Ybakoff

Thanks Mate.

I'll check them out..

Ybakoff

I have been charging at 5amps and 8mvpc / 48 mv for the pack.

If I raise the amps to 5.5 and drop to 5mvpc will this give me more punch, and will it be noticeable.

Sorry I'm new to this, still trying to learn.

Thanks.

Cole Trickle

The higher the charge rate, the higher the punch.

But how much? I dont think 0,5 amps will make a big difference.

Temperature is important. There's quite a bigge difference between 40-45 degrees celsius and 50-55 degrees.

And for the amps: I made a test on my 1½ year old Sanyo3000HV. In one test, I charged at 5 amps and 8 mV cut off. In the other I charged at 6 amps and 8 mV cut off. Afterwards I discharged at 20 amps, and took voltage reading for each minute, that is at 0:50, 1:50, 2:50... There were a couple of days resting between the two test. In both case the pack were equalized the same way.

When comparing the voltage, the difference was 0,1 volt HIGHER with 6 amps charge rate for the first 4-5 minutes. The rest of the time, it was 0,05 volt higher.

Cant remember the IR difference, but I believe it was 2-3 mOhm lower with 6 amps charge rate.

I havent tried it on my GP3300 packs, but the trend will for sure be the same.

I cant tell you how the pack will respond to charging with 5 versus 6 amps after a year.... But it's more fun with 6 amps

Ybakoff

Sorry 1 more question.

My packs are about 3 months old. So they havent had much use.

I am better of charging at higher amps. But what mvpc will work better. I tried to read thru the post but I just got confused.

Should I use 5mv per cell or 8mv per cell.

Thanks.

Cole Trickle

Sorry for the confusion.

Start with 5 mV. If packs are nice warm (not hot) and performs good, go with it.

If your packs aint warm enough, try with 6 mV. Work upwards, till you'll get good performance.

Cole Trickle

WHen the CDC is discharging, do the display show the actual ampereage or is just showing what it WANT to discharge at?

In other words, can it actually discharge at 20 amps with only one cell? Or with 10?

sosidge

I've used it to discharge single cells at 20A.

rcnewb2004

Is it better to discharge cells individually? or better to discharge cells as a pack using the CDC v6?

Also, is it better to discharge cells just at 20A after running them? Or using a 20A-->5A-->2A-->0.5A--->0.1A discharge on cells?

(And which combination of the 4 listed above is best?)

I tried it out on some crappy batteries because I really don't want to waste my good batteries cycling them, however, I have inconclusive results. All I did was hurt my CDC charger because it was on for 3 days straight.

sosidge

Discharge as a pack is the way to go 99% of the time - the only time to discharge individually on the CDC is when you're concerned about the match of the individual cells.

I test packs for friends from time to time - often, you need to do a high-rate discharge on a single cell to see if it really is bad, or just out of equalisation.

I would recommend putting packs on an equaliser (with a voltage cutoff) for a low-rate single-cell discharge between race meetings though.

Your staged discharge technique seems "unique" to say the least. I'm not sure why you would want to discharge sub-C cells at a rate as low as 0.1A - anything less than 1A takes AGES.

What I do, at the end of each race meeting, is put the cells on a 20A discharge until it cuts off.

Then I put them on the equalising tray (which takes the pack down to about 5v, but at a 1A rate).

Once equalised, I take them off, and store them until the following week.

Works good.

You don't NEED to equalise though, as long as you aren't dumping during the races.

Cole Trickle

This sounds like the NiCd maintenance routine - often they claim that you should wait with EQ NiMh until after storage, but right before next charge. But you have good experience with it?

martinm

That was the firts thing that I had checked, but no luck. I charge the same cells on my CS Space charger and works well.

Cole Trickle

Have you also checked the wiring inside the CDC?

rcnewb2004

Sosidge, is that method you described of using for nimh or nicd?

Also regarding:
What do you mean by dumping?
(As the name says, I am a newb.)

sosidge

Cole - I would only equalize the GP3300's - had bad results with the older Sanyo cells.

Newb - "dumping" is when you run out of battery power before the end of the race.

Cole Trickle

Sounds somewhat familiar; I have one Sanyo 3000 HV pack, where capasity is 2000-2100 (discharged at 20 amps). But the pack have been charged with 6,5 amps on an Apex Sigma Plus, which is a pulse charger with fixed trickle charge. So besides the EQ, there are several things, which the pack dont like. The equalizer I used at that time, had cut off around 0,5-,06 volt.

What was your bad results with older Sanyo packs?