battery being there first. If the battery was shipped discharged, or it discharged while sitting around for a while, it won't register from the charger. </div><div>
</div><div>I can't remember the specifics, but to solve the issue with the car, we opened the charger and touched two of the contacts inside with a bent paperclip to cause resistance and thus cause the battery to register. The light went on immediately, and as soon as the battery gained a few seconds of charge, it was enough to keep it going. </div><div>
</div><div>Once this is done once, the charger shouldn't need this fix again, provided the battery is never left to 100% well and truly dead. </div><div>
</div><div>Try another battery (already with some charge) with your charger to see if it works, or try your battery with a different charger, if none of the above works.</div><div>
</div><div>Happy flying!</div><div>
Graeme</div><div>
</div>

Thanks for the tip, I will try that tonight. I did not get a chance to check it these past few days due to work.

I checked the charger with a voltmeter and I am a getting 1.5mV.  It suppose to be a 12 Volt charger.  The LED light is not lighting up.  So is my charger still good?

Try getting a volt reading when batt is plugged in too. Maybe the chargers CAN go bad just setting.