ebone

What is the perfect discharge? I have had so many questions about this. I have made the jump to 3800 packs and have been getting different stories on the best way to discharge. I used to use a reactor 30 and a novak smart tray, now i have switched to a 0-30 tray. I was thinking of a dyna-pulse or a spintec, but is that needed? What is the perfect discharge?

SC

Questions like this will bring you almost as many variations in answers as there are replys.

Seeing how my reply is the first, I'll share my experience with you

This is what I do...

Remove battery from storage box and discharge to 5.40 on a gfx..( similar discharge device will suffice )...then I place the pack in either a tekin battery doctor tray or a novak flatline tray. These trays both equalize the cell's in the packs. Once the light's have gone out, I charge the pack @ 6.0 amps to a .3 peak detect. Once the battery has peaked, I put it in the car and go race. After the race, I remove the battery, and place it in it's storage box without discharging it

I have been doing this for week's now, the end result has been lower peak charge voltage's..( which means lower internal resistance )..with no real loss of runtime.

I would suggest you experiment with a few different method's and see for yourself what the best outcome is.

SC

ebone

i should specify. i use smc ib3800. and true double true i will be getting many diverse responses, but that is the point i guess.

jamescam

iTrader: (10)

If you ask 5 people on their discharging method you will probably get 5 different answers. Some people swear by high discharge rates (20 to 35AMPS) others say that anything over 10AMPS just kills your cells quicker. I have found that a higher discharge rate helps my packs maintain punch so I like discharging at 30AMPS. The one thing most would agree on is that 3800's shouldn't be taken lower than .9v per cell. The 0-30 gets it's name from discharging at 30AMPS down to 0v per cell which could be a problem for 3800's. With the equipment you mentioned I would do the following:

- Equalize on the Novak Smart Tray to .9v per cell
- Charge
- Race
- Discharge on the Reactor 30 (I believe the cut off is adjustable)
- Store

The Dyna Pulse is great for battery maintenance but it isnt a good every day discharger as it can take more than 5 hours to discharge a pack. I use the Dyna Pulse on my off race weeks to break down my cells internal resistance.

Hope this helps.

SC

I was going to ask you if you were using IB 3800's....that is the same cell I use.

As I said in my initial post...don't restrict yourself to one method...try several from suggestions of replys here and use your results as a guide to what works.

SC

Edit: I do not discharge @ anything higher than a 30 amp rate.

XrayFK

iTrader: (1)

I would highly recommend using the Spintec BatMan on your packs. You don't have to add an extra cycle just to Spintec a pack, just use it after you run, or after you discharge a pack to 5.4v (it will still discharge for 20-30 minutes).
I used to discharge my packs at 30 or 35A to "keep their punch" but now what I do is this (on a race day):
Tray batteries. 0.9v/cell is a good safe cutoff for IBs, however you can go a bit lower if you are careful.
Charge
Run pack in car
Discharge to 5.4v @20A
Discharge pack using Spintec
Store pack. I usually race every week so I keep them like that, but if you are not going to use the pack for over a week, but about 500sec of charge in them.

Veteq

For IB 3800's I recommend after your run discharge at 30 amps pulse on the CTX-D after that is finished equilize withe Linear 5 amp setting. Then leave them to cool if you need to run your pack again in the same day. For storing i would put about 450 mah into it.

Simon A

i know everyone has posted what they do but this is
what i do

The night or day before the race i discharge my packs at 30amp and when
the packs have dumped i equalise them (i use a trinity absolute zero tray)
and then i put them away until i have to charge them at the track.
When i have finished the race i leave them with the remainder charge left
in them until next week. If you discharge your packs after the race and leave
them for a week there is a chance that one or two of the cells could go bad.
Every 1 or 2 race meets i run them through a spintec. This is really good for the cells and internal resistence will be lowered and voltage and runtime will be increased.

And thats all to it!
Just set aside some time the day before your racing and your cells will stay good for a long time.

Joel Lagace

iTrader: (4)

"For storing i would put about 450 mah into it."

Would everyone agree that if your running stock or even 19T that simply storing the pack after its final run of the day be very similar to dumping and adding a short charge to the pack for storage?

SpeedChair

iTrader: (28)

So does the Spintec and DynaPulse do the same thing? Which one would everyone recommend?

XrayFK

iTrader: (1)

There are several small differences between the two, but yes, they both perform the same pulse discharge. I personally would go (and have stayed with) the Spintec because they are the original innovator for the product, and Trinity "borrowed" the design. Spintec also has superb customer support. But if that doesn't matter for you, the Trinity model is cheaper and can do 4 cell packs.

Simon A

The Trinity Dynapulse also discharges faster (i think)
and has a small screen which makes things alot easier.

SC

That is why I do not dump my packs after I remove them from my car.....whats the point of discharging it only to put charge back in for storage?

SC