Hi.
I have 4 Triton Chargers and have had mostly good results with them.
I have always had a problem when discharging packs to condition them or determine capacity.
For example:
I have two 1950 mah Nimh 5 cell packs from Hang Time Hobbies. While discharging, the discharge terminates early. first time was after only 379 mah was drawn from the pack. The voltage on the Triton was reading over 7 volts even though I had the cutoff voltage set to 5 volts. I verified the voltage with my Hanger 9 tester. The second pack did the same thing. Pushing the buttons again allowed another 600 mah of discharge on top of the previous 379 mah before terminating but the pack were still over the 5v cut off setting. So that’s two different batteries with two different Tritons both mirroring the other. When charging they always accept nearly identical amount of mah. Same for when flying...the packs are within 5-10 mah of each other. I have played with the peak sensitivity threshold.....it is usually at 5mv. Moving this to 10mv did not do anything. I am not sure if the peak sensitivity threshold does anything on the discharge side of things anyway. When I formation charge any new packs I get the same poor discharge results and feel there is something with these triton not being very good at the job of cycling packs.
Any advice? I really like to find out what the state of my batteries is but can't rely on the reading I'm getting.
Thanks!!

what amperage are you discharging them at? the thing is with the type leads that you'd typically use on the triton the lead its self causes problems at high (and very low) current settings, the resistance of the small awg wire can give the charger false readings.

Maj Woody,

Just a couple suggestions. Feel free to take them or leave them.

1) Switch to A123 packs. Much more reliable, longer life, holds a charge much longer, can charge at up to 10A (without damaging cells at all), no explosion danger (compared to lipos).

2) If you do not want to go to A123's for whatever reason, go to Sanyo's Eneloops. They are 2000 Mah Nimh cells that have all of the characteristics of the above A123's, with the exception of the super fast charging. They can only be charged at a rate you would normally charge Nimh's. They really are the cutting edge of an older technology.

3) If you want to be serious about checking your batteries for capacity, get a CBA II (Computer battery analyzer) fromWest Mountain Radio. They will discharge any type of battery and give you a computer read out of your cell condition, capacity, resistance, temp, etc. It is the authority on battery performance, and not that expensive. The triton is a charger first, and a battery cycler....well it's not really.

I don't sell any of the above items, but I have experience with all three and would be happy to help you with any of them.

Chad

What are you discharging your batteries at? When cycling I never discharge at more than .5amps and set the low voltage at .8V per cell.

A 5 cell pack: .8V x 5 = 4V

As SinCityJets says "switch to A123 cells" or IMO lipo's and a regulator, you won't regret the upgrade.

As for the Triton charger, buy a decent charger instead! A friend of mine owns one of these and it's doing its best work now by keeping

the paperwork from blowing away!!

MT

Hi Guys.
both my 1950 mah RX packs and my 3300 mah ECU pack are dischargerd at .5A.
Not a heavy load at all.

Dom,
I went thru the same dog a pony discharge show with my nimh packs never really knowing if they were good or what. I tossed all of them out last year and switched to A123 packs and a cellpro4... I even got rid of the nimh in my tx and went with rayovac hybrids....problem solved, no more worries.
V..

I know what ya mean. It may be the future. I really like the NimH though[&o]

Dom,

I know what you mean. I prefer to stick with NiCd and NiMH too, and the Triton doesn't do that good a job discharging or charging the NiMH batteries - too many false peaks and false cutoffs. I actually use an old FMA Direct Einstein slow charger to cycle my NiCd and NiMH batteries between flying sessions because it is immune to this problem.

Have you tried setting the Triton to NiCd batteries and cycling the NiMH on that setting? You have to monitor it more closely when you do that, but it seems to be less sensitive on the NiCd setting.

Bob

The new FMA Multi4 charger (replaced the 4S), actually charges ALL chemistries, including Nicad's and Nimh's....now those I sell.

IMO there is nothing to like about nimh when comparing to 123 packs. I have been there and done both.
Dom,
Buy a set for one of your jets and try them...those nimh will look like old paperweights after that

V..

True Dat

The 123's DO NOT work with Jetcat's ECU's right?? I am just using a 2cell 7.4v for my Jetcat ECU. I am going to get 123's for my Rx No regulator? Just connect direct to the Rx I take it....
I am going to buy mine from here...
http://electrodynam.com/store/EDN.html#242

Greenacre,
You can use the 3 cell A123 pack (9.9v) with the JC ecu. It will work without the update but it "can" cause the ecu to burn out. JC will update the ecu for around $25.
V..

Ah... thanks Vincent
Mario

JetCat will also upgrade your ECU for free when they add the heatsink for the A123 upgrade. It's really worth it. After hearing that Vinnie tried em, I jumped onboard and haven't looked back since. They are STRONG batteries!!! Two 2-cell A123's for the Rx and 1 3-cell for the ECU. Suh-weet.

A123 are certainly the best, but to answer your specific question w.r.t Triton's capability (settings) to, If the packs have not been used over the winter, I would run them for 3 cycles Chg/Dshcg at 2A to 2.5A /1 A rescpectively. Make sure you have the voltage at .8/cell and dial down the peak sensitivity to 3 mV to 5 Mv.

I had the same problem with 2 year old packs from Hang times and the above settings, got the pack back between 85% and 90% capacity. Also set the peak delay to 0 min...

This should work provided the packs are not too old.

Does the threshold (MV setting) say at 3mv make the charger false peak vs 15mv. In other words which way do you adjust this setting so that the charger is less sensitive to false peaking. I thought dialing it upwards to the 15 mv max would broaden the sensitivity.

my bad ...trying to do too many things at the same time. Yes, 3 mV will false peak. I should have stated 10mV to 15mV. I dont like to use 15mV on a regular basis ....I typically dont exceed 10mV. Only use 15mV if the packs have been lying unused for sometime during the 3 cycle process.

After the 3 cycles at 2 A / 1 A, you can try charge at .5A to test the capacity (simulate true capacity under normal circumstances). If it does not come close to 75%, I would discard the packs.

I have only been charging and discharging at .5A for the 1950 Mah packs. I was told by a couple others that charging at 1C (1.9A in this case) and discharging at 1A might result in better numbers (capacity). Interestingly my highest numbers have been returned at a 1A setting verses .5A setting.
Thoughts?

u need to trun time stop off our set for a longer time

I'm pretty sure I have this disabled but will check when I get home.

Hi guys,
The mystery has been solved. After days of chasing this cycling problem, I have finally found the problem. I could never understand why the Triton was showing such a low voltage during operation and cutting off the discharge, but then when I checked the batteries with my Hanger 9 tester under 1amp and 2amp loads, the voltage was always very high. Furthermore, when cycling my ECU packs also Nimh I had none of these issues. So here it is. The charge leads from the Triton to my ECU battery are 10" long, 13 gauge wire. The charge leads to my receiver packs are standard charge leads sold by Great Planes and are 39" long and 20 gauge standard servo wire. The Triton was fooled into thinking the battery voltage was low when in fact the resistance was coming from the long leads. This explains why the Hanger 9 tester showed a higher voltage than the Triton. The packs are now cycling correctly and producing the best numbers ever. I have to thank my friend Rich Miller "RCISFUN" for answering my repeated phone calls and helping me through this issue. Thanks to you guys as well for your input.

Dom

Did you replace the wires on the Rx packs? I'm curious how you fixed the issue? thanks.

No the RX packs have 18 gauge wire. The problem was the charge leads.
Here are some pictures of the old charge leads and the new ones I just soldered up.

Ehab woulda called that problem

Raf