Basic charging??
 

Well, i have a swallow V2 charger, and im not EXACTLY shure about charging.
Heres what i need to know:
If say i have a 1400 mah Ni-Mh pack, i need to charge it @ 1.4A for 1 hour right?? what if its at half charge? does it matter?
And also an i leave it on for like 2-3 hours? is it like the stock chargers for basic packs and when the batt is fully charged it just gets warm??
Cheers.

RE: Basic charging??
 

1.4A for 1 hour, correct. That's called charging at 1C. You could also charge at 2.8A for 1/2 hour, 5.6A for 15 minutes, .7A for 2 hours, .35A for 4 hours. Of course the slower the charge the better for the battery and 1C is generally considered the best compromise of time and battery health.

If you have a partial charge left in the battery then it takes less long to reach peak charge. So 1/2 charge left will mean that it should only take about 30 minutes to peak. Try not to charge from a partial charge too often though. You should fully discharge a ni-mh battery every few cycles. I know people say that ni-mh batteries don't develope a memory but that is not correct. They will, just not as quickly or as pronounced as ni-cads do.

Unless your charger has an auto cut-off I would not leave the atteries attached for very much longer than the expected charge time and certainly do not leave a battery to charge unattended. Even the relatively safe ni-mh batteries can explode and catch fire.

You also want to avoid heat build up in the batteries as much as possable. Heat is about the worst battery killer there is.

RE: Basic charging??
 

Ok shure thanks!!!!
I think ill stick with "2C" charging. Or use the stock chargers.
Thanks again.....
Ohh BTW, if i want to get a 2S lipo. When i need to charge it, do i NEED a balancer??? because i havnt got one[&:] and are they expensive??

RE: Basic charging??
 

hi there,

i bought the same charger a few weeks ago, instructions don't realy help with the basics, i guess they expect you to know what settings you need already.

if you want to charge any pack you just set the batt type, amps and start charging, it will stop charging when it thinks it's full so i don't think you can over charge? but if you choose too high a amp rate you could damage or shorten the life of your batts.

i was advised not to charge over 1C, in your case 1.4A. but sure you can if need be. and as dave said the slower the better for your batts.

i started a thread on charge and discharge rates that might help.
[link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6205481/tm.htm[/link]

it is a great charger once you work out what settings you need.

RE: Basic charging??
 

Great! Thanks!!
Yeh the instructions are pretty hopeless.....
This whole charging business is REALY confusing for me, and i dont have all that time to tinkr with it because of school, sports, work, homework etc etc. And it doesnt help being 14.;)
Can anyone elaborate on the "it will stop charging when it thinks it's full so i don't think you can over charge?" please...
Cheers...
BTW where abouts in Adelaide are you??

RE: Basic charging??
 

I highly recommend you don't try to charge a 1400mAh pack at 5.6 amps. Heat will build up very, very quickly at that rate. To the point it may start a fire. Batteries can handle much higher discharge rates than charge rates ( in the order of 10 times ). Personally I don't charge any of my batteries higher than 1C. If I have time I'll charge at 1/2C or 1/4C.
Your swallow charger will stop when the pack is full. Once it has stopped then turn off the charger and disconnect the battery.

RE: Basic charging??
 

Good point GRANT ED. I was not trying to reccomend that he use that charge rate, just using it as an example to show the relationship between charge rate and charge time. I did say that the slower you could charge, the better for the battery.
Sorry if it seemed like I was reccomending that as a charge rate, I was not.

As long as we're on the subject...
It's my understanding that a slow charge will also give you longer run times than a faster charge.

For your lipo question, is that charger even rated to charge lipo's? You do understand that you need a charger that has been designed to charge lipo's, right? You cannot use a charger that was designed and programed to charge ni-cads and ni-mh's to charge a lipo. As far as needing a balancer, no, they are not absolutely necessary. You do however need to monitor the individual battery voltages in the pack to be sure that they remain with-in a certain percentage of voltage of each other. Last time I looked I think that ballancers started around $20 but check on Tower or someplace like that to confirm. Also, basic lipo chargers are not all that expensive either.

RE: Basic charging??
 

The charger i have can charge everything!
I do however have enough sense not to charge at 5.6 amps, lol.
Thanks GRANT ED for your help, are you shure that it will cut off automaticaly? and are you shure that i have to watch it the whole time? or can i go and like watch some TV or somthing?
One last Q, Do you know if the charger says when its full, or mabye it beeps or somthing?

RE: Basic charging??
 

What do you want to hear? That it's safe to leave a battery charging unattended? Sorry, I'm not gonna say that.
I've had too many different batteries, of all kinds, go south while charging and it does not take much of a search to find videos and stories of batteries exploding and starting fires. I always stay in the same room when I'm charging any battery so I can see/hear/smell if something goes wrong.
Since you're 14, I'd suggest that you go ask your parents if their homeowners insurance would cover a fire started through negligence and base my decision on that.

RE: Basic charging??
 

LOL! I made the mistake a few years ago of notifying my ins agent that I had LiPo batteries (among many other things). I have to store them in a brick lined metal case or else if there is a fire I am not covered!!! Now, I do not believe that LiPo's are nearly as volitile as they were 4 years ago, but there you go. DON'T tell you insurance agent that you have LiPo's.

Just keep your charger next to your PS3 and play some Darkness while they charge!

RE: Basic charging??
 

Mini batts don't like to be charged over 1.2C, so don't charge the 1400 mah pack (I'm assuming its a mini pack) over 1.7 amps.

A battery's voltage starts to drop when it reaches full capacity, the charger reads battery voltage every set amount of time and stop charging when the voltage drops.

RE: Basic charging??
 

yeah nitro,

the charger charges until peak voltage is reached and then beeps 7-8 times and shows "end" on the screen and stops charging, but also shows how many mA the pack took to fully charge, which is good to compare to the rated mAh. in your case 1400 mAh.

Staying in the same room while a pack charges is a bit hard if you're cycling a pack very slowly as you should when they're new, could take a couple of days if you cycle them 4-5 times. fast charging is where there is more risk of excess heat, but you never know.

oh, and i live at Semaphore.

RE: Basic charging??
 

Ok, great thanks everyone!!!!!!
So now i know what to do!
Ill just wait for them to charge whilest i do somthing, in the same room, to kill time!!!
Thanks again!!!