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Charging 800 mAh Nimh Receiver pack


Mr Ficky
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Hi everyone. 

I purchased a Overlander 800mAh Nimh battery pack, 4.8v. How do I go about recharging it?

I have a Overlander RC-100 V2 battery charger, that says its compatible for Nimh batteries, but I can't see how to charge it - doh! - despite reading the manual!!

Do I need a specific cable for it?

 

Also, has anyone got any experience with Powerbox MicroMatch? I'm having difficulties with it. 

I think I must be thick!!!

 

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You will need a charging cable to match the connector on the battery. Plug into charger and connect battery, turn charger on, scroll through battery type options to Nimh, select charging option, auto is probably the best, select charging current, 0.5 amps would be a good start then press start. 

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11 hours ago, Mr Ficky said:

Thanks Shaun! I'll get a charging cable suitable. It threw me as I would have thought that the different charging cables would have been included in the purchase of the charger. 

That used to be the case, but I guess with so many types of connector now they leave it to the user to make/buy the cables they want.

 

I quick word of warning on the multicables, make sure the exposed connectors can't short out by touching some metal on your bench, friend did this and melted the receiver battery connection cable, he had a receiver battery plugged in and the deans connector touched a screwdriver 😮

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I know what will happen when I post this; how do you charge batteries. Whats the best LIPO. How much oil in engines. What's the best radio etc etc, Hair shirt time.

 

I plug mine into the wall charger that came with my Futaba 14SG. 8 hours minimum.

 

There. Go on then. Beat me this old Dinosaur black and blue...........

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1 hour ago, Maurice Dyer said:

 

I plug mine into the wall charger that came with my Futaba 14SG. 8 hours minimum.

 

A slow charge won't do the battery any harm, and the typical wall charger is 70 to 80 mA, so an 8 hour charge will put back around 600 mah. 

 

I use my smart charger to cycle my batteries, put them on a load of around 0.6 amps down to 1v per cell (Nimh/Nicd) and recharge at around 1/3rd C (i.e.  I would charge a 2000 mah battery at around 0.7 A. Any that don't give more than 70% of the name plate capacity are discarded. One advantage of this is to see how well the battery performs under load, I've seen the voltage collapse on some high capacity AA cells under load.

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I use a similar regime to Frank but use 600mah instead of 700. Any new battery is charged to about 80% of its rated capacity at 10% of its capacity. So your 800 will be charged at 80mah to around 650mah and then turned off. Discharge at probably 400mah as its a smaller pack to 4v total for the pack, and then back up again. As Frank points out you can keep an eye on what comes out and what goes in. If you tip 650 in but only get 300 back you know the pack is defective. 

 

Anyway once you have done this little dance 2 or 3 times you can then up the charge rate to maybe 500mah and then let it use delta peak detection to decide when it is full. Dont try and delta peak a new pack as it might not trigger and it will carry on charging and fry the cells. 

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I’ve always understood that it’s best to give a new pack a “forming” charge using a dumb charger at C/10 i.e. 80mA for an 800 mA pack ( or lower than C/10 for a commensurately longer time) for a bit longer than it takes to charge the pack - 14 hours is a figure often given. 
 

The theory is that this ensures that all cells are full - and the slow charge ensures the hydrogen given off at full charge can re-combine.  Once the cells are balanced, discharging should be reasonably equal meaning that they will all reach delta peak around the same time when recharging on a smart charger, ensuring a full charge is given to all cells. 

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On 13/08/2022 at 08:05, Frank Skilbeck said:

...I quick word of warning on the multicables, make sure the exposed connectors can't short out by touching some metal on your bench, friend did this and melted the receiver battery connection cable, he had a receiver battery plugged in and the deans connector touched a screwdriver 😮

I second that, it's an accident waiting to happen especially with a large LiPo attached. I have one that I taped up the exposed connectors on.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 13/08/2022 at 13:19, Frank Skilbeck said:

A slow charge won't do the battery any harm, and the typical wall charger is 70 to 80 mA, so an 8 hour charge will put back around 600 mah. 

 

I use my smart charger to cycle my batteries, put them on a load of around 0.6 amps down to 1v per cell (Nimh/Nicd) and recharge at around 1/3rd C (i.e.  I would charge a 2000 mah battery at around 0.7 A. Any that don't give more than 70% of the name plate capacity are discarded. One advantage of this is to see how well the battery performs under load, I've seen the voltage collapse on some high capacity AA cells under load.

Frank

 (A) What's your charger please and

(B) .don't nimhs give a 'false peak' ?

Maurice

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23 hours ago, Maurice Dyer said:

(B) .don't nimhs give a 'false peak' ?

 

Most likely at between 1/4 and 1/2 C rate charge.

 

Giving a pack the occasional slow charge (50 to 80mA ish) will get the pack balanced which in turn minimises chance of false peaks.

 

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