Friday, November 16, 2018

Checking Flight Batteries...

Well, here we go, after a LONG period of inactivity. It's been about 2 years since I've had any of my birds in the sky, other then little park flyers and such. I installed new batteries in everything about 2-1/2 years ago, flew a few times, and put them up. Now, once again, all of my batteries are shot. I'm trying to cycle them and see if they're worth using, but I have a bad feeling they'll all need to be replaced. In these photos, you'll see an old 16 cell NiMH RC Car pack I've cut open to cycle cell groups to see if I can salvage any of it for use as a 4 or 5 cell flight battery. So far, these cells seem to cycle at about the right mAH rating. Next, to leave them sit a few days and see if they loose any charge from internal leaks...



I use a pair of Hobbico Accu-Cycle units on 12 VDC supplies, and keep them cool by pushing air through their ventilated cases with a small 12 VDC muffin fan. These work pretty good, but Accu-Cycle units will generate a lot of heat in the cycle mode with the discharge rate set to .300 mAh.




Dave AMA119484
http://www.RCDave.net