Erich Hartmann

How long should the radio and plane batteries be charged for a full charge?

SDR-Hammer

There is no single answer to that question it depends on a few factors, such as the mAh rating of the pack.

Here is some reading that will explain things a little further.

[link=http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com./]The R/C Battery Clinic[/link]

[link=http://radicalrc.secure-mall.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&cart=159318]Radical R/C[/link]

FHHuber

NORMALLY... the batteries that ship wth the radio system are 500 or 600 mah rated NiCd.

NORMALLY the charger that comes with the radio system is 50 ma current type.

For charging brand new batteries with the supplied charger in the above NORMAL case... you would plug them in for 16 to 18 hours.
For recharging batteries depleted to nominal pack voltage you need appx 10 hours with the original charger.

Again... with the above original packs and charger... you can safely put the batteries on charge for 10 to 12 hours even if they are nearly fully charged. Excess overcharging is not good for the batteries... but the 50 ma charge rate is not normally going to overheat the 600 mah cells. Its BETTER to deplete the packs down to (or close to) nominal voltage before recharging if you don't know how much of the charge remains.

Change batteries or charger... and the above is going to be wrong.

J_R

The sites Hammer recommended are excellent.

Take the time to read through them and you won't have to worry about wrong info. We probably lose more aircraft to bad battery habits and bad linkages than to dumb thumbs.

Erich Hartmann

Thanks for the replies. I read the radio and airplane manuels and found no info on time of recharge. I looked at the radio batteries. It stated 15 hrs. for a full charge and 5 hrs. for a quick charge. I tried the airplane's batteries, but it seemed like I might break something; so I left them alone. It was not broke so I did not fix it. Maybe some day I will get this airplane in the air. I selected a Avistar select 40. I hope to have a Great Planes P51D Mustang 40 someday and maybe something like a Capiche 50.

J_R

Look in the battery clinic. Red has an article on using a digital voltmeter with a load to measure voltage. They are cheap and should be considered a "must have" item in the shop and at the field.