Onyx 230 problem
 

I recently purchased lnib onyx 230. This was used maybe twice and you cant even tell. It's super mint. I've tried to charge several nimh and 1 nicd battery with it. It charges about 10% of the battery's capacity and shuts off. All the battery's were dead and had no charge in them. I followed the instructions to the T and can't figure this out. Any help is appreciated.

What size battery ?

What charge rate are you using ?

What does the screen say when charging ?

Cheers

im charging several batteries. 2 2500mah 9.6 rx packs, a 1700mah 8.4v 7cell pack and a 200mah 6 cell 7.2v pack. all are being charged according to the specs in the owners manual. the charger says done when the rx packs get to around 200mah. the other 2 packs get around 150mah and the charger says completed and beeps. all packs were completely dead. the 6 and 7 cell packs charge perfectly on my dynamite charger. i cant charge the rx packs cause they are 8 cell.

Are the packs even getting warm? If they're not, this is a bad case of false peaking by the charger. Simply reset and charge them again. NiMh should get hot when its is properly peaked (120-125F), so use that to help judge. If you want to keep up with whats going into the packs, add it up each tie you have to reset the charge.

This is usually more of a prob with newer packs. I've had some severe false peaking probs though with a AC/DC charger - but it was because it was on a busy circuit in the house, anytime I was charging if something turned off or on on that circuit, the charger false peaked.

the packs get slightly warm to the touch. ill change the outlet im using. its plugged into a surge protector that my pc is plugged into. ill try a dedicated outlet tomorrow. i should contact duratrax. a charger at this level shouldnt behave this way. why do i need to do math and calculations to charge a battery?

If these packs were dead - have been sitting long enough that they've lost a charge, don't expect them to come back without some work. If they're still good and you're lucky, they'll wake up after a few charge/discharge cycles.

Packs were discharged not dead as in old and no longer good. I was just using the them in my T3. They charge fine in my dynamite charger. Its not the batteries.

It is probably the peak detection settings on the onyx...I remember haveing to change mine...Not sure what to...It's been a long time, but I was having the same issue out of the box untill I changed those settings.

The charger's peak sensitivity is adjustable from 3 - 20mv. 1st thing is to know what its set for. Guessing its too low and thats making it shut off too early.

For decent packs it should be 3-4mv/cell so a 6 cell pack should be 18-24mv so with this charger, 20mv would prob be good with these packs.

Thanks duster. That was the problem. The instructions say 3-5mv for the pack, not per cell. I changed it to 18 and now it charges everything perfectly.

Cool - glad you got working....