I have a couple of 7.2-V 150 mah nicads that have not been used much, I charged them a week ago to fly a small fanfold plane that I made but didn't get to fly until this morning and the batteries didn't have enough charge left to run the motor, the bec kept kicking in and shuting it down.

Could I have ruined them by topping them off a few times or do they loose that much power over a short period of time.
Is there a simple way to test the batteries or should I just write them off.

Thanks,

Eflyer

It is unlikely that you ruined them by "topping them off" a few times. More than likely, the NiCd went bad (if it is bad) by itself over time.

Try charging them up again. Perhaps the 6-cell pack would never work well in your setup.

Today, those cells are simply not used except for in Great Planes ElectriFly products. I would recommend replacing them with 300mAh NiMH cells that have a similar weight.

Good luck!

Greg,

Thanks for the reply, I think that the charger that I had wasn't what I needed, it was made to charge Sub-C or larger cells, nothing smaller than AA packs, It was a peak dec. charger with a 3.0 amp default charge rate in the plug and play mode, though the batteries didn't get extremly hot, they may have been damaged, I'm not sure about my NImh packs yet, four in all, I have just bought some new nimh packs and luckily haven't charged them yet.
I took the charger back and exchanged it for a Wattage Parkflyer charger.