This site maintained by: Curtis L. Olson
|
Trickle Charging Your NiCD Batteries -
Mark J. Ptaszynski All NiCD cells have an internal resis- tance, what this means is even a fully charged pack will slowly loose it's charge just by sitting idle. The old saying is true, if you did not charge your batter- ies last night, do not go flying today. For example, if you charged your batteries on Wednesday night, took them off the charger Thursday morning, do not think you are safe to go flying Saturday morn- ing. The batteries have been sitting idle for two full days and they are no longer at their full capacity. The rate of dis- charge while a battery pack sits idle is small, but it is enough for us to worry about. Along comes trickle charging. Trickle charging is simple charging the battery at a rate equal to the rate of dis- charge while a pack sits idle. This will keep your battery pack in a fully charged condition, ready to go flying when ever you are. There are many units on the market today that do trickle charging and they all work very well. Some of the more expensive units will discharge your bat- tery pack and then automatically switch to trickle charge when the pack is at full capacity. These units are well worth the price of $100.00 or so, and will give you many years of trouble free batteries. Cycling Your NiCD Batteries NiCD batteries have a tendency to hold memory, for example if you take a new fully charged receiver pack and use only 15%of it's capacity and then fully charge it to 100% capacity, and continue this cycle over and over again, you will even- tually have a battery pack that can only deliver 15% of it's original capacity. The remedy to this is very simple, cycle your battery packs. I try to cycle all my packs about once a month, even during the winter when the packs may not be used as much. This cycling will completely eliminate the memory problem. If you have a pack that has retained a memory condition, not allowing you to get full capacity out of your pack, try cycling the battery a few times and you may get the pack back to it's original capacity. There again are many units on the market today that will discharge (cycle) a battery pack, switch to an over night charge rate (C10) and then automati- cally switch to a trickle charge when the pack is fully charged. These units will keep your batteries it a fully charged condition, ready to go at any time. Most of the units are adjustable for the number of cells in your pack, the dis- charge capacity, and the charge Ed. Note:NiCD memory is a disputed idea among electric flyers and engi- neers. More damage is done by dis- charging a NiCD 15% Then putting it back on a charger (even at a C10 rate) overnight. The battery will be over- charged and damaged. This damage from repeated overcharging shows up as reduced capacity over time. |