Charger for Nimh/Nicd batteries?

[pipeous]

ya many chargers have a discharger built in but a weenie thing. 3 amp, 5 amp. good for small stuff but would take forever for a larger pack and ties up your charger for other things. just my thoughts.


and to think after discharging nicads we used to dead short them to drain them completely!


for a power supply, I use laptop power supplies. under $10 each from hobby city and you can charge at 5 amps all day with one (I just ordered a new lipo charger from them that does 5 2s lipos at once for $32 and 2 supplies so I have one for each charger here... 4 chargers)


another inexpensive power supply is to convert an old computer power supply. it has multiple 12v outputs. unless of course your charger needs more than 12v, some do.

 

[v555]

V555: It is a pretty nice charger but you also need a power supply with it so at the end, it gets a bit expensive but I guess that's what you pay for having good quality! I find the Onyx 220 looks really reliable if you don't use Lipo batteries.
.... Wow, it takes almost a frigin University degree to understand these batteries, lol!

if you use your rampage for fun just take the imax b5/6 or similar and charge your battery whenever you need and don't worry about discharging and cycles.


2000-3000 mha Nimh/Nicd battery costs 10-20$ and will last long enough for that money no matter how you charge it.

 

[Yannik]

if you use your rampage for fun just take the imax b5/6 or similar and charge your battery whenever you need and don't worry about discharging and cycles.
2000-3000 mha Nimh/Nicd battery costs 10-20$ and will last long enough for that money no matter how you charge it.

Hi V555,


Are you serious You mean I don't need to do all this crap, discharging, cycling, ect with Nihm Battery ? I really tought it was necessary to do this if you don't want to ruin your battery.


Ok, presently, I have a brand new 6v, 5000mha battery and I never charged it yet so can you let me know what you guys do? It is my first truck so I've never used these kind of batteries before, I mean my 6v Nihm & 9.6v Nicd battery! Also, I tried earlier to gatter as much info on the web about these batteries but yish...they explaned that way too complicated and that is why I want to know what you guys do because you probably have more experience than me with these batteries & chargers.


Thanks,


Yannik

 

[pipeous]

with any new battery, I like to slow charge it, very low amperage.


rule of thumb...


slow charge provides longer runtimes from a battery, fast charge will provide more initial punch. slow charging is better for our application because we don't have massive amperage draws. that said, the first charge I like to do at like .8 amps. it takes a long time but is good for the cels and no false peaks

 

[lords]

Nimh Battery's don't have/hold any memory.


compared to others, no cycling or discharging is needed


you can run them 1/4 1/2 or 3/4 down and charge them right back up without a problem


I been running mine for like 3 years over 4 times a week and there still is great shape..


Peace

 

[v555]

Hi V555,
Are you serious You mean I don't need to do all this crap, discharging, cycling, ect with Nihm Battery ? I really tought it was necessary to do this if you don't want to ruin your battery.


Ok, presently, I have a brand new 6v, 5000mha battery and I never charged it yet so can you let me know what you guys do? It is my first truck so I've never used these kind of batteries before, I mean my 6v Nihm & 9.6v Nicd battery! Also, I tried earlier to gatter as much info on the web about these batteries but yish...they explaned that way too complicated and that is why I want to know what you guys do because you probably have more experience than me with these batteries & chargers.


Thanks,


Yannik

yes,im serious.its not necessary to discharge battery .and i don't say it only based on rc experience,i own a little construction company and we have used 7,2-18v Nimh/nicd/lion cordless tools many years.


if you buy an computerized charger you will get all the instructions how to use it

 

[Martin]

Those battery are sold to the general public and in use in several application like v555 said. Several people do not know about cycle, discharge, etc... simply charge their battery when needed and the battery should last for several years.


The only precaution I take for Nimh is to not to charge it too fast, if the battery gets too hot, next charging i set the Amp charge a little lower.

 

[Yannik]

Awesome Guys, honnestly I can't thank you enough! Your advice helped me a lot and I'm sure it will be helpful to others because when it comes to different types of batteries, lots get confused. Ok, that's my last question: If I'm a while without using my batteries Nihm/Nicd, should I discharged them ?


Thanks Martin, Pipeous, V555, Lords & others,


Yannik


Ps: At the end, I actually bought the Duratrax Onyx 220 Charger!

 

[lords]

yes discharge them to 3/4 of the total that's norm storage mode if your not running them over 1 month


i run a Rc-Power 601bc and a Imax B6 awesome units for the bucks....


lipos the same way around...these 2 chargers have a storage mode learned by you programming it in,


and a per battery mode...so it's just change the adapter to whatever and load your stored battery's,


info and charge away


Happy Holidays


mark AKA lords aka ReverseAffect..

 

[Deluge]

I hook my NIMH's up to a cheap wall charger for the first charge. It takes a while, but it insures that when you hook it up to the Onyx, it won't false peak. It's kind of like breaking them in.