Does anybody have any good ideas on how to mark a fully charged battery vs a depleted one? I start our with the best intensions but it's easy to loose track of which battery pack is which..

I use a trickle charger to keep the planes I want to fly charged. If it has been sitting for a week or two, chances are it could have lost some of its charge and I won't fly it, it if has been sitting longer, I definately won't fly it. I used to never worry about it but I have some anal friends that proved to me that they loose some as they sit. I use an Ace Digipulse to keep 6 charged at once. Works pretty well.

Thanks for the info, but I want to mark a used battery pack so I can tell it from a full charged one

Its a pretty simple matter to just put a patch of tape on your charged batterys and just pull the tape patch after a flight as you pop in a fresh one.

John

HMMMM,

Maybe I dont understand?
If you need to mark a batt pack thats not in a plane, should be easy enough.
If it is in a plane, it should be wrapped in foam and secured someplace for ballast in the fuse.

I agree with FLYBOY, keep the active radio gear on trickle charge, remove it only when you fly, then, you know its charged, well, after you check the voltage to be certain youve not lost a cell.

Could be wrong but I believe he's talking about motor batterys when you head for the field with a number of charged batterys for multiple flights with electrics.

John

Duh
OK, I guess that would make some since.
Never struck me that way, I know squat about electric planes.

Maybe a washable marking pen from the school supply section of your local Big Mart??? Just wipe it off when your done.

Larry

Go with the tape idea.

charge up put tape on.
put in plane fly.
take out of plane pull tape off.

no tape = used

Why not use and rubber band? So long as you stick to say, No Band = Charged and With Band = Discharged you should be OK.

You'll have spare No. 64 bands with you?

These sound like some good ideas...thanks guys...

I didn't understand that is was motor packs either. I was going to suggest the rubberbands, but Ric already took care of that.
Hope it works.

I think a small bit of tape over the plug when you finish the charge. that way you have to remove the tape to use it making sure you dont forget it on there. or rubberband the wire back on the chaged packs so you take off the band to use it.

its easier to remeber to do something if its "in your way" like that.

all you have to do is remember to put it on after charging them.

Just number them, and use them in the right order.
i do that with my 4 RC car packs, one for each race, race one, pack one, all charged in order too with each peaking just a few mins before the race
if you pop in a flat one it's not going to sound right when you test the motor anyway, you do test the motor right? and if you discharge them like you should ( either on a discharger or keep the motor running when you land till the BEC kicks in ) then its going to let you know before you take off.
no need for anything complicated. if you must have your self a padded battery case ( keeps the leads from touching too ) and charged batts live on one side, flat on the other. goto any hardward store and get a replacement drill case. good for holding the transmitter too

I've just been leaving my flight packs in whatever state. I pop one on the charger as I load the car. Then I pop another one on the charger before the first flight. The battery to use is always the one connected to the charger

I suppose if I had more than 3 or 4 packs, and I wanted to run each pack the same number of times in a day flying I'd run in to trouble with my system though. But at least I wouldn't try taking off with a flat battery .