WRXTC

Thinking about getting one of these but was unsure how to monitor discharge. I was told if you disconnect each cell when the light dims then it will be around 0.9 in the cell. Two mod racers have told me this as I only race 540 at the moment it will be good enough and is less than half the price of a Novak Smart tray.

Any thoughts from anyone?

danjoy25

iTrader: (38)

Ygpm.

I use it and just leave the packs until the lights are all off. Works pretty good.

litespeed-dom

iTrader: (4)

It works, and it's apprx .9v when the light goes off, but that tray is really mainly so you can bring it down to 0.0v more than anything. I use it to discharge all my race packs down to 0.0v. Do yourself a favor, if you just want to discharge them and cutoff at .9 or whatever it is, just save up and get the Smart Tray.

Dom

WRXTC

I have 3 matched IB3600 Feral packs and a reedy matched GP3300 pack. and a few unmatched GP3300 practice packs. Is it true that the IB's cannot go any lower than 0.9 per cell? I have heard that but also read that the newer IB's are a lot more stable than the first ones on the market, mine aren't very old at all.My CDC will discharge the pack and I can stop it at 5.4 which would .9 per cell. If I then tray them untill the light on each cell starts to dim it should be as close to equalized as you are going to get without a Smart tray (or I have been told by about 3 mod racers) will this hurt the IB3600's? I know the GP's can be taken to 0 or I have been told that. Just starting out in RC and don't wan't to wreck batteries as they aren't cheap.

Thanks

Nexus Racing

WRXTC,
It is true that newer batches of IB batteries respond well when you dead-short them (taking them down to zero, as you put it), much like the GP3300s. If you store them like this, it will reduce the run-time. Unless you are a mod or 1/12 racer, the lost run-time is not an issue.

Before the smart tray was released, most racers equalized their packs with a unit similar to the Zero-V, where you manually tray the battery until the lights dim. Some racers will equalize a pack before they store it, and then tray it an hour before they charge it.

We posted this free article on our website that may be very helpful to you: Dead-Shorting Your NiMH Batteries .