Mabuchi540

A few months ago I purchased a couple of Team Orion 3000 nimh packs from Stormer Hobbies and long story short (I know better now) that Nimhs don't like being left on the shelf for years with out a charge in them (as these probably had been) and well basically they were junk from day one.

I'm now looking at a couple of Trinity Nicad packs (1400 scr for silver can 540 racing) and they too have probably been sitting around for quite some time on Stormers shelf and they question is does long storage without a charge for nicads stuff them up as well?

Thanks in advance.

WheelNut

iTrader: (5)

Well I can't really answer your question as to the life of the batteries, but I can tell you that newer high capacity packs will put out a ton more voltage over a run. SMC sells IB3600 stick packs that put out good voltage for only like $30 each. Why not just get a few of those? 1400 ni-cd's will probably barely make 5 mins even with a silver can.

MrBlack

have youy tried deep cycling the packs you have? I.E. charge them fully then discharge them at 30-35A until they are down 5.4 volts then charge them again do this a couple of times and you should see some life come back to your packs.

If you are going to charge your NiMH/Cd batteries for an extended amount of time then you should store them fully charged and then fully discharge then charge them before the first use. Also you should store them in an invironment that keeps them as a relatively constant temperture as going from really cold to really hot can weaken the cells.

Li-Po batteries store with 50%+ charge and they will work without any loss as shelf life is not much if any of a factor as long as the batteries are stored properly.

Itchy

iTrader: (1)

In my limited experience, nimh die if let to sit for long periods of time. Nicads dont. My 9 years old Sanyo RC2000 stils takes around 2200mha.

Although im a big fan of old (specially sanyo) nicads reliability, they are no way decent for racing. Even for silver can.

ShrekNZ

Yep but for 540 Silver can our class is currently limited to 1500 and most run Sanyo 1300's

Mabuchi540

here in Nz we're limited to 1500 packs for silver can racing (on-road) and most do use 1300 Sanyo scr's.

There is generally no problem making race time, and when they are used for off-road silver can races although they don't have the voltage of the 3000 + nimh packs (which are allowed for silver can off-road) the car does end up weighing 100 grams less lol.

TZona

iTrader: (26)

a little but i have a mint 1200 scr pack, still keeps great charge, i'm getting ready to sell it let me know if interested

Itchy

iTrader: (1)

Thats a interesting concept... thats some cheap racing.

If i remeber right, many years ago the best nicads were all Sanyo. 1300SCR, than 1400SCR, 1700 and later the great RC2000. I dont remeber if the 1400 were punchier than 1300, but probably were. I wouldnt go for other brands. Sanyo were like IB in these days, but without the reliability issues.

These were great cells, my only complaint is that you werent suposed to run them many cycles in the same day.

Mabuchi540

I forgot to mention that the Trinity 1400scr packs I'm thinking about are actually panasonic cells not sanyo.

Frank McKinney

Just curious - have you tried what the Team Orion rep suggested above?

Mabuchi540

20 amp discharger but yes I followed the method suggested.

After doing that 4 times the batteries would reach full charge in approx 10 min and then on the discharger it took approx 2 1/2 min to reach 5.4 volts.

This was exactly like they did the first time so it made no difference. Basically they were shite out of the box (a twin pack as it happens), I emailed Team Orion about this but never got a reply.

Just before I ended up throwing them away I broke them open (the were stick packs) and checked each cell and all had similar voltage readings.

Any company that can't even be bothered replying is certainly not one I intend to deal with in the future.

UN4RACING

iTrader: (22)

I wouldnt let an unanswered e-mail stop me from buying from one of the most honest companies in the buissness.
I mean its not orions fault that they sat there so long.
And orion is on the tech Dang near 24-7 helping people that are not even useing there products. Now thats customer sevice. With orion its not about out selling the competition in that aspect of customer service.
That is a comittment to the Hobby and its racers.
This is not a biased post its a fact.
If you ask orion a question you get an honest answer.

Like always say because I cant help it: Read Read read MR. Blacks signature.
And like he said Lipos can sit on the shelf way longer without going bad.
Just one more obvious reason lipo will come of age.
Later Fellas.

gubbs3

iTrader: (7)

Try charging the pack very slowly (.5-1 amp). I had a pack a while back that had been stored for a few years and would always false peak while charging. I cycled it a few times charging it at only 1 amp and it bypassed where it normally false peaked and then I discharged it at 30 amps. I then increased the charge amperage by 1 amp each consecutive charge so it didn't false peak again. In about 6 cycles it would take a 6 amp charge like any other.

Mabuchi540

They've already been thrown out.

Mabuchi540

Wouldn't it be Orions job to ensure that any batteries unsold after a certain period of time are returned or at least have a warning on the packet with a "sell by date" or something like that, so people avoid the risk of buying dogs.