More from the Mothballs...

Still getting things ready to go after a 2+ year break... I pulled this 12 year old Hangar 9 Twist .40 down, and put it on the Accu-Cycle. It was stored on my "red-neck" battery maintenance system for the last couple of years... That consists of a conventional 50 mAH charger connected to a Christmas tree timer. I have it come on for 30 minutes/day, and then back off. I never bothered to check it, other than to verify that the charge light was still coming on when the timer was passing power. So far, it looks as if the 5 cell 1500 mAH battery is fine. One more cycle to verify, then on to the next bird. So far, so good!

Dave AMA119484
http://www.RCDave.net

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