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Battery Help
Hi all,
I just got a used Hobbico Avistar trainer plane and it came with some field equipment that I have never used before. One of the pieces is the receiver battery for the plane. It is a Futaba NR-4QB manufactured by Sanyo. Its a 4.8 volt 600mah Ni-cad battery. I have a Bantam BC6 charger that I bought for my foamie planes that I am still learning how to operate. Can someone please tell me how to discharge and charge this battery? How far down do I discharge it? The label on the battery says to charge at 60mA for 15 hours normal charge or 180mA for 5 hours quick charge. Do I follow these guidelines or can I charge it a little faster? Also the Plane came with a 12 volt Lead acid battery and a battery for the starter. Do I have to discharge these and then charge them or can I just charge them? How do I discharge these and recharge them? Remember I have a Bantam BC6 charger. Please help because I am only used to charging nimhs on my Oynx 240 and lipos on the BC6. Don't wanna blow myself or my house up!!! :) |
RE: Battery Help
I don't know much about that charger, but in general, the best advice is to not charge over 1C which would be .6 amps and do that for an hour. Any less will simply take longer and will NOT damage the battery.
The best discharge rate would be .1C or 60 ma for as long as it takes to discharge it. The problem is that you don't know where the battery is right now. It would really help if you had a charger with a cycler. That way the discharge would be to what the cycler rate would be, and most of those are adjustable, but would discharge to a minimum level then go right into a re-charge cycle. One charger that I have in mind is the Accucycle by Hobbico, although there are plenty others. And, there are plenty of people that will give you the "recipe" for a home-grown discharger. Depending on how old the battery is and how long it's been sitting around, it may be alright to charge it and use it, however, what would be better would be to cycle it and see what it will truly hold. The best solution would be to simply replace it with a new battery pack if you don't know anything about it. 4 cell packs are very reasonable in price. And, that way, you could get one with a higher capacity. CGr. |
RE: Battery Help
Dont cycle your 12V lead battery. Something like this. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...LXJC38&P=0 well do the job and not break the bank.
I,m not familar with the charger you have. As CGr said , there are many out there . I use a Triton II , just because I know how touse it. Did,nt your Radio come with a charger ? Wall wart ,with a lead to charge your 4,8V ? |
RE: Battery Help
Yeah, I have a Duratrax Ice charger, programmable as the Triton is. I also have the Triton and use them both. Doesn't the Triton support battery cycle?
CGr. |
RE: Battery Help
Hi!
It's simple! Just charge! Discharging is an option but is not necessary! I have the same charger as you, but use it mostly for charging my A123 packs. NiMH cells (or NiCad cells) are better slow charged with a 50-150mAh wallcharger. But why use old NiCad cells on just 600mAh when there is NiMH cells available , the same size and weight, at 2000-2800mAh?? NiCad cells is no longer used over here in Europe! Why still in the US???? |
RE: Battery Help
One reason NiCad's are still used is that they last twice as long (no.charge/discharge cycles) and withstand minor abuse much better than NiMh's do. The only two advantages NiMh has over NiCad is they are a bit less mass for equivalent capacity (number of mah's) and less toxic if they wind up in a landfill.
As to reviving an old battery, whether it be NimH or NiCad, do a forming charge which is defined as charging for 16 hours at 0.1C. You do not have to discharge them before doing this either. The only reason for discharging either NiMh or NiCad is to check their capacity which should be done occasionally to make sure they are still providing an adequate amount of power. On yours, I'd recommend doing that to be sure they are still okay and then do it every 6 months or so to be sure they are not degrading. On your 12 volt PB, if it is more than 2 years old, it is probably over the hill. On Pb or SLA batteries, the main thing is to never let them get discharged below 11.9 volts, never charge an SLA faster than 0.1C and use a proper charger, one that has limited current and voltage cutoff. For some good info on how to care for your batteries, check out the following: http://www.camlight.com/techinfo/techtips.html http://www.whenshtf.com/showthread.php?t=2153 http://www.hangtimes.com/redsbatteryclinic.html http://dansdata.com/gz011.htm http://users.frii.com/dlc/battery.htm |
RE: Battery Help
In my opinion, NiCads were the bigget scam to ever hit the market. Because of memory effect and the tendency to grow internal "whiskers" over time, they have a very limited lifetime compared to NIMH. Manufacturers loved to put the in their products like power tools because they knew it would create an endless market for the battery replacements (at very hefty premiums). When they fail, it is pretty abrupt from my experience.
You could spend time and money trying to "cycle" the lfe back into them, but I strongly recommend switching to NIMH, especially for the receiver where reliability is critical! Art |
RE: Battery Help
Wow, there is alot of information here. Thanks fellas!!!
However, to the people who recommended that I get new batteries, That is not happening right now because money is extremely tight and we are shopping the sales tomorrow. I have no choice but to check the batteries that I have and hope they do the trick. For right now I simply need to know if I should discharge both the starter and power panel batteries and the 4.8 volt 600mah reciever battery. If not then how much amps do I charge them at? I don't know what 1C means. I think they have sat on the shelf for 2 years without charges. They do have power though. I tried to run everything. The reciever battery powers everything on the plane just fine. The 12 volt battery can currently run my electric fuel pump. And the starter can run off its own battery. So all batteries still have life in them. |
RE: Battery Help
Oh I forgot, if I do have to discharge how do I do this? How far down do I take the battery level? And to the person who asked about discharge/charge cycle? Yes my charger has this feature.
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RE: Battery Help
First of all, I have been in this hobby now for, oh, 10 years or so and I have at least two planes with NiCd packs that are still working just fine. A routine cycle seems to do the trick. So, so much for alaursen condemnation. I will say, though, that I do have and use NiMH packs also. There are some differences, but for the average hobbyist, well, they are not worth mentioning. Use what you have. If they work, and if they are stable (note my first post about using packs and if you trust them or not). As I said, it depends on if they have been sitting around and if they will hold a charge after a cycle.
Now to answer your question, tomcatguy, again, I am not familiar with your charger, but if your particular charger has cycle capability, then it should be able to tell you where to stop, or stop automatically and go right into re-charge. Cycle... run down to minimum then cycle back to, or change to, charge, automatically. But, again, battery packs are not expensive. If you feel you don't trust your battery pack, I would recommend you replace it with a new pack. There is a lot of information available on batteries, battery packs, charging, cycling, and so on. Check out this web site: www.radicalrc.com and read what you can in their FAQ sections. Lots of good information from a professional. CGr. |
RE: Battery Help
This quote is from Radical RC to a question about charge times for a 1650mah transmitter pack:
You won't have a problem as long as you understand the minimum charge times involved. However, you’re rarely charging an "empty" battery. Your only replacing what you last used. The size of the "hole" in the pack is what determines the fill time. A more extreme example is out 1650 TX packs. 90% (or more) of the people who own these are charging them on a traditional 50 or 60mah wall wart charger. Once you get the pack full, overnight will keep it full as long as you haven't deep discharged it. So, 42 hours to charge initially, but after a 4 or 6 hour trip to the flying field, it's not empty and 50mah overnight is plenty good enough to "top" top it off again. Where these types of myths are started and perpetuated is a fellow buys a new pack. Lets say it's an 1800 Sub C RX pack for a new larger model he just finished. He charges the thing on his stock 50mah wall charger for 14 hours. Overnight always filled the stock factory pack so why wouldn’t it fill this one he thinks. Later he cycles the pack after some use and discovers it only has 600mah or so in it. He charges again overnight, cycles down again. Again it has 600mah in it. He tells his buddies you can't charge large packs on a small charger. He's totally 100% wrong. He just did not understand the concept that a bigger gas tank takes longer to fill. Problem is, the falsehood gets repeated so many times it becomes "fact" in peoples minds. Most people will not take the time to test such advice and presume there good buddy old “Albert” would never guide them wrong. |
RE: Battery Help
ORIGINAL: alaursen In my opinion, NiCads were the bigget scam to ever hit the market. Because of memory effect and the tendency to grow internal ''whiskers'' over time, they have a very limited lifetime compared to NIMH. Manufacturers loved to put the in their products like power tools because they knew it would create an endless market for the battery replacements (at very hefty premiums). When they fail, it is pretty abrupt from my experience. You could spend time and money trying to ''cycle'' the lfe back into them, but I strongly recommend switching to NIMH, especially for the receiver where reliability is critical! Art http://www.hangtimes.com/redsbatteryclinic.html http://www.camlight.com/techinfo/techtips.html http://www.whenshtf.com/showthread.php?t=2153 http://www.srbatteries.com/nimh.htm http://dansdata.com/gz011.htm http://users.frii.com/dlc/battery.htm |
RE: Battery Help
Hey guys,
I just picked up a new Hangar 9 12 volt, 7ah starter battery that I want to use for my field box power. It does not come with instructions on how to charge it. I will be using my BC6 charger to charge this battery. How many amps should I charge this battery at and should I discharge it first? |
RE: Battery Help
Anyone?
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RE: Battery Help
I would stick with .1C for that battery and charge it overnight. That means about 700 ma or .7 amps.
CGr. |
RE: Battery Help
Thanks CGr
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RE: Battery Help
Yer welcome.
The reason I said .1C is because of the overall capacity of that battery. A lot of chargers won't put out 1C. But, the slower the better, so .1C at least overnight is what I would suggest. CGr |
RE: Battery Help
What about discharging it first cgr?
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