DirtMunky

I just bought a Bantam BC-6 charger, second hand. Now the manual on this thing is not very clear, to put it mildly.

My question is: how do you know when the charge is complete?

I have a brand new 6C NiMH 4600mah 7.2v pack in it, very first charge, so doing it at 0.4A just to be kind to the battery. On "manual" setting that is. How do you work out how long this might take, and how do you know when the charger is done? I really don`t want to cook the battery because i don`t know how to use the charger

Will it shut off after the charge, go to trickle, or what?

y2kgtp

iTrader: (35)

0.4A an hour is really low.....that might take....um....10+ hours to charge?

JamesnMeyer

iTrader: (41)

Set it to 4 amps not .4 and that will be easy on your batteries. Should take 30 to 40 minutes to charge depending how low it is.

Duster_360

iTrader: (21)

Rough time estimate - (batt size in mah)/(charge rate in amps*1000) = hours

Yours - 4600mah/(4amps*1000) = 4600/4000 = 1.15hrs or 1 hr and 15min.

This assumes batt is completely empty which it never is and has no internal resistance, which they all have. But it can give you some idea of what the maxximum time it could take would be.

DirtMunky

JamesnMeyer, I`ve read that new NiMH batteries need to be broken in very gently for the first 3 or 4 charges. Like 10% of normal charge rate. Considering that these batteries are stright outta the box, never been charged before, I`m doing them at 0.4A. Is this too low for a first charge?

RC Accessory

You need to do a formation charge which is a C/10 charger for 22 hours. With your battery, you need to charge at 460 mah for 22 hours. You cannot use a peak detection charger like the Bc-6 because the charger will not allow a charge for that long. What you can do is change the Delta Peak sensativity for nimh to the max value and charge at .5 amps. Also turn off the safety time and capacity timer. Watch the time and restart as often as necessary. You may not get to 22 hours this way. Make sure to reset it all again before you use it.