Dorion

Thanks for all the input. I'll definately look into the suggestions, but one more question: Do I need to worry about how much I discharge the Nimh batteries or can I take them all the way down?

Thanks!

d4man

iTrader: (5)

The discharger I recommended will take it down to 5.4 volts....These bulb dischargers take it down to zero (unless there is a voltage cutoff) -- not good

ChrisWolfson

iTrader: (3)

All are good suggestions...

D4man knows his stuff with batteries. I'm sure his discharge device works great. Here's some input from me as to what I use for my nimh packs since I'm one of the last guys still running them at my track.

Say I just finish a heat. I put the battery away for the day just as I take it out of the car.

When I come back the next race day, the first thing I do is discharge the entire pack down to 5.4 using my Orion Advantage charger.

http://www.teamorion.com/Products/Ad...vanced+Charger

I've had the battery discussion with many people and most seem to think a discharge tray isn't necessary for 1/10 scale offroad. It's mostly for on-road I'm told. I have one and use it periodically. I've noticed when I'm down on run-time on old packs if I cycle them and put them in my Tekin Battery Doctor they tend to come back with better runtime. If you're utilizing this, after you discharge the battery on the charger, you would then put the pack in this tray until all the lights go out. Then let the battery cool if it's warm, and recharge the battery at about 5 amps.

http://www.teamtekin.com/dischargers.html

Hope all this helps. You can substitute the light bulb strands shown above for the charger if need be.

Happy racing!

Chris__RC

iTrader: (7)

What I do is after I heat I discharge it on the Integy 30 amp discharger (as d4man already said) then put it on a Novak Smart Tray to balance it out. At the end of the race or when I have some time I charge it for a couple minutes so it doesnt go under .9 volts per cell.

I have a digital multimeter and it shows each cell at 1.3 or 1.2 volts discharged. So when all the lights on the Smart Tray went out, there was still 6.5-7 volts in the battery. Why is this?

b4wires

iTrader: (19)

I was told to race the nimh batteries. Then after that race,just put the batteries away.
I discharge the batteries at the track a week later, and then charge them back up.

I use a Duratrax 20 AMP discharger and Novak smart tray.

jmcvicker

iTrader: (2)

Discharge trays may not work here - he says he has the Orion Rocket Packs which are stick-packs.

You may just want to peak-charge them once a month or so and let them slowly self-discharge. Or, look into one of those light-bar dischargers and just charge + discharge every few weeks.

Dorion

Again, thanks for all the great info. Do you guys think this will be sufficient for what I want to do? It seems cheap and it says it will only discharge the Nimh to 5.4. What do you all think?

http://www.amazon.com/Sweeper-Discha...0740389&sr=8-1

d4man

iTrader: (5)

Hmmm, not familiar with that discharger. It might be a pulse type discharger, meaning that if its a 20 amp discharger, it discharges in short bursts or pulses. What does that mean?? It takes a long time to discharge the battery and the discharger doesn't get very hot.

Dorion

d4man, would the amount of time it takes to discharge make a differance? or do you think I would be fine with that kind of discharge? Sorry about all the questions, just trying to learn as much as I can.

Thanks

Dorion

d4man

iTrader: (5)

I put a multimeter on my Integy discharger and the battery and right after it discharged to 5.4, the voltage immediately jumped back up to around 7.2 volts. So I guess you'll have to discharge and go right to the novak smart tray....

d4man

iTrader: (5)

If you had a fully charged 4500 battery and tried to discharge it with a 20 amp discharger, it would take little bit longer then if you used a 30 amp discharger...

For me personally, at the time, I wanted to discharge my batteries to as close to racing conditions as possible...

Dorion

Ahh. I see. Again, thanks for your help d4man and everyone that chimed in. I ordered that charger from Amazon. For the good price it seemed to meet the objectives