I'm not getting answers in the Battery Area.


I recently bough a little electric Helimax AXE helicopter. Comes with a standard plug in Charger. Came with a 650mah 10.8v NiMH battery. I bought a second identical battery. Look like 9 little AAA size all connected in a little square. "Deens?"

Each battery has this strange little one prong connector to it. You probably know what I mean without having to explain it. Now at the hobby shop, we had this bright idea of can i quick chage this on my H9 Doublevision Charger that I've had a few years. So we made an adapter. When I plug it into the charger, all the lights light up except the green and stay on and can't reset it to start the charging process.

Did we screw up here or am I missing something?
How can I quick charge this thing. I have a fieeling its the number of cells (9) which is the problem vs the charger selection of 4 or 6

You are at a hobby shop and trying to charge a 10.8v battery on a 4.8v or 6.0v charger? No, that won't work! You can't even use the transmitter side of the charger. You need a quick charger that can charge a 9 cell pack (10.8v).

I feel like the new guy all over again. I just don't want to blow out the system somewhere. So it looks like a new charger with some appropriate adapters to work I guess. I am a tad unfamiliar with all this new voltage stuff

Yeah, if you are going to fly elec. you need a good charger. Get one that can also charge Li-ion and Li-poly batteries also and you will be able to grow into it and won't have to keep buying chargers. The wall chargers that come with any of the kits aren't very good for the packs anyway. A good charger that will charge anything, actually it will charge 2 of anything at once, even if the packs are different types or size and it will work off AC or DC power with the included power suppy is the Hobbico accu cycle elite. It's more expensive than some but it is a great charger and will charge 2 packs where most oters only charge one and most others are DC chargers so you have to power them off your car battery or buy a power supply seperate.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXEYD4&P=ML
Not sure of your battery ends but you can search for charge plug adapters at Tower and find what you need.

Lead ends look like this

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXNGB5&P=M

also this http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXNWF3&P=M

I think this is the lead you need.
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXNCU5&P=7

Get 2 of them and the Accu cycle elite and forget that wall charger and your batteries will live longer.

So I guess the next question is there a charger of reasonable cost which wil do both the NiMH and the Lipo thing?

Yeh that looks like a lead that wil work. You've been a great help-thanks

No problem, the charger I showed you will probably do all the batteries you will ever need to charge, NiCD, NiMH, Li-ion and Li-poly. It will do up to a 3 cell Lithium battery (11.1v) and up to 10 cell Ni packs. I'm not sure of a cheaper one that will do everything. The Accu cycle is also very user friendly. You just punch in the battery type and size and press charge, it will select the charge rate or you can manually select it.

What about this thing?

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...0290&search=Go

That is a good charger (I should know since I have two of them ) but it will not charge the stock AXE CP Battery pack. Reason is that charger will only charge 1-8 cell NiCd or NiMH. The stock pack is 9-cell NiMH.

I got me more edumacated today. "Triton Jr."

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXMAH9&P=ML

Now that I have this charger mess squared away, what about these "lipo" batterys. From what I understand, smaller ,yet more powerfull but still yield about the same amount of flight time, so whats the point? Weight?

You will get tired of the stock pack really quick, I take it thats why you want to quick charge it. Lipos last longer so you get more flight time and like you said they are lighter.

yeah, the stock lipo will give you more flight time as well as make the heli more capible because it weighs less.

about the charger it looks like you are getting it figured out. I posted on your thread over in the battery section. If you go with lipo you'll need to also get a balancer, or get a balancing charger.

How much money are you looking to spend? any specific features you are looking for? Has to be able to charge NiMH's and lipo's, anything else?

I read a tad on the balancer but only the story book description. Whats it really do? is this part of the charging process or does it also go with the aircraft?On a guess by its name. I came up with this thought. We generally look at an overall charge but some cells may be less than and others may be more and a balancer equals it all out on each cell????? Huh Huh HUh

yup, that's basically it =)

if you have a cell that is a bit low, say .2v then you would have to have a cell that is .2v high, so you'd have 4.0 4.2 and 4.4, at that point your lipo would probably puff and be unusable. You can balance while you are charging, before you charge, after you charge, or just because you feel like it. I personally balance while I am charging. Balancers just plug into the balance tap, and no they don't go on the aircraft. It's more like a charger or something, ground support.

hopefully that answers your q

So you would "balance" it prior to installing it in the plane. Will it do this all at once? Meaning is the balancer hooked up to the charger or do you charge it first, balance second, install third

You can charge your batteries then balance them with something like a blinky balancer or use a balancer like this http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXMGS7&P=V
This balancer you put between the charger and the battery and balance as you charge or you can use it by itself and balance afterwards. You just have to make sure the batteries you buy have balance tabs on them (the plug attached to the battery by 4 wires for a 3 cell pack). Different batteries have different style tabs so you have to make sure what you get will work with your batteries. I think Venom, Electrifly (GP), esky and align have the same tabs. I know Thunder power uses a different tab. It is good to always balance your batteries and try not to over discharge to get their full life out of them, but in a hurry I've skipped a balance or 2 and haven't had any problems.

yeah, the first one. I hook up my balancer and charger at the same time. Basically what badazz said =)

I was recently told by a guy at my LHS that the Thunder Power 1320 mah 11.1v batteries need to be charged through the power leads and no through the balance taps. Has anyone else heard this or charged it through the balance tap? What about through and adapter to an esky balance charger?

Thanks in advance for your input?

nope this is not true, I just answered a q like this over in the battery section. Check out that response.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6491141

Thanks mrasmm!....Mine was also from the other post. Thank you! I will post my additional comments there.

yup, no problemo =)