Battery Care....

[imaengineer]

Thanks Guys, really helpful.

Stopped me from destroying one of my Batteries.

[darkchild130]

EDIT: dont wory about it, i researched and answered my own question.

 

Darkchild

[Apex]

please help.

i have a sanyo 3600mah 9.6v battery, its a nimh

 

i used r22 excellent formula to see how long to charge it, charged it for the time calculated but it only just lasted 2 games, around 2 hours.

 

i am rather cautious to try and charge it up again as im using a simple plug and wire charger i recieved with a lpeg i purchased many moons ago, however the 8.4 batteries i have seem to have no problems charging up.

this is only the second time i have charged said battery do i charge it up again for the 13.5 hours or consider other options. alas althought my g36 worked fine on the 8.4 it just didnt have the rof i had hoped to have.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Prolly find that the charger you have is only for 8.4v batterys thus it won't charge the 9.6 correctly.

[Apex]

I have a Ripmax pro-peak varipulse 2500 charger.

 

Does anyone know what the highest mah cell it can charge.

 

I have a 8.4 3600mah Nihm battery, will this charger be ok to charge this pack.

 

I'm asking as I was charging it from completely flat (used a discharger) and it was still charging after 12 hours. In the end I turned it off, the battery seems to be OK.

 

I was fast charging it at 500mah. 12 hours seems a bit to long to me ?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Cheers

 

Rich

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I have the same charger.

 

When not in fast charge mode the charger trickles at 130 mAH so it would take a age to charge a 3600mAH battery.

 

In fast charge mode you can go from 500mAH all the way to 5000mAH (5amp effectivley) do remember that you have to press the start button to set off the fast charge.

 

Drew

[Apex]

I am ordering an AEP but the charger that is coming with it doesnt use the same voltage as American plugs, my question is if the AEP battery is 7.2 volts, can I get a 7.2 volt charger and just change the plugs? That should work right?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The tm charger ? (Glock 18c and 93r) it's 110v input, (7.2v 200mAH output) which iirc the USA use.

[danny_boy200]

Right im lost with the whole 300mA etc etc,

 

I have a chargwer with a dial on it that just reads in Amps EG: 5A 4A etc etc

 

So can anyone tell me what 1A is equalt to in mA please??

 

Thankyou

 

 

Right i think i have it

 

I have a pro peak charger witht a dial and on .5amps (500aM)

 

Does this mean its charging at that mA on slow and fast??? or just fast??

 

As if so, on the lowest setting, my 1400 mah battery will take 3.92 hours to charge???

 

Thats still fast for a slow charge!!

 

Considering i have left a battery on for like 15 hours!

[Apex]

1amp is 1000mA

 

mAH is a value of capicaity

mA is a value of current

 

The charger you speak of will only charge at the value .5amp (500mA) when you press the fast charge button otherwise it trickle charges at 130mA

 

hth

 

Drew

[Almighty]

So can anyone tell me what 1A is equalt to in mA please??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

1A = 1 Ampere = 1000 milliAmpere = 1000 mA

 

I have a pro peak charger witht a dial and on .5amps (500aM)

Does this mean its charging at that mA on slow and fast??? or just fast??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

SLOW mode is kind of a misnomer, or mislabel.. as it's more like a less than 150mA TRICKLE intended more for stand-by/maintenance current. The dialed-in charge current values apply only when the charger is running in FAST mode.

 

As if so, on the lowest setting, my 1400 mah battery will take 3.92 hours to charge???

Thats still fast for a slow charge!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

• SLOW is charging at current equal to 1/10th or 10% of the battery rating where charge time is 12-15 hours.

In the case of your 1400mAh pack, charger output of 140mAh or less

 

QUICK is charging at current equal to 1/5th-1/4th or 20-25% of battery rating, and charge time between 5-7 hours. In your case, roughly 350mAh charge current or less

 

FAST is when charge current is at least equal, to as much as 3x, the battery rating, and charge time can be only 1 hour or even a short 30 minutes. Again, in your case, 1400mAh to as much as 3A.

[enteryourusername]

If one of the wires on a battery gets frayed and breaks off can you just soder it back on or is there some special thing you do?

[Apex]

Solder it back on, just make sure to wrap some tape or shrink wrap round the connection

 

Drew

[jchu1988]

I bought an intellect 8.4v 1400mah, after the first conditioning charge, i measured the voltage with a multimeter and it sed i had 9.2v. I cant measure the amps as it just sparks when i put the leads in.

[Xaccers]

I cant measure the amps as it just sparks when i put the leads in.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Holy ###### tell me you didn't just do that?!!?!?!

What on earth were you trying to do? Blow the battery up or something?

You just shorted out the battery you crazy person you!

 

If you're lucky, your battery hasn't been too damaged and will still work, however personally, I'd throw it away and get a new one, and never ever short it out.

[uscmCorps]

Wow... so I just read through all 20 pages of this thread. A lot of info to digest. But it was a very interesting read.

 

A couple questions-

 

I have a DuraTrax Intellipeak Digital Pulse Charger. I first discharged a Sanyo NiCad 9.6V 2000mah battery, then peak charged it at around 2.0 to 2.5 Amps. It's a smart charger so it automatically went to trickle/slow charge after about 1hour 20 minutes which I assume means it's done. I had the charger's LCD set to "Capacity in mAh" and the odd thing is that the final count went beyond 2000mah... up to around 2160 (the counter appears to reset itself after 2000mah).

 

Is it common for batteries to hold more than it's estimated capacity? And how accurate is the LCD in these smart chargers? Does the "capacity in mAh" actually reflect the true capacity?

 

The other day I charged the same battery (2000mah) but at around 4.5 amps and at the end of the charge, the display showed that the capacity of the battery was only 1875mah, which I assumed was normal as I read earlier in this thread that using a faster charge rate will result in less than rated capaity (like around 90%) . Any feedback would be super appreciated! The last thing I want is to turn up to my game on Saturday with a battery that lacks the juice needed.

 

Oh, and one last question - If I finished charging my batteries 36 hours before the game, would I loose any significant amounts of charge by the time the game day comes? I know I wouldn't have to worry about NiMh batteries, as they keep their charge for a long time, but I'm curious about the NiCads.

 

Thanks for any advice and help!

[pbunyan]

36 hours before a game shouldnt caus th batteries to lose too much charge, but as youve got an intelligent charger you might ba able to put the batteries on befoe you go to top them up, although youll have to read the manual to see if you can do this

 

i also have a question for the battery guru's. ive just recieved in the post my new charger and battery, but in the instructions it says "this battery charger has been designed specifically for use with 7.2v-1200/1800mAh or 9.6v-800mAh Nickel Cadmium rechargable battery packs". is this safe to use with 8.4V nicad battery packs? as its only outputting 7.2V. i think i may have been sent the wrong one as itdoesnt have the same description as the one on the invoice :S

 

EDIT: well the place i bought it from said its fine, i just nmeed to plug in my battery and itll sort it out for me, even though i wa less than a tenner :S ive stuck in my old battey just in case, dont want to ruin my nice new one!

[hardboiledcop]

Ok, I just recieved a couple of batteries, as usual I assumed they hadnt been charged so I put one on to charge.

 

they are intellect 8.4v mini 1400mah. I just got a Winstar Charger, and I set the Voltage to 8.4 and the charging rate to 'fast'.

 

In a matter of minutes the battery was fried, literally melting. After tossing it and getting a little bit miffed, I checked under the charger and there is another selection..

 

AC100 /120V or AC200/240V.. it was set to AC200.. I dont know whether this has any bearing, could someone give me a little help, Im not a whizz at batteries and this is my first charger with a fast charge setting.

 

cheers.

[pbunyan]

Ok, I just recieved a couple of batteries, as usual I assumed they hadnt been charged so I put one on to charge.

 

they are intellect 8.4v mini 1400mah. I just got a Winstar Charger, and I set the Voltage to 8.4 and the charging rate to 'fast'.

 

In a matter of minutes the battery was fried, literally melting. After tossing it and getting a little bit miffed, I checked under the charger and there is another selection..

 

AC100 /120V or AC200/240V.. it was set to AC200.. I dont know whether this has any bearing, could someone give me a little help, Im not a whizz at batteries and this is my first charger with a fast charge setting.

 

cheers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

that shouldnt have any effect, as it was set to 200/240V, which it correct for the uk (i assume thats where you are as thats what your flags set to). maybe the charge current was too high for it?

 

oh, and while im here, its been said all over the place that you should ovrcharge the batery on its first charge, but by how much? i couldnt fin dit anywhere? does the usual time + about %10 sound ok? (for Ni-Cad, if it makes a difference)

 

EDIT: also, it is safe to charge a 600mAh battery at 600mA current? thanks for any replies!

[hardboiledcop]

well, the charger only has two settings, no milliamp settings.

 

it has fast or slow, and then the voltage of the battery.. 7.2 8.4 9.6 etc..

 

if the battery had been fully charged already, and I had put it on a fast charge, could that have caused the battery to superheat?

 

cheers.

[pbunyan]

maybe, but i dont think that would have happened after a few minutes. you should check the battery wiring polarity, ive heard that the can arrive wired incorrectly.

[SAS44]

I have just looked and searched through the thread and carn't find the a realistic answer to my question. I have a 3300mah Nimh batt that has just been dis-cahrged a few days ago and i want to store for about a month or two without damaging it. How much charge should I put in it to store without damaging it?? Also considering i have a 180mah trickle charger. Sorry if this question has been asked before

 

Thanks a lot Jim

[uscmCorps]

well, the charger only has two settings, no milliamp settings.

 

it has fast or slow, and then the voltage of the battery.. 7.2 8.4 9.6 etc..

 

if the battery had been fully charged already, and I had put it on a fast charge, could that have caused the battery to superheat?

 

cheers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

If the battery charger you're using isn't a smart charger (as in it doesn't know when to stop charging), then it is entirely possible that the battery was already fully charged. Another issue could be the rate of charge was to high for the battery. Does the specs on the charger indicate the amperage delivered during fast charge? Did you remember to set the charger to the 8.4 Volt setting? Are your batteries NiCd or NiMh? When not using smart chargers, it might be prudent to discharge the battery first and using the equation as posted on the front page of this topic to estimate duration of charge:

 

---------------------------------------------------------

Total Battery Capacity (mAh) divided by Charge Rate (mA) multiplied by 1.4

 

For example, if you have a 3,000mAh battery, and a 300mA charger, it would look something like this...

 

> (3000 / 300) * 1.4

= 10 * 1.4

= 14 hours

 

(as mentioned earlier - a battery's first charge should be longer)

---------------------------------------------------------

 

Of course using this equation would require you to figure out the Amperage of charge during slow and fast charge for your charger. For example, let's say hypothetically, your charger fast charges at 4Amps (=4000milliAmps).

 

> (1700 / 4000) * 1.4

= 0.425 * 1.4

= 0.595 hours or about 36 minutes

 

So the 1 - 1.5 hours charge time labelled on your charger for fast charge is more of an estimate for a battery whose capacity is unspecified. Figure out how many amps are delivered during fast and slow charges, discharge the battery, use the above equation to figure out approximate charge time, charge the battery for that approximate amount of time but once it gets warm, unplug it. It's possible that the fast charge is simply to fast for your batteries which means you just have to go with the clow charge.

[Almighty]

I have a DuraTrax Intellipeak Digital Pulse Charger.  I first discharged a Sanyo NiCad 9.6V 2000mah battery, then peak charged it at around 2.0 to 2.5 Amps.  It's a smart charger so it automatically went to trickle/slow charge after about 1hour 20 minutes which I assume means it's done.  I had the charger's LCD set to "Capacity in mAh" and the odd thing is that the final count went beyond 2000mah... up to around 2160 (the counter appears to reset itself after 2000mah).

 

The other day I charged the same battery (2000mah)  but at around 4.5 amps and at the end of the charge, the display showed that the capacity of the battery was only 1875mah, which I assumed was normal as I read earlier in this thread that using a faster charge rate will result in less than rated capaity (like around 90%) .  Any feedback would be super appreciated!  The last thing I want is to turn up to my game on Saturday with a battery that lacks the juice needed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The only real difference between SLOW and FAST charging is the accompanying temperature rise. Low current charging allows the cells to dissipate the heat, such that at slow enough rate the cells don't even warm up despite goig into overcharge. High current charge produces heat faster than the cells can radiate, and the accumulation often overtakes the progress of charging. At current over 2x the battery rating, temperature rises dramatically once over 75% total charge. If the charger is equipped with temperature sensing, aside from delta peak sensing, it will likely finish the charging process before the cells reach peak voltage.

 

Is it common for batteries to hold more than it's estimated capacity?  And how accurate is the LCD in these smart chargers?  Does the "capacity in mAh" actually reflect the true capacity?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

More often than not, the meter reading shows total current output of the charger than the actual stored power in the cells. One indication is when the reading keeps incrementing upward when the charge process is restarted without disconnecting the battery from the charger - the readout includes the overcharge.

 

If I finished charging my batteries 36 hours before the game, would I loose any significant amounts of charge by the time the game day comes?  I know I wouldn't have to worry about NiMh batteries, as they keep their charge for a long time, but I'm curious about the NiCads.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All rechargeables exhibit a certain degree of self-discharge. It's still considered normal for nickel-based cells to lose up to 1% per day. Really good condition cells lose much less.

[Almighty]

if the battery had been fully charged already, and I had put it on a fast charge, could that have caused the battery to superheat?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most definitely!

[Almighty]

Total Battery Capacity (mAh) divided by Charge Rate (mA) multiplied by 1.4

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The charge time multiplier is not a constant. Because of heat build-up when charging at high current level, the charge time must be shortened.. and this can be done by adjusting the multiplier as follows:

• x1.4 when charge current is 1/8th-1/10th of battery rating

x1.3 when charge current is 1/4th-1/5th of battery rating

x1.2 when charge current is equal to, or greater than, battery rating

[uscmCorps]

Thanks a lot, Almighty!

 

The charge time multiplier is not a constant.  Because of heat build-up when charging at high current level, the charge time must be shortened.. and this can be done by adjusting the multiplier as follows:

• x1.4 when charge current is 1/8th-1/10th of battery rating

x1.3 when charge current is 1/4th-1/5th of battery rating

x1.2 when charge current is equal to, or greater than, battery rating

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Whoa... I read the whole thread from beginning to end and I didn't pick up on this. I had no idea! Thanks a lot!!!

 

The only real difference between SLOW and FAST charging is the accompanying temperature rise.  Low current charging allows the cells to dissipate the heat, such that at slow enough rate the cells don't even warm up despite goig into overcharge.  High current charge produces heat faster than the cells can radiate, and the accumulation often overtakes the progress of charging.  At current over 2x the battery rating, temperature rises dramatically once over 75% total charge.  If the charger is equipped with temperature sensing, aside from delta peak sensing, it will likely finish the charging process before the cells reach peak voltage.

More often than not, the meter reading shows total current output of the charger than the actual stored power in the cells.  One indication is when the reading keeps incrementing upward when the charge process is restarted without disconnecting the battery from the charger - the readout includes the overcharge.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Interesting. So that's why, when I watch my charger charge a battery it appears to reset itself near the end of the charge and then continues to charge for another 100-200 mah? Is it good to have the overcharge added after the counter is reset, or should I stop it once the overcharge begins?

 

Also, what is the effect of changing the output amperage of the charger mid way through a charge? For example, if I discovered that the battery was becoming a little too warm, would it be okay to simply turn down the amperage to the minimum 0.5 Amps / 500 mah setting? Or should I stop the process altogther, wait for the battery to cool and then continue charging until the charger has determined the peak charge? And in the end, should I even trust the Intellipeak Charger to determine the cut off point of the charging process, or should I stop the charge myself when the charge time matches what is estimated and the battery is warm. And how warm is too warm?

 

Thanks again, Almighty. I'll be giving you a +1 for all your help!

 

-Alex

[Almighty]

So that's why, when I watch my charger charge a battery it appears to reset itself near the end of the charge and then continues to charge for another 100-200 mah?  Is it good to have the overcharge added after the counter is reset, or should I stop it once the overcharge begins?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The reset at over 2000mAh may simply be because the LCD display was not programmed to display the number 2 at the leftmost digit.. and the numbers rollover back to single digit 0. Any reading past the rollover is then assumed to be additional to 2000.. and not necessarily overcharge (especially when your battery is rated over 2000mAh to begin with). A 3600mAh NiMH pack will probably read something close to 1600 when it tops off.

 

Also, what is the effect of changing the output amperage of the charger mid way through a charge?  For example, if I discovered that the battery was becoming a little too warm, would it be okay to simply turn down the amperage to the minimum 0.5 Amps / 500 mah setting?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Some chargers are actually designed to do just that (switch to slower rate) halfway or 3/4-way through the chargng process.. to head off the temperature build up. It just lengthens the time.

 

And in the end, should I even trust the Intellipeak Charger to determine the cut off point of the charging process, or should I stop the charge myself when the charge time matches what is estimated and the battery is warm.  And how warm is too warm?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The most common feature among intelligent chargers is peak voltage sensing. As batteries charge, the voltage creeps upward. When maximum capacity is reached, further charging actually produces lower voltage. The point of change is called delta peak, and once the voltage depression is detected, the charger then cuts-off or switches to standby charge maintenance trickle (usually 100-150mAh). By the way, auto-cut/switch features work only when running in FAST mode. If you want to actually slow charge, put the current output to lowest setting (.5A or 500mAh) and activate FAST mode. There's really no better way to personally or manually second-guess charge top-off.. except when you notice excessive or overly fast build-up of heat.

 

Note that charge rate is actually relative to the battery's rating. While 1A is only 1/3 of 3000mAh (hence only QUICK charge), it is already x1 or equal to the rating of a 1000mAh cell (hence FAST). The higher capacity cell will probably hardly warm up at the end, while the lower one might get feverish. That's why some (more expensive) chargers are equipped with temperature sensing. At very high current rate, cells may get almost too hot to hold. Never let your batteries get hotter than 40 degrees Celcius (as like a person with a very high fever).

 

The practice of initially overcharging new batteries is almost virtually passe.. especially with the advent of multi-feature intelligent chargers which can maximize/optimize cell charge and performance. Suffice it to say that rechargeable cells will eventually break-in and even out after about 10 usage cycles anyway.. so don't sweat it.