Chris Channon Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 Hi all, has anyone else had problems with the Tx battery discharge rate on a 6EX 2.4 ? I charged up on friday night to go flying saturday, could not go because of work, went down the shed today and the TX is showing the low batt alarm !! I have this happen on both Tx's ( 2.4) and even when i changed over battery packs from a known good tx it still seems to have a very high rate of discharge . Anyone else ? regards Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ashby - Moderator Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 Is that the NiCD that comes with it Chris? Then yes the one with my TX seemed to self discharge at an alarming rate too. I've since upgraded it to a decent 2000mAh NiMH from Overalander and fast charge it direct (not through TX) before flying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Channon Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Hi David , yep it is the supplied ni-cd, i removed it from the Tx and charged it, and charged the other Tx with the ni-cd in situ, the ni-cd out of the tx is today still showing a very healthy charge, the one in the Tx is again showing the lo-batt alarm !!! I wonder if there is a mod that Futaba can do to prevent this self-discharge? i will look into it and find out. Regards as always Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultymate Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 I fly a Futaba 10C and it came with an 1100 mah NiCD and have found it very economical on battery power. Funny how experiences vary hey ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Hi David, Why is it not a good idea to fast charge through the Tx . I was informed by my LMS that you can fast charge but not discharge through the Tx due to a gismo in the TX. Now worried Kelvin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 The limitation could be due to a fuse and other components wires etc in the charging "circuit" from the jack to the battery terminals. Most wall wart chargers only output at low current ....maybe just 250 m/a or so, and are simnply not expected or designed to carry 2 A.Must confess to charging my DX7 lipo battery in situ, through the charge jack, at 1.5A with no ill effect for the last few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Thanks for that Timbo. I have a 1500 mAH NiMH Overlander in my Tx I fast charge at 1.5A with no ill effects to date. Cheers Kelvin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ashby - Moderator Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 I did sell my 6EX a while back but seem to recall it had a 700mAh batt. I use a 2000mAh eneloop pack in my 10C now and it lasts for ages. Kelvin, yup as Tim says, I'm just cautious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 When it comes to electrickery it is wise to be a bit cautious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 I think if people are "suffering" from high self discharge batteries, then the eneloop / instants are the answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultymate Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Lots of discussions elsewhere about false peaks when charging Eneloops, one regular flyer up at Moel Ffamau having lost a glider to this syndrome recently I think it was an R/X pack as opposed to T/X. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Muir Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Chris, how are you charging these batteries? Are you using the same charger when charging in situ as you are with the batteries out? Your battery packs should not self discharge any faster in the transmitter than they would if left out, as the transmitter, being turned off, uses no current whatsoever. I suspect you're getting an incomplete charge when in situ, but a full charge when out. You may be getting a false peak from your charger because of the diode fitted in the transmitter circuit to prevent reverse polarity connection. There was a note in the instructions of my old Futaba 6EXA's (35MHz) not to charge at more than 1A tops which I think was related to that. Or if you're using the standard wall charger, you might simply not be leaving it on long enough. Sounds to me like your batteries are ok and it's unlikely you've got two duff transmitters so I'd have a think along the above lines before contacting Futaba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Channon Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 Hi John, yes i did use the wall charger and left it on for 16 hours, so that should be long enough. I then used my Ultamat charger and charged at .8mah and the packs took just over 385 mah to top up. It is strange that the one in the Tx went down quickly ( overnight) to get the low batt alarm to go yet the one out of the Tx is still ( today) fine ! Very odd. David, the 2,000 pack you bought from overlander, is it already built up ie just a quick swap over ? Thanks all Regards as always Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Muir Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Chris, what about sticking the battery you charged outside the transmitter back in a transmitter to see if it discharges faster then. If it does, then you've got a couple of very odd transmitters there with some sort of short going on and they'll need attention. If it doesn't, then it's your wall charger that's at fault. Anyway, if the batteries are just 700/800 mAH ones, I'd second getting bigger packs. Vapex Instants are excellent low self discharge batteries (very similar to Sanyo Eneloops) from Vapextech and if you charge them at 1A on a peak detect charger when you get home from the flying field they'll be ready to go next time you go flying, even if that's not for months. Not expensive, drop in replacement and 2100mAH capacity. Can't go wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Channon Posted June 10, 2010 Author Share Posted June 10, 2010 Hi John, yep great minds !! I did just that last night and today the low batt alarm goes off. I have used the wall charger to charge up the Tx and Rx of another futaba set and it works perfect, to be honest i own about a half dozen of these wall chargers and never have had one go wrong. One of the Tx packs i took out came from a Skysport 6 which was fine ie, charge up and it keeps it charge for ages, as soon as it went in the 6EX, it went flat enough to set off the low-batt alarm overnight. I will order a couple of the Eneeloop ? packs from overlander and hopefully that will cure the problem, thank you for all the imput. Regards as always Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 I have used the wall charger to charge up the Tx and Rx of another futaba set and it works perfect, to be honest i own about a half dozen of these wall chargers and never have had one go wrong. Chris, why not sell off most of em and use the dosh to buy a decent smart charger, properly designed to charge NiMhs. They are inexpensive these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Muir Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 Ok Chris, so you've established that batteries discharge more rapidly when installed in your transmitters than they do if left sitting loose. Now, to me, that indicates a problem with the transmitters as my 6EXA's didn't do that. In fact none of my transmitters ever did that. Why are they discharging their batteries like that? Where are all those electrons going? Putting bigger capacity batteries in will mask the problem (perhaps), but it still means your batteries will go flat a lot sooner than they should - not a good state of affairs. Can't offer a solution other than send them to Ripmax for checking. Maybe the on-off switch on the 6EX is faulty or something. Strange one this. Cheers, John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Channon Posted June 13, 2010 Author Share Posted June 13, 2010 Hi Timbo, as i said in a previous post, i used the wall charger , the battery then went down very quickly then i used my Ultramat charger, never had any problems with charging either Li-Po od ni-cd or niMh type battery with this charger. Regards Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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