How to make a discharger?
 

I dont want to have to buy a discharge tray unless its 10 bucks including shipping. LOL. SOOOOOOOo, I want to make one.

Any tips or tricks?

Just use bulbs and what not?

cmon someones gota have an idea

Using bulbs already in dinosaur era. :lol: :lol: Discharger is a must for every electric racers, unless you have a BIG budget to buy new battery every 2 months or ending up in 10th positions at every race you joined. :D :D

If you've only got a budget of $10 you'll be hard pressed to even build one yourself. I built a 20amp discharger with a 5.4 volt cutoff and i cost me almost $120AUS (like $80US) i could have simply bought one for that cost but i wanted to have some fun with electronics and as such learnt alot.

does discharge tray work for 7.2v tamiya stick packs for my mini aswell?


thanks

noobie, No you can't use a discharge tray on your stick packs, the cells are assembled end to end, so they can not be individually discharged(without being taken apart). You can only "tray" packs that are assembled in Side-by-Side formation. But you still can(and should) dischage your packs, but you can't equalize each individual cell.

For stick packs, the lightbulb is the easiest for my stick packs... 5 or 10 automotive lightbulbs in parallel (basically 2 amps per bulb - your choice) and use a 12V 30A relay with a trimpot to adjust the cutoff to 5.4V or whatever you want.

I think my whole unit with 10 #1157 bulbs and a relay was $25 CDN, and some creative use of scrap metal and wires. Just look up "Light bulb Discharger" and "Auto Cutoff Relay" in google, and I think Sanj's Yokomo page and balak racing will come up. Thankfully I'm surrounded by electronic parts stores, but the relay shouldn't be too hard to find. But trust me, get the cutoff unit, especially with 20A of bulbs discharging your pack at a very fast rate... :nod:

Whats a good electronic discharger?

Check http://www.schumacher.clara.net/equaliser.htm

I built one like that using simple alligator clips, so its not a "real" tray. anyways, it works.

Overall the cost was around 4 euros (1.5 for resistances, 0.6 for diodes and 2 for alligator clips).

Good luck for youre building! ;)

after seeing what can happen with a bulb discharger and how hard it is to build a tray discharger......i think i just may buy one for 30 bucks

Im lookling at the Trinity Absolute Zero Discharger

these are the specs

FEATURES: Light system to indicate pack and individual cell discharge status
Blue anodized aluminum case with composite faceplate
Can be used for standard discharging to 5.4V, 3.0V or even lower
for a deep discharge
Individual cell light stop at .85V
Green side lights stop below 5.4V
Red light stop below 3.0V

1) Im getting GP3300 packs, is this discharger what I want?

2) Are there any special steps I should take to discharging my battery packs?

Just wait till the bulbs are dim and then let it cool?

I just put in my bid on it.

for those who really know electronics building one from scratch is easiest but most of the time it tends to be more preference than money. there are plenty of discharging devices available, personally if i may suggest, buying a charger/discharger combo, of course this is the expensive route but the most effective, would probably be best. in any case, like i said there are plenty of discharge devices available.
later.

What about a discharger that has a cut off at 0.0V. Arnt they supposed to be cut off at .85v ?

Integy makes one thats pretty cheap. 14 in stores

after reading a few things on dischargers I am so confused.

Can someone point me to a inexpensive discharger that will cut off at a safe point for my GP3300's?

these things All discharge AND equalize right?