I purchased my Futaba skysport transmitter a little more thana year ago, and i have noticed that my battery life has decreased dramatically. I asked a friends about it and he said that i need to cycle them because they develop a memory, or sumthing like that. Well, i was doing some looking for a battery cycler and i have found:

1) Hobbico Accu-cycle

2)Miniron Mobil Battery Charger ??

We'll, i dont know much about cycling batteries, and i was wondering which would be the best buy? Which one is the better buy? Or am i missing one that is better than these 2? Just wanted some info before i start dealing out cash for my bird. Thanks.

Try http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/ (Red's Battery Clinic)and you should find the answer there

Ah, thanks!

except that you will need to take the battery out of the transmitter to cycle it. It wouldn't hurt to have an accu cycle but honestly, I figure if futaba wanted me to cycle the transmitter battery, they would have made it easier, so I don't. I do use the accucycle to check the capacity of my airborne packs at the beginning of the season for sure, however. I'd recommend you charge up your battery 24 hours with the wall wart charger, then go fly. If you dont get at least 5 flights or so before it dies, buy a new battery. You can get 1650 NiMh battery packs from cermark and others. If you do this, make sure you get a charger that is adequate for your new battery, the accucycle puts out 125 mAh which will work.

peter

Ahhh...but they DO make it easy to buy a replacement

Look into the Triton Charger. I own one and need to get another one. They will charge anything, pb acid, nimh, lipos, nicd, etc.... It is almost fully automatic, easy to use and has a optional temp. probe so that if a battery gets to hot it shuts off. You can cycle batteries I think up to 10 times in a row, charge then discharge, discharge then charge, etc... You can also adjust the charge and discharge rates. Check it out at Towerhobbies.com.