I have been looking for a TX battery pack since I purchased my Airtronics MX-3 FHSS. There looks to be a pack out there that is a NiMh 9.6v 1100mAh pack with the little blue Airtronics connector on it - It lists for $49.99 and have found it as low as $32.00. When using this pack it looks like it would be best to use the ‘Official’ Airtronics slow charger - that is another $11.00, roughly.

This got me to thinking. What if I just buy NiMh AA batteries and put them in the supplied AA battery holder? I could make a charge lead for my Triton2 and charge them that way couldn’t I? Or is there some reason not to do this - will the heat from charging them ruin the holder? Inquiring minds want to know.

You know you can find anything on the Intraweb thingy - so GO GO GOOGLE SEARCH!

First I thought about this:
Charger and Batteries

I could still use the supplied AA holder incase they go dead while at the track or field and I could just throw in some plain AA batteries. I could just pack the charger along with all my other pit junk and charge them at the track if needed - as long as there is AC current available.

Or ….. I can also just get those NiMh batteries and make a charge lead for my Triton.

Another question would be what kind of issues am I going to see running at 9.6v (1.2v * 8 cells) vs 12v (1.5v * 8 cells) with plain batteries? What is the mAh of a standard Alkaline battery? Will the NiMh sustain themselves at the 9.6V point for longer than an Alky? I found that the MX-3 starts going all beep beep around 8.7v - that is only a .9v drop from 9.6v of 8 fully charged NiMh batteries!

i just shove 8 AA's into my radio, and it works fine. the radio will display low battery at 1.1v ish anyway, so it's not a problem with ni-mh's. standard alkalines are a weird battery, the capactiy depends on the draw. a 10mah draw will mean the battery has a 3000mah capactiy, but a 500mah draw like on a radio will mean they drop to abut 1000mah. (or less. try putting some in a digital camera!)

if you're still concerned, just look at the price differential. 4 nimh AA's: £2 (value supermarkets ftw)

10 alkalines: £4

seeing the look on your freind's faces when you tell him you never buy batteries: priceless

Thanks for the info. I found some information that states the same thing you did - Alchys exhibit a capacity variation based upon current load.

Last year, besides going thru multiple gallons of fuel I also went thru 3 40 packs of AA batteries.

In the long run I think NiMh batts will be cheaper. I just don't want to melt a battery tray or have to be charging them constantly or having my radio beeping all the time.

Again, thanks for the info.

if you're worried about melting anything, you can start at 1ah, and bump it down to 500mah near the end of the cycle, when they start to get toasty. they'll just about be ok at that current if they false peak.

Get a lipo .. better voltage and it will keep it's capacity, so if you forget to charge it will still be ok

Nimh AA's are the cheap and easy answer. For just a little more money you can get a lipo pack. With the lipo pack you get less weight, more voltage (3s) and several times the life of the pack.

I pretty much do the same thing, purchased (8) NiMh's, placed them in the plastic cell holder and then just used the aligator clips on my charger to connect to the pack.

The only concern is, that the battery's become very un-balanced.? Last time I noticed it, I tried to figure out how to balance each cell. I thought about it for a minute, said *F* it, and put them back in the holder.

The only thing I figured is that every once in a while I would have to charge each cell seperatly? Is there a better way to peak these batterys?

every 10 or so charges just put them in a normal consumer AA charger as it charges individually. its the only way i think.

I found some Energizer 2500mAh NiMH batteries @ Walmart - they were an 8 pack for $19.97.

I made a charge lead for my charger (Banana to Airtronics) and set up a profile for them at 600mAh charge rate.

Thanks for all the info, I think this will work perfect!