Charger
 

I'm still trying to figure out what charger to get. I understand that all I need is a peak charger for my nimh batteries. Getting a cycler, while not needed, gives me the ability to check the condition of my batteries. I feel like this is important because I charged my new batteries for a couple of days, got to the field, and the power started dropping in my receiver. I have no way to see if something is wrong, but someone put it on a hi-end charger and found that it just wasn't fully charged yet. So do I need to get a cycler/discharging charger?

What do you suggest for a first charger? I want to be able to charge at home.

Thanks.

RE: Charger
 

The Accucycle Elite from Hpbbico is great. It does Ni-cads, Ni-MH and up to 3-cell Li-po's. It will cyclke and give you an accurate reading of the batteries capacity. There is a power supply included so you can use it at home or in the field. I like mine and plan on getting another one.

RE: Charger
 

Well, I have an ICE charger that is easy to operate, does peak charges, batteries are selectable, but requires an external power supply or a car jack that goes into the cigarette lighter.

You can go to Radio Shack and get a battery eliminator 13.6 volt output power supply (emulates a battery in a car) for a relatively inexpensive price which will enable you to connect the charger at home, then you can drag the charger with you to the field and charge just about anything with it.

Great charger.

CGr.

RE: Charger
 

So you're saying its definitely worth getting a $130 charger, even though I'm just starting out...

RE: Charger
 

It depends on how serious you are about staying in the hobby and how adept you are at dealing with gadgets. If all you ever you plan on just casual flying with 1-2 basic planes then it may not be worth the investment. If you don't like dealing with setting up electronic devices and navigating menus & such then it's probably not the best idea either. If you intend to stay in the hobby though, you don't mind reading the charger manual, and you are going to buy a charger of some sort, I'd say go for it. You're likely going to invest in something like it at some point anyhow.

If you want to keep it simple though or have a dollar figure in mind, there are plenty of other viable options.

RE: Charger
 

Well, I don't want to spend money I don't need to spend, but I am having more fun with this hobby than I've had in a long, long time. I plan on sticking with it, and half of me wants to get (well more than half) a nice charger 'cause I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!!!

So it's OK to get something like this and charge all my batteries using it:?

http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=52_54&products_id=2798&pnam e=I-POWER%20(#IP0010)%20%20AC%20to%20DC%2012V/12A%20Transformer%20(2Ch)

I wasn't sure if I could trust doing that for the majority of my charging.

RE: Charger
 

That will allow you to power a DC only charger from a wall socket at home.

RE: Charger
 

And that's safe and reliable?

I really appreciate the help.

RE: Charger
 

If price is your guidelines then go with the charger I recommended to you awhile back, it only costs $29.

[link]http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXL331&P=7[/link]

I have three of these and I use them every time I charge my planes. If you are charging Ni-Cads or Ni-MH batteries all you need to know is the capacity of the battery. This battery has 4 outlets on them with selectable output. You don't need a peak charger that costs a lot of money right now. For instance, if you have a 2500 Mah battery you can select the 250 Mah output and the battery should be fully charged in 10 hours. It's very difficult to overchard Ni-MHs or Ni-Cads so you really don't need to worry about leaving the battery on for too long. While this isn't the most fancy charger out there, it gets the job done and will do more than one battery at a time. Plus it doesn't break the piggy bank. I've been using these for years now and I've never showed up to the field with a battery that wasn't charged yet.

Ken

RE: Charger
 

Oh. I was under the impression that you could easily damage nimh batteries by overcharging them.

RE: Charger
 

You can damage any battery if you subject them to too much voltage or current, but not by leaving them on a charger such as this for too long. I've left Ni-MH's on a charger for a couple of weeks before and it was fine. This charger (and any other as well) requires a little understanding of what you are doing in order to stay safe. You have to understand that you can't simply plug in a lot of voltage or current to a battery and expect it to not complain. What you want to do is try to get your setup for a C10 charge. Like my example above, a 2500 Mah battery you would select the 250 Mah output. Even though you have the ability to quick charge batteries you really want to avoid doing it if at all possible. Everything you do with a battery has a cost. You can quick charge batteries but it reduces the overall lifespan of the battery. So if you constantly quick charge a battery it won't last nearly as long as if you did a good overnight charge everytime you go to the field. So if you plan on doing a quick charge you should plan on your batteries lasting a lot less time than if you don't quick charge, so you're going to spend more on batteries. Just do a good overnight charge and your batteries will give you great service for the entire season.

Ken

RE: Charger
 

The anwer is usually YES.

Remember ONE GOOD charger will serve many purposes...

With the ICE or something similiar, you can determine when it is time to start replacing the batteries as you will be able to check their condition, capacity and operating ranges. You can use it to break in motors, condition NiCD's, even resurrect dead NiMH's for use in other purposes.

I've used it to tell me which cell in a NiMH pack went bad, then used the remaining cells to power glow drivers, and starter motors.

If you use LiPo cells you have the piece of mind of knowing that the charger will shut down automatically if the temperature gets too high, or it will not charge a bad potentially dangerous LiPo.

That same charger can be dragged to the field to quick charge receiver batteries and your TX batteries, in case you forgot to charge something the night before and want to run out to the fielld.

I purchased several chargers, including the less expensive variety, but the "workhorse" is the $130.00 charger... at home I power it with a PC power supply that cost all of 8.00 to modify.

RE: Charger
 

Kat, rather than buy a 12 power supply, pick up a second 7AH starter battery. You already have a charger for that. Get yourself a good field charger and you are set. Charge at home and at the field.

Last year, one of the LHS closed down. They had a 75% off sale and I picked up a field charger, for a really good price. I got it home and puluged it into my field box and smoke came out. I had noticed what looked like arced spots on the bananna plugs. I took it back to the LHS and told them it was dead. Even on clearance sale, she gave me my money back and said she didn't know what to do with it now. I offered her $10 for it in case there was something I could use inside. I got to thinking about it and checked with Horizon to see if they could repair it at a reasonable price. They warranty exchanged it for me and I now have a $145 charger that cost me $10 and one way shipping.

I don't know how I got along without one before. I use an Hobbico Accu-Cycle, not the one that you can charge Li-pos on, and I always worry about over charging with it. I blew out a brand new TX battery with it. It is a timed charger, not a peak charger. Now, If I'm flying every couple days, I never charge my plane at home now. Just plug the charger into my flight box and plug in the plane. Ten minutes later, I have a freshly topped off battery and am ready to fly. The thing will handle any thing you plug into it with the exception of the Li-Po's. I suspose that if I go to gassers later this year, I'll need another charger, but for now I happy.

Pick out a good charger and then go for it. It is usually cheaper to buy the right tool the first time rather than buying three that are not quite right.

Don

RE: Charger
 

I have some time flying RC airplanes and have always used my wall charger for my Tx and Rx batteries, I have not had any problem since the very begining, I still have some 5 or 6 years old batteries wich are operating flawlesly (I did not cycle any)
Technology is haunting us, and there is now a bunch of electric stuff in our hobbies, two years ago I jumped from glow to some electric park fliers and a nice T-rex electric Heli so I had to buy new types of batteries for my (Lipo) which requiered a special charger and an aditional balancer.
I bought an Hyperion charger which works very good. It is able to charge all kind of r/c batteries in the market, I paid something like 50 dlls. and also bought a balancer which was like 50.00 dlls too. I invested around 100.00 dlls. on charging equipment and each lipo battery cost to me 75.00 dlls. (Yes parkfliers are not cheap), but now I am able to fly big nitro stuff as well as tiny electric stuff in a park near my office or home.


If you are planning to charge only your Nicd batteries I would recommend the old wall charger that works fine for overnight charging.

If you plan to charge only Nicd batteries at your field (I have done that only a couple times) then you do not need and expensive charger, I would go with the one that RCKen recommends.

If you are planning to go electric in the near future, then I highly recommend a very good one like this one:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=825005

RE: Charger
 

Here is another good one:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/RC-Hyperion-EOS-0...2em118Q2el1247

RE: Charger
 

Irony:
I posted this, then went to the field to burn some fuel. Wouldn't you know it, I had a problem with my Tx battery - I turned it on to open the throttle and prime the engine (10.1 volts), and turned it off again. When I turned it back on, it plummeted from 10 volts to 9 volts in about 5 seconds - the same thing it did the other day at the field. With a basic slow charger, I have no way of knowing what's going on with my battery. I have invested some money in this hobby, and it seems like investing a little more for a good charger will give me some good insurance for the future. So right now the battery is back on the charger, I have no idea how long it needs to charge before I should check it to see if its full, nor do I know anything else that's going on. I'm darn glad I had my old 600mah nicad all charged up - if I would have had to drive home...

I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN WITH THIS HOBBY!!! THERE IS NOTHING AS SATISFYING AS FLYING MY PLANE IN A BEAUTIFUL FIELD ON A BEAUTIFUL EVENING WITH A FRIEND!!! I met another guy whose also 30, and the two of us flew our planes on a farm in Vermont - mountains in the background, cornfields in the foreground, silos off to the side, and the sun setting this evening was the most amazing glowing orange I have seen in a while! Nice and cool, with some hazy clouds - the Nexstar looked so beautiful flying in and out of the fog...
I really haven't enjoyed anything this much, ever. It's such good, clean fun! I was going to get a starter and starter battery, but I can start up with the stick just fine (though sometimes backwards?) so I'll spend the extra and get a nice charger - Accucycle Elite it is. (Campgems: I don't have a field battery yet - OS likes the stick!)

Thanks for the advice guys.

RE: Charger
 

Kat,
I'm not sure how long you are leaving your batteries on charge, but this may be the problem. Batteries aren't like a bucket. With a bucket you can put a gallon of water in and then pour out that same gallon later. Batteries don't work that way, you can't charge for an hour and then have an hour's worth of use out of them. These batteries need to be fully charged in order to get the proper use out of them. If you're not doing a full charge cycle on them they will act exactly as you have discribed above. From what you've been saying here it sounds like you're just not getting enough time charging them. I understand your frustration and want to buy an expensive charger, but it can only charge one battery at a time and it's going to take 10-12 hours per battery for a good charge on each battery. I've been flying for 12 years now and always charge between 4-12 batteries for a flying session and I've never used a smart charger to charge them with. As long as you charge them with the correct voltage, current, and time you will be fine. Heck, I didn't even OWN an intelligent charger until last summer, and I only bought that to charge Li-PO's with. Otherwise I use chargers like the the Hobbico charger I posted earlier in this thread. Honestly, I'm just trying to help here. I really hate to see beginners dump a ton of money on something they may not really need, at least until you in to the hobby a bit more.

Ken

RE: Charger
 

These batteries were charged for 36 hours at 100mah. (2300mah battery x 1.4 = 3220mah needed for the first full charge, as per the website, 36hrs at 100mah = 3600mah.) I had the problem only with the Tx battery on Wednesday, as soon as I turned on my radio (for the first time with this battery, so it wasn't even used, just turned on), so a trainer at the field threw it on his peak charger. It charged up all the way that day but I didn't use it. Today I put the Tx on the 100mah charger for an hour in case there was any natural loss of energy since Wednesday, took it to the field, and turned it on. Like I said, it turned on and read full power. It was turned off, then back on again, and the voltage plummetted. And again, the Rx battery is working just fine. I really think there's something wrong with the Tx battery.

RE: Charger
 

Sounds like you have a bad cell in the TX pack.

Ken

RE: Charger
 

That's what I was thinking.:) It's going to be on the charger at 100mah for another 36 hrs, so we'll see what happens on Sunday. Also with the rate I've been getting to the field (like today, not planned, though not unexpected) I think I'll need the ability to charge in an hour if need be (I know it's not the best way, but in a pinch it's what happens) in case I wasn't planning on getting to the field, or try to get in a few flights at the end of a work day or something. Good to have I think.

RE: Charger
 

Kat...not sure whats going on with you batteries as I havent read this post extremely closely,but it sound like I'm in the same boat as your when it comes to charging multiply batteries in order to fly the next day. And I'm just ahead of you as far as experience and needs go.So heres what I DO know...

This is an ABSOLUTE MUST.....

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXCTZ5&P=ML

This is(as Ken recommended) my next purchase,and is llikely gonna work great for what I need along with my wall wort chargers (the chargers that came with my futaba radios). And I'll likely also say one day that it will be a MUST HAVE. And it will charge 4 batts at once at close to what wall worts charge at (I think).


http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXL331&P=7

If you use these and charge them at close to whatever mah (70 I think) the wall worts charge at for 12-14 hours before you fly....you'll have nothing to worry about. If it dont work,something is wrong with your batteries.

RE: Charger
 

Well out of frustration today I already bought the Hobbico Accucycle Elite. When you figure in the cost of a power supply and/or 12v battery and charger, its really only $30 more or something for the ability to cycle/discharge/recharge the battery to see what's going on with it. This is what I would have wanted to do today at the field when I had the problems. Had this happened on a weekend I would have been shorted hours at the field. If you read the post, my Tx started up just fine, then all of a sudden the voltage totally dropped. What if I was in the air? I would have been @#$%ed! I have to say I never felt good about blindly charging and using batteries, even though I do have a meter in the radio and voltwatch on the plane, these are really just precautionary.

RE: Charger
 

I picked up a used ICE charger for about $80 shipped.

Excellent charger with TONS of options.

Seems like you made your choice, and power supplies are not really an issue these days. Tons of ATX computer power supplies around (Stores often had free ones after rebate). Just modify it to power your charger as indicated in this thread http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5680951/tm.htm
I've had no issues using an old 350W/15A power supply to power my ICE.

Glad you finally getting your batteries charge.


Also, Why would the voltage drop abruptly? Something else might be wrong or bad batteries,

RE: Charger
 

That's a good deal.

RE: Charger
 

I've already posted this, but here goes again.

Chargers such as the Accucycle and the Polycharger ( I have them ) use a "POT" to control the battery charge current.

This can become wildly inaccurate. If you are trying to charge at 1C the use of a pot makes it very easy to supply to much current during charging and ruin your batteries.

The wiper arms used on the ( unfortunately rather cheap ) graphite resistor pots, will wear away the graphite, causing further inaccuracy over time.

They also do not feature the conditioning, and checking facilities that other chargers offer.

I would not recommend them as a primary charger.