I have a Superstar EP, With a 600 motor and a 7 cell 8.4v 2100mAh battery. Charger is a Duratrax Intellipeak Pulse Charger. I'am having trouble with charging the battery. I was told to do a few slow charges first on the battery. I can do a slow charge and the plane will run for about 10 mins. I have done 3 slow charges on the battery, and each run will last about the same 10 mins. Then I tryed a quick charger for about 35-40 mins that is when the charger went to slow charge showing that the quick charge is complete and I only get 1.5 - 2 min run time. I did another slow charge and got 10 mins. run time. Then another quick charge untill the charger went slow charge. I only got 1 - 2 min run time again. I was told that it might be false peaking on the charge. Do I have a bad battery or charger? Or do I need to get a different charger? Could use a little help on this! Thanks. Cmac [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]

The 30 + min quick charge SHOULD give the same durration of flight (+/- about 5%... not just 10% to 20% of the same for sure) as the slow charge. There's definitely something wrong somewhere....

Double-check the settings of the charger, to be sure its set for the correct number of cells (assuming it has that as a switch setting.) Make sure its set for the correct type of cells. (If its set for NiMh and you're charging NiCd... it'll quit early... again assuming it has the switch setting, and not an autodetect.)

You can verify if the charger is working correctly by charging/cycling another battery... such as the 4 cell RX pack, or a second 6-7 cell flight pack in both modes and verifying that you get close to the same capacity with both types of charge.

I don't know if your charger has cycling capability.... it would be helpful for this determination. Testing with a different battery will prove if its a charger problem or a battery problem. (likelyhood of getting 2 bad packs from 2 seperate purchases out of a store that sell a lot of them is near 0... packs that sat on the shelf for 1 or 2 years have a higher chance of being bad.)

I am not familiar with your charger but it sounds like your power source for the charger is not strong enough to quick charge properly and is false-peaking on you.

I am not familiar with your charger but have been charging batteries packs for a few years. When I buy a new pack I make sure it has sermos ae anderson power pole connectors. Then I slow charge them
at less than 1C rate. That is.. your 2100 mah batteries will be charges at most 200mah.. charge till they are peaked the tricke charge them for a long long time. This will condition the pack and tend to equalize the batteries.

then I will use them and start the quick charging with a good automatic charger.. I have a graupner ultra duo 11 and it handles the batteries with TLC. I have never had the problem you are describing.

Your connectors may be not good enough for the usage you are putting them thru, the batteries nay be not quite up to fast charging and are being stressed, your charger may not be able to do the things needed to be done.

I am not familiar with 2100mah batteries.. are are they rc batteries for power, or rx tx usage, or not nicads, or or or.

You need batteries designed for the usage you have to put them thru, connectors to match and a charger/cycler worthy of both. Anything else leads to frustration and no fun at all. Purchace your equipment to match their usage at a good site.. the ezonemag.con site has many forums you can post your questions/delemas and get answers that make sense.. Just remember to were yout filtering glassed to get thru the bull and locate the meat.

Have fun

Jarvis