Tornado battery

[Dave Doughty]

Hi Guys

 

Can some body help me please, i have two sets of Tornado fast charge batterys 2000. It says fast charge 2A for 2hrs. As this will be there first charge and i am only using a normal plug in the wall Futaba charger is this going to be enough or should i charge them for longer?

 

Dave

 

 

[ken anderson.]

hello dave-your wall charger will not charge these in 2 hour's----they are referring to using a 'fast charger'......cost around about £30.00...they will need aprox 16 hour's +using a wall charger...........me i would spend the dosh and get a f/charger......you dont mention what sort of batt's i assume we are talking about nimh's?........

 

 ken anderson..ne 1..

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Be careful - if it's a typical 70mA/h wall charger you'll need to charge them for the best part of 40 hours.  After a first charge at this rate, assuming they are fully discharged, you should only put enough back in to replace what you've taken - not easy with a wall charger so you would be much better off buying a peak detect charger and charging at the 1C rate of (I assume it's a 2000 mA/h pack so 2A would be a good charge rate - the figure of this rate for 2 hours you quote doesn't make sense for a 2000mA/h pack though).

 

Bring back NiCds, I say!

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

...and having said all that, after doing a quick google to check what these packs are, I've come across some excellent advice on this very subject

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

...and zooming in on the label it's 1.2 hours not 2, which makes more sense but makes the dangerous assumption that you're charging from fully discharged or using peak detect.

[Erfolg]

Where is Timbo.

 

Personally, I would strongly advocate a battery charger, designed specifically for charging batteries typically used in modelling.

 

I know that Nicads could be theoretically trickled charged for ever, due to the electrochemistry. I do not know if this is also true for NImh.

 

In the case of Lipo type batteries, it is essential to use a charger which is specific to type.

 

I am not trying to establish an alarmist note, yet remember the hysteria resulting from exploding (in the 1970s of) Nicads and the resulting contamination and more recently Lipos being charged inappropriately.

 

Be careful!

 

Erfolg

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

In Timbo's absence I can confirm that NiMHs do not like to be trickle charged for extended periods and your advice about getting a proper NiMH compatible charger is very sound.

 

There's no other reliable way to keep NiMHs properly charged and it's important to charge at a fairly high rate (.5 - 1C) to ensure that the delta peak is detected properly.

 

 

[Dave Doughty]

Hi Guys

 

Thank you all for all your advice, Martin yes your right i read the label wrong it is 1.2 hrs. I will also check out that other site and read the advice. Also i will drive over to my model shop on sat and buy a proper charger as my plane has it's first flight Sun if the weather is fine.

 

Again thank you all.

 

Dave

 

 

[Tim Mackey]

Been shopping and visiting a recently hospitalised flying buddy

Anyway, seems you have had good advice - and are now headed in the right direction

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I'd advise putting it on charge ASAP (assuming it's as supplied and you haven't charged it at all) and charging it for an appropriate time based on the capacity (2000 mA/h) divided by the charge rate (probably 70mA - check the data plate on the charger) times 1.2

 

e.g. 2000/70 = @28.5  

 

28.5 x 1.2 =  @34 hours

 

This forming charge is important to the longevity of the battery and you're best to use the new charger after this initial charge.

 

 

[Dave Doughty]

Reading through all the helpful advice, what i'm really going to need is a good charger, something that will do both NIMH and LIPOs.

 

So sorry to ask again does anybody have any ideas please.

 

[ken anderson.]

dave-type charger in the forum search box-at the top of the page and you will find loads of threads recommending various chargers-and where to get them from....

 

         ken anderson...ne 1..

[Tim Mackey]

Shameless plug - which may hopefully help you to choose one.

Almost every available charger these days will do pretty well all the common cell types - Lipo especiallyu. Go for one with a built in charger ( for the lipos ) and dont be fooled by the marketing blurb about such things as "5A" charge rate, "12 cell capable" etc. These may well be true on their own, but not together, where you will often find that if you really want to charge your nice new liPo pack at 5A ( which incidentally is actually a very low rate these days for many people ) then it wont handle more than a 2 cell pack or whatever.

If you're on a budget, and who isnt .... These are pretty GVFM in my opinion.