I had charged my field box/glow plug batterys on Friday nite for some Saturday flying. We got in 4 good flights Saturday. I'm getting ready to fly again tomorrow nite (Tuesday) . Do I charge my field battery and glow plug battery overnite again? I charge my Tx and Rx batteries all nite befor a flight, should I do the same with the field./glow batteries too? Thanks for your response's. I have an electric fuel pump and starter with my box. I've check the batteries with my voltmeter and the field battery show 12.5 and my glow shows 1.4 on the meter. It is a 12 volt battery in my box.

CC

i doubt the 12v needs it, but as far as I know it doesnt hurt to top it off over night.

Well....regarding the field battery, depends how many amps you have. I use a 12 volt 7 amp battery and I can use it for a week straight without charging it.(Flying about 4-5 days /week.) I use a Hobbico Field Battery Volt-Watch attached to my field box to check charge after flying. The glow plug I charge right off the power panel while I fly. One in a while i'll bring it into the house for a charge.

If you have a field charger, which you should, it doesn't really matter. If not, top them off the night before a flying day.

I do have a field charger on my box, and my field battery is a 12v 7amp battery. This is the first time that I have had flights within a few days of each other. I have a voltmeter on my plane/rx, maybe I should get one for my box also. I just wasn't for sure whether it would damage any cells in my field battery/glow plug battery, if I charged it again on my wall charger's after a few days from the previous flights. Thanks for all of your input folks. We newbies appreciate all the info we can get.

Thanks
CC

I should have said quick charger instead of field charger. Basically when your Rx pack is low you can give it a charge for some more flying, at the field.

Or you can simply buy one of [link=http://batterytender.com/default.php?cPath=11_3]these[/link] and quit worrying about your 12v field battery.

When you get home from flying, plug it into your panel's starter jacks. Your battery will be perfectly topped off tomorrow, next week or 6 months down the road. It is totally automatic.

It's nice to get so many quick responses in such a short time. I just want to thank all of you for answering our questions quickly, even though these questions have been asked over and over. Thank you all for your patience with us New folks.

CC

I charge my field box about once a month or so.

I have a 27Ah battery in my field box, and I always put it on the charger the night before I fly just to top it off.

Same with the ignitor.

Better to shorten the life of the non-critical battery a bit than arriving to the field w/o sufficient charge.

My "flying time" is worth more to me than the batteries.

I have the Power Panel II with a standard Panel ready glow plug clip that I assume just plugs into the 1.2 volt jacks in the panel. I"v read where more than about 2 volts applied to the glow plug will sometimes burn them out. My problem is that I checked the voltage at the 1.2 volt jacks and found there was about 7 volts coming from it. Any
ideas ? Thanks in advance for your help.

me too.. 12v 7am.. tons of juice with starter and fuel pump attached,... I just wait till it slows down a bit . (starter, etc) and check with voltmeter... I fly with 1200mah nimh packs for airborned so no worries there.. radio runs down before the flight pack
mike

Planer - as I answered in your other thread, this is a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) voltage and the effective heating is the same as a steady DC voltage of 1.2-1.8v depending on where you set the control. Your meter isn't fast enough to "see" the pulsing.

I charge my field battery about once every 2 weeks, but all i use with it is a electric starter ( i fly about 2 times a week)

I used to use a field battery and it was pretty stout. Recently I moved up to a lawnmower battery because I am charging electric flight batteries now as well.