Well, after my last thread asking for help, we concluded that I needed to cycle the batteries. Now I'm out of luck because my neighbor's charger that has a cycle automatically stops after 90 minutes and he said that I need one that will go longer. So here's what I have: 2 Venom 3000 NiMH, 2 Trinity Reference 5000 mAH pro racing paks and 2 epic packs that are a little older.

All 6 packs are now only giving a very small run before they're out. Literally about 10 seconds of driving before noticable loss of power.

I have the dynamite Vision Peak Ultra but it doesn't have a discharge feature giving me a complete cycle. So opinions please: what should I buy and should these batteries be fine for parking lot driving and/or even club racing?

The main reason I bought an Ice charger was for its discharge capability and cycling, it will do 10cycles before having to stop and will let you set a cooling off period in the cycle so the batts can cool down a little. I liked this setup cause charger remembered what it put in and discharged on all 10 cycles so yoou could see if cells were getting better or not.

A lot of the inexpensive chargers on the market say they discharge, but when you look at specs you see their discharge capacity is something small like 5watts. The Ice will discharge 10amps, prob close to 100watts.

Guess your packs are suffering from just sitting a long time? They should come back, but how much money you want to spend on them trying to get them back is something you should think about. If your packs were "working" they would defe be good for parking lot running. I don't know about racing with them, especially the Venoms. You can buy a few really good packs from ProMatch racing for less than a good cycling charger would cost.

Another idea, you could just continue doing what you're doing - charge them on your charger, then run them, charge again and keep doing it until you see the runtime start to come back.

the charger you need might be one that you already have. To bring the batts up to best possible condition they should be charged at c/10 for 15 hrs.

An old wall charger that doesn't shut off is best for this. You can use 200-800 ma and figure the time out from there. Ideally around 300 ma and 500 ma is what to look for. They are vey cheap. lots of people have them laying around not used.

You would be better of dischargeing with the old school discharge bulbs system. 10- 1156 bulbs soldered together with battery plug of your choice. Plug them into your batteries and disconnect once the lights dim, but not completely go out. If you go too low on your discharge, you can damage the cells.
As for chargers, I would recommend you spend the money on a high quality multi type charger like the Racers Edge Sure charge 2000. Not the cheapest charger, but it is awesome! It has output plugs of all types. Charge and discharge modes as well as lipo and includes its own power supply, the main reason I didn't buy the Duratrax Ice. You can find it for less on ebay, but here is the link; http://www.racers-edge.com/ProductDe...Code=rcesc2000
As for using your batteries for club racing, they will work just fine for starters. I used to get cordless drill motor batteries from work that wouldn't hold a charge. Out of the eight cells, one would be fried. Break the cells out of the case and check to make sure each had 1.2v. Then solder them together like the better cells. They weren't the best, but they got me through and I learned to drive better because of the slower cells.

The main thing to remember is not to over think your hobby, but to enjoy it. HAVE FUN with what you can afford, meet new people and learn.

Question about charging. I have the Venom 3000 NiMH, 2 Trinity Reference 5000 mAH pro racing paks and 2 epic packs that are a little older all NiMh. Regarding charging with my current charger, what amp should I charge at and what duration shall I charge? I've charged at 2 amps but I'm not sure that it's working as well. I found a chart on the back on one of the batteries that suggest that for the 5000 packs that I should charge at 4 amps for 75 minutes. I'm just beginning to dig into the hobby so I need a good base knowledge of how to charge and what to expect. Thanks.

Charge at any rate you desire 1-5 amps? and the charger is auto-shut off when the pack is full. It will decide the length of time depeding upon how fast you charge.

Lots of people like to simpy charge at 1C (the capacity of the battery)

The 75min at 4amps was prob for a timed charger which was common when NiCds were in use. Select a charge rate and charger will cut off when it detects that the pacs are full. I use some 4000mah and 4400mah pacs and I charge them at 5amps. LIke guilo said 1C charge rate is a good safe rate (capacity/1000 = 1C charge rate).

Not sure I understand the 1C issue, I don't know that I've seen that option. What is 1C or what are the other options?

Lipo charge rates are frequently spoken of as 1C, 2C,...5C charge rates. A 1C charge rate is simply the capacity divided by 1000. If you have a 5800mah lipo, its 1C charge rate is 5.8amps (5800/1000 = 5.8). The 2C charge rate is 11.6amps (2 x 5.8) and so on.

Older lipos are typically charged only at 1C. Some of the newer lipos allow 2C and some as high as 5C charge rates.