How should I charge my 8 cell

[debong]

Hi All,

I got an 8 cell 9.6V 1400mah pack with a parkzone mustang car charger and I must say it has transformed my cub ;D. Only thing is the battery life seems to be getting shorter and shorter. At the moment I get about 5 mins @ full throttle ...what should be my battery times @ full throttle?What amps should I use to charge and how long should it take?

Thanks

[davemac2]

I would think you should be getting more like 8-10mins at full throttle for a 1400mAhr battery if the batteyr is in good shape. Try charging it with the wall wart charger. The HZ 12V car charger is not capable of fully charging these.

dave mc

[duck9191]

8-10 mins is about right for a 1400 mah 9.6 volt battery. is the battery warm when its done charging? also one thing to remember is that the higher voltage you run the faster it will deplete the battery faster because the motor will pull more current.

if you charge your battery at 1.4 amps it should take 1 hour to charge.

[debong]

the battery is warm(not as warm as my stock battery on a stock charger) when charged but I not sure what I should set my amps to with this charger or even if this charger is good enough...It does say it can charge between 5-10 cells.

Dont know if this is relevant but after my 4-5 mins of flight and I pick up my cub the rudder and elevator are twitching alot...I have never seen this on my stock batteries which I get 10 mins of flight time

thanks

[mrmugen]

CHeck your antenna for cracks or missing covering. Interferience and servo chatter can be caused by a faulty antenna wire. Just a thought.

[debong]

I dont seem to get the servo chatter on the stock batteries....thanks for the tip on the antenna though

[duck9191]

normally charging at 1c is fine, so you should be fine to charge at 1.4 amps. the other thing I would try is after its done charging disconnect the battery and reconnect it. this should charge it some more. just make sure that it dosent get to hot. also what amps do you have the charger set at and how long does it take to charge? at 1.4 it should take about an hour.

[debong]

when I got the new battery I put it in the cub to fully drain it as I did with the stock but there was nothing in it. I could just about move the rudder and elevator but propeller would not spin. I charged the battery @ about 1.4amps and this took just over an hour. First flight was great...lasted longer than 5 mins anyway....I then charged it @ the same amps again with the attitude of "if it aint broke dont fix it" but I only got 4-5 mins flight time with full throttle. I then started to read various articles suggesting I should be charging the battery above 1.4 maybe up to 1.6 or even 1.8 amps. At the next attempt to charge I increased the amps to 1.6 but still the same flight time and the next attempt I increased to 1.7 and again still still only 5 mins flight....I discharge the battery as much as I can before I recharge and I would wait for the battery to cool down a bit.

So just to confirm I should only be charging @ 1.4 amps?or is this charger up to the task?

thanks

[duck9191]

you should be fine up to 1.8 amp with out over heating the battery, but 1.4 is suggested if you are not in a hurry. how long does it take to charge now? still an hour or is it shorter. I would try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery to the charger to see if it helps. you can send your battery to me and I can check it for you on my ice, it will tell how much of a charge the battery took and how much energy it discharges lol. I would try another charger too to see if it is the charger.

[garvey76]

I got the same batteries and charger.
i charge my 9 cell at 1.4 as it says in the parkzone mustang handbook.
when i got the 8 cell i said i would be using the parkzone charger and they said first charge 0.8 then there after 1.0
ive done this and its great, 10min flights no prob.

[debong]

Thanks for all the advice ...10/10


I tried charging the battery @ 1.4 again last night and 1 thing I did notice was there is a very high pitched hum from the charger...I'm sure this is normal but maybe someone here can confirm if they have any noises from their p/zone charger. After 45 mins(I timed it) the red light stops flashing and stays a constant red indicating it is fully charged. I disconnected and reconnected the battery but as I placed the battery back on the counter top I heard a clicking and the red light went out on the charger. I disconnected and reconnected the battery again and the red light started to flash again. At this point it took about 20 mins for the red light to go constant suggesting the battery is charged. I disconnected and reconnected again and it took another 20 mins before the red light went out. I tested it in the cub at this point and got a whole 6 mins on full throttle. It does seem to be getting better but could someone suggest a basic(not too expensive) uk standard wall charger that will do the job.

Thanks again guys

[SCC]

If your not going to use Lipo's, this looks quite reasonable.
www.modelmaniacsonline.co.uk/products.php?ProductID=4441&CatID=464
Edit: @ 800 mA i would assume it will be a little slower.
You will have to change the charging plug.
If you have not already, this would be a good time to change to Deans plugs.

[duck9191]

its seems with the pkzone charger has a harder time detecting the delta peak on higher capacity batteries. mine hummed too and i would have to disconnect and reconnect a few time to fully charge it.

[debong]

Thanks duck9191...that would make perfect sense in my case...I think ;D

decided to order another 8 cell pack and I also ordered this charger
www.component-shop.co.uk/html/mw3168vd.html

Not sure if this will solve my problem but at least I have the option to charge 2 packs at the same time even though the wall charger will take between 3.5 - 6 hours to charge

I think I will reduce the amps on the pz charger for testing purposes to 1amp and see how my flight times/power come along

[duck9191]

I tried that with mine and it didn't seem to help, but maybe you will have better luck. it seems to work fine with my stock batteries. the charger you bought will work, it will just take awhile.