I got a thunder ac6 charger to charge my 7 cell nimh batteries. I have a few noob questions. The book isn't helping much and all the youtube vids seem to show lipo related info.
I haven't ran either of my packs much in probably 6 months and I noticed the batteries are not holding the charge they did before. Should I cycle these or ???

Also when it comes to the charger, let's say for example if my battery is half charged and I put it on nimh auto charge, will the charger detect when the battery is full or will it overcharge and kill it? Same with discharge, will it only take out what's left in the battery or will it kill it completely. Also what is a good discharge rate?

The batteries are both 7 cells, one is an energ4600 the other is an elite 4000.

Thanks in advance.

Cycling is the best way to try and bring those packs back. Your charger won't discharge much however (only 5 watts), so you're prob better off charging then running the pack and then putting back on charger. Track how much is going in on charge - it should be increasing from one time to the next. When numbers stop charging, thats pretty much what you've got.

If I don't get to run my NiMhs every month, I cycle them 3times and they usually come back to where they were - 5amp charge, 5amps disch (4400mah and 4000mah 7 cell pacs).

Auto feature for NiMh usually only works well for new and well maintained batts. I get better charges specifying the peak sensitivity. Use 5mv/cell and setup as a normal peaked type charge.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate.

Ill start doing the manual charge mode instead of auto. I just have to figure out on the charger how to set the specs as to how high I want it to charge, mv, etc. This charger is a lot different than my old dynamite vision peak 2 haha

Yeah, charges have gotten a little more complicated than just hooking batt up and pushing one button. They're prob safer though.....