Originally Posted by
chjosi
What's your process for matching batteries?
Originally Posted by
BoxxerBoyDrew
I too would like to know how Yall match your AAA's.
Today when my batteries dumped, after I pulled the car off the track one of the cells was noticeably warmer than the other 3. A habit I got into racing electric rc when I was a kid was to "lip test" the batteries and motor for temp when I pull my car off the track. I also mark all my batteries with different color/count of lines of marker, so I know which is which and I always charge in the corresponding charger slots and track them in a log. I know it's a bit anal, at least my wife says it is, but I am able to track everything my SkyRC NC1500 will check, for what that's worth(accuracy wise).
We used to match with voltage, but with chargers reading many different parameters today, I'm curious what yall use?
Thanks and Drive Fast! Drew
The old "lip test"! I still use it, and actually burnt my lip on a motor just this week. When I then put the digital thermometer on it, it read over 160 degrees
I use a Competition Electronics Turbo Matcher 8 which has long been discontinued. It is an industrial piece of equipment built for professional battery testers. I was lucky enough to get a used one over 10 years ago from one of those companies when NiMh cells were being replaced by LiPos in the larger scale R/Cs. It's the only device I know of which can give you average discharge voltage over a specified time and relative internal resistance (RIR) which is a proxy for actual internal resistance. These are the two measurements I use to match my cells. I also capture capacity in mAh under discharge, but don't use it in matching. I write all the data down and then key it into Excel to do my sorts. I've got tabs in Excel going back 10 years with all my battery data and graphs (sample below). If you show that to your wife, she may no longer think you're anal. A racer by the name of Adam Vink recently did some battery testing using the TM8 and other equipment and posted his findings in the Mini-Z 1:28 World Community group on Facebook. I don't think either of you are on that platform, so I am going to ask him to post the same findings with pictures of the results in the Kyosho Mini-Z Series thread here on RCTech, so keep an eye out for it. It was very interesting...
