B3boy

I just recently bought a Integy 16x7 charger. I think it is pretty nice but then again, i know nothing really about chargers.

I am just charging my first battery on it. It has never been charged before. It is a micro rs4 6 cell NimH 1100 mah pack. I am charging it at .05 amps with a peak detection of 2mv per cell.
(was i suposed to discharge it first???)

During the charge it displays a few things that I don't understand and the instructions are junk! (is it suposed to be turning on those loud fans every 20 seconds?!! )

It says:
544mah 1:05:00
8.980 0.50A MH

other screen:
Input 15.567
Peak 8.993

This was the display at the end of charge. How can the peak voltage be 8.800 when it is a 7.2 volt battery pack? is that what it means.
and on the first screen is 544 mah the amount of amperage put into the pack. I thought it was a 1100 mah pack. and also what is input?

I am pretty sure the charger didn't false peak because it shut off when the cells started getting warm. But then again, i don' really know If the false peaked or not. an hour and five minutes seems like a long charge.

I am also curently building some 3000 NimH packs and haven't charged them yet. Should I cycle them before I charger them?
If I need to discharge them, and the voltage is wrong on the display, wouldn't that mean the charger won't fully discharge the cells to a true 0.9 volts?

If you can answer these questions it would help a lot. I really don't want to ruin my packs.

Thanks

IMPACTPLAYR

iTrader: (7)

The peak voltage is about perfect. I don't know about the MAH reading, maybe you have it in the mode that discharges the pack and then charges. The MAH should be closer to 1100, but maybe the pack had 1/2 charge in it.... You should charge the micro packs at 1.5-2.0 amps, that will definately cut down on your charge times.

I wouldn't worry about the charger everything seems fine. Did you run the pack?? Did it feel good??

B3boy

Ya, I think the pack already had a half charge in it because i just bought it.

How would the peak votalge of a 6 cell pack be 8.993V? I thought they were 7.2 volts.

Right now, I am taking one of my really old 1500 pack that I haven't used in a long time and I am cycling it. First I am discharging it at 15 amps, then charging at 3 amps, then it test discharges it. Everything is going fine exept that the voltage is about 6.555 and INCREASING. Shouldn't it be going down? It also says 0 mah.

One more thing is that it is counting down on time. I set it to start charging 5 min. after the discharge, but the discharge started a 25 min and is going down. It says it automatically puts it down to 0.9V?

As you can see I really don't understand much about my charger yet. If you help it would reallly appreciate it

Thanks

Oh, and by the way, I meant to put the in the electric and Nitro offroad section. Not the monster truck section. OH WELL

fabolousRC

iTrader: (1)

wow that's too low. You want to at least charge it at 2 amps and peak detection somewhere in between 4-8mv. If your pack is brand new you want to train them at 8mv and since it is Nickel Metal Hydride (that's what NiMh stands for) you don't need to discharge them.

Quote:

During the charge it displays a few things that I don't understand and the instructions are junk! (is it suposed to be turning on those loud fans every 20 seconds?!! )

It says:
544mah 1:05:00
8.980 0.50A MH

other screen:
Input 15.567
Peak 8.993

This was the display at the end of charge. How can the peak voltage be 8.800 when it is a 7.2 volt battery pack? is that what it means.
and on the first screen is 544 mah the amount of amperage put into the pack. I thought it was a 1100 mah pack. and also what is input?

LOLz...if you don't want those fan to be on, buy a seperate large fan to cool your charger off. It is annoying at first but then you'll realize it is working hard to make sure your battery works really well for you to race.

NIcd and Nimh tend to PEAK at a higher voltage than stated but it should be no more than 9-9.5 volts per pack. Anything above that will means that your pack is damage. That means 8.9volt is good. About your amperage. All of Nimh are half charged when shipped to distributor. You need to cycle those batteries before you get the right number at least three times. What happen with 16x7 when a battery is half charged that it turns a charge mode into peak mode. You might see 544 amps but that is 544 peaked amps plus whatever level that the company who assembles the battery put in. You should run your car first till it dump, or again, cycle it a couple or three times with plenty of cooling in between.

Quote:

I am pretty sure the charger didn't false peak because it shut off when the cells started getting warm. But then again, i don' really know If the false peaked or not. an hour and five minutes seems like a long charge.

I am also curently building some 3000 NimH packs and haven't charged them yet. Should I cycle them before I charger them?
If I need to discharge them, and the voltage is wrong on the display, wouldn't that mean the charger won't fully discharge the cells to a true 0.9 volts?

If you can answer these questions it would help a lot. I really don't want to ruin my packs.

Thanks

B3boy

thanks that helps a lot. The instructions with the battery told me to charge it at .05V with a 2mv threshold.

Sydewynder

544 MAh: This is amount of juice that was charged into the pack. Since the pack is rated at 1100MAh. This tells you the pack was about 1/2 full when you started charging. Think of this like a gas tank in a car.

8.980v: This is the ending voltage that the charger needed to have to push charge into your battery.*

8.993v: Was the peak voltage during charging. Since you set the detection rate at 2mV or .002V and you have a 6 cell pack, the the drop needed for the charger to shut off is about .012V (.002 X 6 = .012)
If you subtract 8.980 from 8.993 you get .013V close enough to your set detection for the pack at .012V.

15.567v: I believe this is the voltage your charger saw from the power supply.

*If your pack doesn't go above about 9.5v while charging then it tells you the pack is in good shape. The higher the voltage the more internal resistance in the cells there are (Ohm's Law: Volts = Current X Resistance) Current is constant. In this case you had set it at 0.5A
Note you said .05A. This is really low I'm guessing it is a typo.

As for charge rate on these 1100MAh NiMh packs 2A is the highest I would go. I charge mine at 1A. The NiMh don't like to get over heated, and these small micro pack can easily get over heated.

For some good tips for charging, storing, etc. look here and here


In regards to the time to charge this pack, it is correct.

Your pack was about half full at 556 MAh
You charged at .5A or 500MA

so doing the math and crossing out the units (MA)

556MAh / 500 MA = about 1(h)our of charge time