Stevie_T Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Hi All, I have recently bought an RC-Power 601 bc and have had a few problems.Firstly, the charger didn't come with the temperature sensor so if anyone knows of a compatible one I would be very interested to hear.Secondly, I was under the impression that it used Delta Peak Voltage detection to terminate charging. I am currently charging NiMH cells and the unit seems to just pump in the power until the cells are nicely roasted. I am charging between C/5 and C/3 but is seems not to make any difference. I have left the cells as long as I dare but have chickened out when they are v-hot to touch.Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.P.S. The instructions seem to leave a lot to the imagination also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 David Ashby did a review of this not long ago, and had similar concerns about its manual information.Seems a bit steep to me for a charger which does not even have a balancer function. I would imagine the delta peak sensitivity may be user adjustable, and the charger then uses a timed cutoff if this peak is not reached /detected. The temp cutoff is the final get out clause I suppose. Why not contact the supplier about the missing temp sensor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 David Ashby did a review of this here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Richards Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 I have had 3 of these none have come with a temp sensor. One blew up for no apparent reason. Was flying at the time and charging my glow stick when club members started shouting and pulling the charger away from my flight box. It could have been the glow stick incorrectly inserted into the lead. I had just started the engine and hurridly inserted the glow stick then taken off. The second one will not charge Li-pos because the auto cell number detection has stopped working but I think this was my fault I had a 4.8v Nicad Rx pack connected and also connected a li-po to the balance connectors. It still works ok for other types of battery. The third one which is black rather than blue is fine. I have also seen problems at lower rate charging of Nicad and Nmhi packs. If you charge around 1C-1.5C the peak detection works fine. I did not pay a great deal for these chargers about £40. Don't think I would buy another unless the latest black one proves more reliable than the other 2. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 I would use 1C charge rate for the nickel mhs anyway.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Richards Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Timbo The charger reviewed by David was the 601AD not the same as the 601BC. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Ahhh, sorry. Would imagine that its pretty much the same as far as programming goes, just with the balance function too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the unmagnificent man Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Hi I have a 601 bc and it does have the balance charge mode.If you turn the unit on (connect to a power supply)and without connecting anything (to charge) press the batt type/stop button until you find "set up". Then cycle through the set up until you find timer cut off. Turn this off by pressing the dec and inc buttons. Then carry on cycling through the set up mode and find the max mili amp setting and again press the dec and inc until it reads the same amount as the battery you are charging.(ie 1800mah)This means that the battery charger will now cut off when it reaches that amount of miliamps. Also note that if there was any charge in the battery to start with it may say "FULL" before it reaches that amount of milliamps.One other thing to note is the amount of amps to charge the battery at. You will have to ask someone like Timbo about this. He mentions earlier in the thread to charge nicads at 1cHey Timbo does that mean that if I charge my 1800mah glow stick at 1c I have to charge it at 1.8 amps or .18 amps? Oh and another thing, is that a normal or fast charge? and if it is normal what is a fast and vice versa. Sorry for the quiz but I was used to just sticking it onto a wall charger and leaving it over night before now regardless of starting capacity. Thanks, Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 Well it was actually NiMH that I mentioned, not cadmium, although cadmium are capable of 1C charge rates too, in fact they are a bit more tolerant of fast charge than hydride, but their popularity and availibility is limited these days. Fast charging of NiMH is generally reckoned to be anywhere between .5C to 1C.Fast charging at 1C or above does require a decent charger which is able to detect peak voltage accurately, and preferably have a temperature monitor too. Cells which are either below 0c or above 40c should not be fast charged. Chargers should deliver constant current charge rate throughout the charge, with varying voltage up to 1.8V max. Peak detect values are approx 5- 10m/v, EG when the battery or cell has peaked at top voltage of 1.6 - 1.8v and the charger detects a fall-off of this 5mv figure, charging should stop ...or at least drop to trickle rate which is approx .03 - .05CYour 1800mah cell is 1.8A so a fast charge at 1C is 1.8A. Sticking it on a trickle charge overnight is fine, providing the charge rate is low enough, as even trickle charging can damage the cells if left on too long. For wall wart type chargers best practice seems to be about .05C for maximum 20 hours, therefore your 1800 mah cell should receive 90 m/a for 20 hour. HTH.A good source of info on batteries generally is here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevie_T Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 Thanks for all the info chaps. I have checked out the link to the Panasonic site which is a very interesting read.My peak detect value at present is 10mv so I will try and drop this to 5mv just in case the charger is not sensing the drop off. I see that the lower the charge rate the smaller this voltage drop is so perhaps this may be the cause of my issue.Would I be correct in saying that if I want to charge a 3000mAh pack then I would need to pump in 120-140% of this value to receive a full charge (i.e. 3600-4200mAh)I have also contacted the supplier of the charger (Vapextech) to see what their opinion is (no reply as of yet but I will let you know what they say).Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Well it is normal to have to charge for a little longer than the maths say. For Instance, if a 2000 m/a cell is "flat" and you charge at 2000m/ahr you would think that it would be "full" after 1 hour, however in practice you would charge for a bit longer, as the rate of acceptance as it were drops off towards the end, and to charge a 1.2V (nominal) cell requires a higher voltage than 1.2V Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevie_T Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 Thanks Timbo, I thought that was the case.One other question if I may. When discharging cells, what is an ideal voltage to take them down to (per cell). I have been taking them to 1v but some say it should be higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 1v for nickel cells is fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevie_T Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 OK, I have a reply from Vapextech. The guy has told me to charge my 3700mAh NiMH pack at 1600ma and let it run until it switches off. If it goes wrong I should contact them to replace the cells.Not quite the technical repsone I was after but I'll give it a go. I have found an interesting site however regarding the charging of various cells and they suggest that NiMH do not respond well to Peak Voltage Detection as they do not display this caracteristic very well. They suggest using dT/dt termination which monitors the temperature rise over time and ends the charging process when a preset threshold is met.The unfortunate this is that I don't think the 601bc can do this I have included a link to this site for anyone who is curious: http://www.mpoweruk.com/chargers.htmEnjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 TY Stevie...good link m8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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