Welp, it's me again. Another question for all you experts out there.

I'm trying to form my new hydrimax 1200 6v nimh battery. I charged it up to 7.2 volts and all I have to discharge it with are my radios. Already I have gone through 2 fully charged radios by leaving them on to try and get this battery discharged. That went on for 6 1/2 hours and the battery is still at 6.4v's. Is there an easy or easier way to discharge this battery so I can recharge it again since I don't have a charger with a built in discharger?

Edit; Also, if I just turn the receiver on without turning on the transmitter, will it discharge at the "same rate" as though the transmitter were on and not moving the servos?

I'd like to know,

hulio

I believe if the xmitter is on and not sending signals or off is the same thing. The airborne system remains in steady state, the battery providing enough juice to activate the receiver and keep the servos in centered state awaiting signal input. If the xmitter is off.. you may here some occasionaly chatter as the receiver is "free" to accept any signal within the hz tuned for.

You coulid just hook up a series of small light bulbs the number and watts sized to your battery, plug battery into it and monitor voltage from time to time.... This would be much quicker. They used to sell them as low tech discharges long ago...

For forming I understad the wal-wart type charges are good as they are not peak detecting and continue charging at the 60mah or whatever it's rated for until you unplug it. Though your charging to 7.2 volts ...... be sure on discharge your getting the mahs the battery is rated for.

A charger/discharger is a great investment.

Using a car's turn signal light (or several together) will run the battery down, but you don't want to go below 1.1v/cell. That means you either need to plug it back into the transmitter for the Tx battery or get a voltmeter for the receiver battery.