I have an older receiver battery on a plane a rarely flew. I'd like to pull it out and use it on a new plane I'm putting together and save me a few bucks. I cycled it on my accucycler a couple times, and each time it took nearly a full charge (996mah/1,000mah). I'd guess this pack is about 3-4 years old. It's a NiMH.

When/how do you know when a RX batter needs replaced? Should this one be good?

have you load tested it? bad batterys can take a charge but can also not hold a charge. personally, I wouldnt use it, batterys are very cheap. Its not worth a crash

I would think if you have a loaded voltmeter then you could leave it hooked up to see if it holds its charge well. I used a couple nicd packs that were older than that whe I first got started, but recently replaced them just to be safe.

JMO,

A new plane deserves a new battery.
I too would do a load test on the old
battery, but not fly with it.

Bob

i have a 600 mah pack that is new i could put in it. but the new plane has all digital servos, wasn't sure if the 600 pack would be sufficient.

there are good deals on receiver packs in the ads here on RCU, I got a new Spektrum 100mah 4.8V pack for 12 bucks. Came with the switch too.

Digital servos draw more power, i'd go with
a 2000 mAh pac at the least. JMO


Bob

Just curious. What can you use a 100 ma pack for?

I always find it amusing when somebody crashes and the post inspection identifies battery failure. They always seem to come out with the best one liners such as "well it's never done that before" or "I've had this battery for 20 years and it's always been reliable - until now" or "I don't know why it failed now - it's only had 1000 flights on it" ...........etc.
Do yourself a favour and just invest in a new one. Go Sanyo eneloops if you budget allows - they are cheap insurance.

Moutaineer,
I would definately test it under load.
A lot of debate is to the amount of load, somewhere between 10 to 20 ohms would be good.
When you discharge it how long does it take at what load?
It sounds like the battery is still good.
A habit to get into is to load test your batteries after each flight.

Batteries are inexpensive but there is no guarantee the one you buy will be any good.
You will still need to test it using the same procedures.
These batteries usually deteriorate slowly so you should be able to tell when it is dying.

It's all a crap shoot. There is a lot of conflicting advice available here. None of it necessarily bad.
You have to decide which sound good and which don't and then decide what YOU want to do.
Then you have to accept the consequences of your decision.

Good Luck,
KW_Counter

That's probably the best advice I've seen yet!

I check the voltage before every flight and use that as a guide to my batteries condition and capacity

The answer to your question is you get rid of a set of batteries when they lose over 25 percent of their rated capacity. If that is a 1200mah pack, it is getting questionable. If it is a 1000mah pack, you should be good to go.