I'm using a hobbico field charger on my 4.8 v RX pack.
Its about 30 degrees out so I will use a loaded multi tester at the field today to monitor the rx battery after each flight.
I see in another post that 4.8v is good, 4.5 - 4.8 is questionable and 4.4 is a no go...are these safe numbers to go by?

Also when charging. how high should the voltage go? Right now, the 4 cell pack is on the charger with the multi tester in the monitor ports of the charger and its reading 6.0 v (with no load) I'm not sure I trust the charger to shut off? I'v fried a battery before so I'm wondering how high to let it charge to before I shut it down??/

Today I'll get an Idea of how cold is TOO cold for flying!!
( my comfort not the planes)

Steve

I beleive 6.0 is high normal but i could be wrong.. This is just my opinion as I have seen my batteries a few tenthgs below that after full charge.

My peak detection charger shuts off after the voltage drops a little. If you can watch the voltage, take it off the charger when you see the volts reach a peak and start to drop. If I am wrong please correct me.

Are you talking about a NiCd or NiMh?
I've seen well over 6 volts when charging a 4 cell NiCd receiver pack...something like 6.3 or 6.4V.
You might not see quite that high on a NiMh? I typically fast charge my 700 MAH NiCd Rx. packs at the lowest setting on my MRC 969 Super Brain which is 200 MAH. Ther 1500 (and more ) MAH NiMh I use 400 to 500 MAH. because I don't like to push 'em that hard.

You are right in asking though...I have read of a couple other guys that had "issues" when fast charging with a Hobbico fast (field ) charger.

Maybe try a search in the Batteries and Chargers forum?

A fully charged 4.8v nicd should be around 6v. When it drains down to 5.2v you should consider recharging it because it starts loosing voltage faster when it goes below 5.2v.

To each his own in warm conditions I am done at 4.7 now in the cold you are talking about there is no way I would go below 4.8.

You drop to 4.4 and you have already crashed and this is a moot question.

John

You are right on this, this is just how the peek detecting chargers work. I have been peek charging my batterys with a voltage meter for years. I don't do it all the time, just when I want to see how a battery is doing or I want cycle a Nicd

When the battery peeks out and drops about .2 volts (it can very just a little without being peeked) back down from the highest reading its peeked , I call it charged and take it off charger.

I would not fly a rx 4.8 volt battery down below 4.8 volts for a nicd , in fact I try very hard not to go below 5.25 volts .I want to stay above 5.5 volts for the 5 cell 6 volt NiMh batterys, I think the NiMh drop off a little higher than the Nicd.

remember we have to cycle our Nicd batterys once in awhile. I like to take mine down to about 1 volt a cell. A four cell would be 4 volts. If they are not cycled the drop off voltage goes up on the Nicd's.

good luck,

sticks

forgot one thing, the higher the amperage that a battery is charged the higher the peek voltage. But the static voltage level under load after chargeing it will be about the same as the lower charging rate.