Charging Questions

[jakestg]

I didnt buy this Work radio, my friend gave it to me to charge my planes at a fast rate. And what do you mean low end power source? I mean It charges my batteries pretty fast.

[flydiver]

Don't get me wrong about the RADIO and ALL THE OTHER FUNCTIONS-those look fine.

If ALL you are using this for is to charge your plane battery then it's a pretty expensive ($180) power source that only puts out 1A, not to mention BIG.

1A output is puny-that makes it low end as a POWER SOURCE. When you get to higher end batteries and chargers you'll NEED at LEAST 5A power source so this device will not do that.

You can go to a thrift store, get a 12v/1.5A wall wart for $1.50 (go find some of those chargers in the house-read the output), get a cigarette plug adapter at Radio Shack for less than $5 and solder it on. Now you have a 1.5A power source for under $10 and it's small, not huge. With that you could actually turn the PZ charger up a bit higher and charge faster. HOW fast you get charged is a function of how depleted the battery WAS, and HOW HIGH you set the charger----as long as the power supply can deliver.

Won't play the radio, MP3, CD, or charge your tool packs though. It WILL do what you need for now-have at it. Free is great.

[jakestg]

Hmm well, As many topics ive posted on other forums no one has told me that. I am really going to look into that dude thanks .

[flydiver]

You're new-people try not to be discouraging. If you check into my answers you'll find I'm not as saddled with trying to be a 'nice guy'. This is a technical sport, I work in technical answers.
You asked a question-I answered it. Since you are new what you don't realize is there is a LOT of other stuff you don't even know enough to know what to ask. I answered some of those questions too. The full answer to your question is suitable for a 1 quarter electronics college course.

There's nothing wrong with your solution but it's a bit like taking a delivery truck to drive across the street to buy a bottle of soda. It's a big expensive solution to a small problem that you don't understand yet. Keep working at it-none of use understood it at first. Expect to take some time. What appears at first glance to be a simple sport------isn't. This is most certainly not about just getting an airplane and flying it like it first appears. You have to learn so much about electronics, power sources, batteries, motors, ESC, RX, TX, etc. you won't believe it.

[jakestg]

Hmm Thankyou now Im having problems of my Engine keeps cutting off after 2-3 minutes of flight..

[flydiver]

Yes, I saw your other posting [What is up with my battery!!?]

Like HZ said, it's pre-peaking.

Let's try another analogy-it's faking you out. It THINKS it's done, but isn't.

Peak chargers use a method called delta-V (change in voltage) to determine when they should stop. If this function is not accurate it can fail in 2 ways:
1. undercharge-it quits before it should.
2. Overcharge-it doesn't stop when it should and keeps pumping juice in and ruins the battery (depending on how bad an over charge is). It can even explode if this is REALLY bad. Yes, NiXX can explode though this is rare.

Since #2 is WAY worse than #1 charger manufacturers tend to be on the conservative side.
Also (here's the unfortunate news-knew you'd get that from me, right?) HZ chargers are cheap. I have one JUST like yours and it won't even go 5" before it quits. Complete crap.
But, I also have 2 others that are just fine. I've also had 5 (FIVE-count them) HZ chargers that have died. NOT quality products.

Keep plugging the SOB in until it gets WARM when the charge ends. You may need to do this multiple times. The charger is NOT doing it's job in 15 minutes. It's only 1/4 filled. It will NOT last the full flight.

Learn to do math.
The battery is 900mA (nine hundred milliamps). If the charger is SET at 1.0A charge (that's 1000 milliamps per hour) and the battery is 'empty' It will take 900/1000 to get done-almost an hour.

OK, more math. You have story problems in school, right? Here's a real life, makes a difference to you application.

If you have an empty 900mA battery (like an empty gas tank) and you want to fill it in 15 minutes at what rate do you have to charge it?

Hint-your 1A Bosch power supply cannot do it, neither can the HZ charger.

[jakestg]

So Must I stick to the AC charger? But I charged my battery on DC before and it was perfect?!!? I did it in the car and it flew like a champ!?

[flydiver]

You certainly can try the AC.
You can also try the Bosch + DC but use a lower rate.

The Bosch is rated at 1A--right? You are trying to use the DC charger at what setting? 1A also?
There are electrical losses in the devices (nothing is perfect). The Bosch may be failing to deliver the required amperage for the DC charger to work correctly if you found it works OK on the car battery.
Turn the DC charger DOWN a bit, say .5A (500mA). Of course then it's charging at the same rate as the AC charger. So it'll take 2 hours.

FWIW the car battery has WAY WAY WAY more amperage capability. It has to turn over a CAR MOTOR to start it. Many car batteries are rated at 65 Amp cranking power. Think the Bosch can do that with the cell phone plug in?

Charging your battery did not kill the car battery. The amount THAT drew was negligible. Having the entire circuit ON in order to use the cigarette lighter did that.

You could get something like this:
www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p830_12V-Adaption-fuer-Zigaretten-Anzuender-Stecker-auf-----Pole.html

Radio Shack, Best Buy? That kind of place.

[jakestg]

Well Now im using my moms Boyfriends truck to charge cause it doesent require key now its working fine I guess. When he gets back im going to plug it into my plane and go to the field cause now its taking time to charge. And where can I snap those Alligator clips onto?

[flydiver]

Right onto the battery poles - under the hood.
Ask the boyfriend to show you.

If the DC charger keeps terminating too soon (false peak) it may indicate it is faulty. An occasional occurrence is not unusual. It should not do this all the time. If it charges OK on the truck/car battery but not on the Bosch, it indicates the Bosch is not up to the task.

Starting to see why I said it was puny?

An alternative is to get another battery and use the AC charger after flying when you have time to charge. Having an extra battery is nice anyway.

Here's a wonderful site that will help answer LOTS of your questions. Please spend some time there.
www.ezonemag.com/pages/faq/index.shtml

[jakestg]

Ok thanks for the site, And I got the battery to work its ok
now. But Lol Now i got another problem, I flew and hit a powerline lol cracked the back of the fuselage Im glueing it with this stuff Called AC or something and I put a few pieces of tape to hold it on.. So tommarow I should have good results .

[flydiver]

I don't find crashing very fun.
Make sure to do a COMPLETE check of EVERYTHING before flying again.
Good luck.

[jakestg]

Its my first crash and first repair so it would make me feel real good to know if I did a complete fix I will do the check though. When I crashed I thought nothing was wrong so I took off again with that crack without even knowing it , it flew fine Just gotta seal this crack up.