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Chris Briggs
25-06-2009, 07:37 AM
Good morning,

My boss decided to purchase a remote control car for his son (first car). With little research we ended up having to take what the local model shop had in stock. The car is a Traxxas 2wd stadium truck and is great. The problem is the batteries! He bought a 4500mah battery and borrowed a 3800 one from myself. The day after the present fest, the complaint was my battery was great but the new one just gave no run time. I discharged it to 5.4V with my much more charger then charged it at 4amps, 5mV delta peak with a temp cut off at 40degC, it peak cut with only 3300mah (this is a 4500mah battery). I discharged it and charged it another few times, making sure the battery was cool between the cycles and still only 3300mah. So we took the battery back and swapped it for a 4600mah intellect pack. I put it on my much more charger and cycled it a few times with the following results:

Charge 1: 1200mah in, 2amps charge rate, initial charge to get it to life
Discharge 1 : 948mah out
Charge 2: 4500mah in, capacity cut (for got to set it a little higher than battery capacity)
Discharge 2: 3400mah out
Charge 3: 3400mah in, peak cut
Charge 4: 315mah in - re-peaked battery to see what would go in
Discharge4: 4174mah out
Charge 5: 3300mah in

Now my much more 3800 pack takes 3900mah and peaks every single time, is there an issue with these very high capacity stick packs which means they are naff! or do I need to do give them a good kicking at 6amps or something!

Any help appreciated, I have a feeling the local model shop is just going to blame the charger rather than the battery as I have had 2 now but I guarantee the charger is fine as I use it at every weekend on my racing packs for TC and each time it charges the cells to capcacity!.

Thanks

Chris

dan_916
25-06-2009, 11:12 AM
hmm, I wouldn't advise going to 6amps.. Have you tried giving it a 1/10C charge?? e.g. 4500mah battery charged at 450mah?? I had this problem once as my pack was peaking way to early on a 2.5amp charge, did a couple of slow 10 hour charges and discharges, and now the pack is fine...

Chris Briggs
25-06-2009, 11:30 AM
thanks Dan, we are giving it a slow (0.4 amp) discharge now and will give it a charge again at 0.4 amps and see how we get on

Lee Carr
25-06-2009, 05:08 PM
hmm, I wouldn't advise going to 6amps.. Have you tried giving it a 1/10C charge?? e.g. 4500mah battery charged at 450mah??

I take it were talking about Nimh's? not Li-po's

I too wouldn't advise charging @ 6amps espically with Intellect's :eek:

1C charging for a 4500mah would be 4.5amps ;)

I know this maybe more expense.....but have you thought about a Much more Stick Pack discharger? I too had a few problems with some CHEAP 1800's (for Tamiya Mini's) and bought a discharger and IMO it's been worth every penny :D

Chris Briggs
25-06-2009, 06:48 PM
Lee, it is NiMH!

The charger I have has a discharge function which, if set low enough will pull the pack down to 5.4V, the same as the stick pack dischargers I think.

Regards

Chris

Lee Carr
25-06-2009, 06:54 PM
Lee, it is NiMH!

The charger I have has a discharge function which, if set low enough will pull the pack down to 5.4V, the same as the stick pack dischargers I think.

Regards

Chris

Hi Chris,

Sorry I should have said equliser not discharger, as it does each cell on it's own and not as a pack ;)

Lee

dan_916
25-06-2009, 07:42 PM
Here's a thourght: Is it possible to make a home-made equaliser?? As I am a fan of the home-made headlight bulb discharger!!

Chris Briggs
25-06-2009, 08:30 PM
Lee, does that mean you have to puncture the "casing"?

Lee Carr
25-06-2009, 08:44 PM
Lee, does that mean you have to puncture the "casing"?


You have to cut little squares of heatshrink out for the contacts to touch the cell/s

I'll take a pic later on (once camera cells are charged and post it up for you :D

Lee Carr
25-06-2009, 11:53 PM
Here's a couple of pics of my Much more stick pack equlizer ;) with some very old matched 1700's fitted, which take just over 1900 mah after being charged @ 5.5amps :D

Chris Briggs
05-07-2009, 10:18 AM
Just a bit of feedback, the pack seems to like slow charges and I can get the capacity (and a little more in ) if I do a 1 amp charge. It seems to be getting better but I think the solution is to get 3800 packs as the Much More one I have is great and takes capacity charge at whatever charge rate you throw at it!