Hello guys,

I come from the Nicd times and back to racing 20 years later.


Does it matter how many amps you charge other than charging time? I charge at 3 but the charger can do 5.

How many times can you recharge in a day?

also when its fully charged I noticed that if I plug it in again it will take more charge why is this?

Would charging from the car battery damage the my car? How long can you use charge from the car.

Thank you
Ed

Well, first of all, nimh are almost passe themselves, lithium polymer, or lipo is where it's at these days. But that's not what ya asked:

Charge amps: They don't like getting very hot, I think 130 to 140f is the limit. Most guys are around 4 to 5 amps, 6 is about the limit. Depends some on which cells exactly.

2, maybe 3 times a day. But 2 hours between, let them get cooled off.

Just like Nicads, they can be repeaked, but take it easy. Only do it if you charged them too far ahead of time. Not real hot, but they do like being just a little warm at the start of the run.

Not the best for a car battery, best to use a deep cycle marine battery. But even then, the higher capacities compared to back in the day means a typical car/marine battery can't charge very many packs. Maybe only a couple, assuming you would like to drive home at some point!

Oh, and you don't have to discharge them all the way down every time like nicads. For absolute best performance perhaps, but in general it is not neccesary, just fully cycle them once in a while if ya want. And unless you really know what you are doing, don't take them below 0.9 volts per cell, they do not like being dead shorted like many did with nicads.

And store them with significant charge in them, they tend to self discharge. In fact, if you don't use them for a while, charge them some every couple of weeks.

Be careful with peak detector chargers, best to get a modern one with a lower peak drop off value. The older nicad chargers really heat these suckers up.

thanks a lot Dave

that was what I needed to know

Ed