I have two rechargeable glo ignitors http://www.sonictronics.com/xcart/pr...cat=430&page=1.

The ones that come with a charger say they charge 10-12 hours at 125ma. I purchased the type without the walwart chargers.

Using my multiplex charger, set to charge NiCad, what should the charge setting be? I have two and would like to charge a little faster than 125ma but don't want to shorten the life of the glo ignitors.

Thank you.

I'd charge it at the lowest setting, I tried "fast charging" mine at 2 amps it charged quick, but it wasn't a true charge. it only lasted for a few minutes.

Hi Cappa!
Does the charger tell you the capacity (mah) of the battery inside? A 10 hour charge is a good safe slow charge, and an hour charge is the maximum rate for when you're in a hurry at the field. If it's a 1600mah battery, then I would charge it at .2 amps at home and 1.6 amps at the field.

Once it has an initial charge it should never take a full 10 hours to charge as it should never be completely dead.

Hey there, gaRCfield,

When you say 'does the charger tell me the capacity' what do you mean? When I connect it before charging, does the charger indicate the capacity? If so, how do I use that to figure what the charge rate should be? Thanks!

You should be able to remove the battery. If so, the battery should indicate it's capacity, ie: 1000 mah. or 1600 mah. Let's say the battery is labeled at 1500 mah, normal charge would be 150 ma. A fast charge, should you need to, would be 1.5a max. 99.9% of the time, you will be good to keep it charged up with the 150 ma charge, as it should only get partially discharged on a rough day at work. If you have 2, you should never run out of juice for your glow ignitor. I personally use the OFNA brand one that uses a plain old "D" cell, and replace it (the battery) 2 x a year.

The Multiplex will shut off when the battery is charged, I have one, and it is a great charger. It will also tell you either how much the battery had left in it, or how much it took to charge it, or if you run the Discharge/Charge cycle it will give the charged capacity of the battery in it. You can use that to determine when to look at replacing the battery.

Okay, I think I have it. So the reading on the charger, to charge at say 125 mah, I'd set the charger to read .125, correct? And for a quick charge at the field, I might set it to read 1.25, right?

That should work fine. I meant to ask if the battery indicated the mah, not the charger.

Thanks. I'm trying to understand this a little better. The first photo I've attached is where I setup the charger to charge NiCd type battery at .2 amps by displaying C=0.2A, correct?

The second is where I've started charging and if I'm reading the display correctly, it says from top left to bottom right,
CHG - it's charging, CHG
0.0 -the duration of the charge, just started at zero
0000 in upper right - I don't understand;
NC +0.20A - I imagine means nicad charging at .2 amps?
1.432V - the current voltage of the item being charged?

The 0000 is how many milliamps have been put back in the battery once the charge has started.

Everything else you have got right[sm=thumbup.gif]

Okay, got it. Thanks.

Now, to better understand the discharge/charge feature, when is it a good time to do this, if ever? Are there any disadvantages? I'm thinking NiCads, from before my rc days, have a thing called memory. Since I seldom run the glo-ignitors all the way to dead before charging again, should I occasionally discharge/charge to make sure they will last their longest, and if so, how often should I do this and when I do so, would I go with the same settings as for a safe charge, something like .2amp to charge and discharge?

Also, if this is a good idea for NiCads, how about NiMh, which are the majority of my batteries?

The story is that a) battery technology is improving, and b) we don't use batteries in a way that threatens 'memory'.

The discharge function is good for testing your batteries. There is a recommended discharge rate from the manufacturer (I think it's C/5 but don't quote me on that one). You discharge at that rate, then recharge, and make sure the battery accepts at least 80% of the total amperage. If it's less, the battery is bad. Discharging at the wrong rate will give you an incorrect number.

I did this when I suspected a problem with my battery. A check up at the beginning of the season is probably not a bad idea. I've got all new batteries so I didn't need to do that.

Discharging is also good for lipos. They need to be cycled (discharged->charged) approximately 15 times to reach their peak operation.

I use my wall warts for my glow ignitors and for my radio, and use my two chargers for my lipos and starter batteries. I only quick charge things when I'm in a rush.

Thanks, Joe, you're always so helpful. But I seem more confused now than before. My fault, totally.

I don't know what a discharge rate of c/5 translates to in regards to the display on the multiplex.

Also, when charging after a discharge, I don't know how to tell if the battery is receiving 80% of the total amperage, as I don't know what the total amperage is supposed to be in the first place, plus don't know how to read that from the multiplex since it seems only to display the actual voltage at a given moment. I thought the amperage displayed is charging amperage, not the amperage of the battery. Am I wrong, and can you see how confusing this is?

that's why you want to take the battery out, to see the label that tells you the capacity of the battery. It will be labeled something like 1000 mah, 1600 mah, etc. That is how you make the determination of the charge current in the first place. In the case of a 1000 mah battery, C would equal 1 amp. C / 5 (1000 / 5) would equal 200 mah for a good discharge rate.

CHARGING
Nickel-cadmium cells are charged by applying direct current with the proper polarity to the cell. The charge current can be pure direct current, full or half-wave rectified alternating current, or some other pulsating d/c wave form. A nickel-cadmium cell will charge at rates as low as 0.02C, but the minimum charge rates used in commercial practice are in the range of 0.05. Charge rates as high as 20C have been used successfully but, as you will see, there must be a means for terminating the high rate charge before an overcharged state is reached. By industry convention, a charger that fully charges a battery in one hour or less is called a "fast" charger while one that requires longer than one hour but less than 14 to 16 hours is called a "quick" charger. Slow chargers require 14 to 16 hours to fully charge, so they are commonly called "overnight" chargers. These charge times translate to charge rates ranging 0.05C to 0.1C for slow charge, 0.2C to 0.5C for quick charge, and C or greater for fast charge. Slow and quick charge regimes are popular because of the relatively low cost and simplicity; of implementation. The charger does not require any special circuitry to switch from a high rate to a low rate as the battery is capable of accepting a continuous overcharge at the slow or quick charge rates. Most sealed Ni-Cd cell designs today have built-in overcharge protection due to the capability for the negative plate to absorb the excess oxygen generated at the positive plate during overcharge. While the cell may be able to recombine the excess oxygen at higher charge rates, the temperature build up can become a significant factor.

http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/seminar.htm

I don't know if you find this helpful, but Red's battery clinic website explains a lot.

http://www.hangtimes.com/redsbatteryclinic.html

This is his newer site.

Can't open the ni-charger, it's sealed. Plus,it's not labeled with the capacity of the battery, and the pdf on the web site doesn't say either. From it's size I'd guess it's around 1.5 volts and from the specs on the pdf for the one with the walwart, it's capacity is probably around 1250 mah.

Wow, you really know your stuff when it comes to charging and you've helped me to understand a little better. I will read the stuff from the link later.

I think I'll just charge these ni-starters so that I can charge two of them in one night, so I'll set the charge rate at about .4 or .5. If that's too hot to regularly charge these, let me know.

I'll discharge/charge once a month or so and when I discharge, I'll try C/5. Still don't know how to set that on the multiplex though.

As far as setting up your Multiplex, do you still have the instructions for it? I have mine in a drawer in the shop. I can make you a copy if you need it. Essentially, you select the Discharge - Charge or the Charge - Discharge function, and it lets you set the charge rate, and the discharge rate. Once set, you set the number of cycles to Charge - Discharge, or Discharge - Charge from 1 to 5 times, and press the start button. It's all automatic from there. I checked the website for your ignitors, and I couldn't find any rating either.

I didn't write that write up, I copied it from Red's Battery clinic. It may be a little verbose, but that's a better and complete explaination than I could give.

Yep, I have the instructions and also a link to the pdf version online, or I had it anyway. I get more confused looking at their flow chart in the instructions than before looking at it. The instructions have been called confusing by more than one person I've seen throughout these forums last year, as I recall.

You've helped. I'm just a slow learner when it comes to this stuff. And I shouldn't be - I remember taking electricity in high school and getting straight A's. I built a am/fm radio from a kit. Forgot it all though, and I find this confusing. Seems to be alot of expert advice available in the rcu forums but still I think that some posters that seem to have a handle on it are confused themselves when it comes right down to it.

Jim, I tried to find info on the battery inside your charger and came up with absolutely nothing. None of the sites or instruction manuals say anything about it.

Based on the charging times they suggest in the manual (24 hours for initial, 12-16 subsequent at 125 milliamps) I would guess that it is between 1600 and 2000 mah. Maybe tomorrow I'll poke around and see if there's something on RCU about someone opening up one of those ni-starters. I personally would charge it at .2 but I don't know that charging it at .4 would really shorten it's life.

Okay, I'll charge at .2 (to .4 if trying to charge two in one night). Thanks, Joe.
1.) In order to discharge at C/5, what would the actual setting on the Multiplex display, do you know?

As far as searching rcu forums, I'd really appreciate it. I searched but came up empty, surprising as alot of people at my club use them and they're supposed to be one of the best around, plus the originator of the screw on type ignitor and hold a patent on it, or so I was told anyway. I searched ni=starter, maybe that's why I came up empty. They seem to buck the trend as to what they call it. Or maybe it'd come up under Sonictronics or McDaniel or MdDandial's. I think the fella that holds the patent, if the story is true, is McDaniel.

Oh, by the way, with all your help and the help of others last year I ended p with some very good batteries for everything - glo ignitors, receiver and radio batteries, all-battery NiMHD rechargeables for my camera, etc. The only disappointing thing as far as batteries I ended up with was the Hobbico power core starter pack and walwart I got for the Hobbico torqmaster 12V starter. It holds a charge for a single day, and sometimes not even that. And it wimps out after a few flights. The 12 volt gell cell (I think lead acid) battery seems to be getting worse after each charge.

2) Question. I'll research my threads and others on building a custom battery pack from last year, but I'd appreciate your opinion. What lipo type packs might fit inside the shell of that power pack to give me a '*****in' setup with alot of balls and decent life? Any ideas?

Sorry if I'm appearing stupid on these things right now as my mind is on so many things right now and never seem to have enough time to spend here. My wife's still in the hospital from spine surgery last week, and in between visits there and qucik visits to the web and the housework, I'm building a screaming new video editing pc with dual 23' lcd monitors based on the new Intel i7 quad core cpu. That's taking alot of my time because although I've built a good number of pcs over the years, this is the first in over five years and there is so much more detail in this particular build that requires alot of research to make sure everything goes well. That's enough of my problems, though. Thanks for the help and keep it coming, please!

I have this connector and two of these batteries for my starter:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMTZ3
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXSXT3&P=0

It turns over my 120AX pretty easily and I use about 400ma from both batteries in a full day of flying, granted my engine starts pretty much as soon as I touch it with the starter cone. You're right about the PowerCore pack. I have one too and it's pretty worthless. I have to make a mount so those battery packs will fit on my starter, but you can buy one of these which are really, really nice:
http://www.heliproz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=101714
It mounts right to your starter like the power core does, and holds two of the batteries I linked above.

As far as discharging the ni-starter, without knowing the actual milliamps of the battery it is impossible to give an accurate C/5 number. If it were me, I'd try discharging at .3 amps and recharging at .2 amps and seeing what the number says, but that's really just a shot in the dark guessing it's a 1600mah battery.

Thanks, Joe.

Sounds like that battery pack setup would set me back about $60 but I'll probably end up with it soon enough. I'll struggle with my poc for now

I'll use your suggestions about the discharge and charge settings. Sounds really good for a shot from the hip!

Incidentally, any way to measure the milliamps of the ni-starter either before or after charging it using a multimeter, which I have?

Oh, and also, how do you know that you are using about 400ma from those packs after a full day of flying, from reading the multiplex or measuring another way? Knowing that might help me measure the ma for my ni-starter I'm thinking.

I don't really know a ton about eletrical stuff, so I don't know if there is a meter that will tell you the capacity of a battery. You can measure the voltage with a meter, and you can see how many milliamps were replenished when you charge. That's how I know what I'm using out of my batteries, just by seeing how much of a charge they take at the end of a day. My receiver battery (lipo) uses about 500ma and my two starter batteries use about 450ma, all read from my two computer chargers.