Peak Char-G'd!

[tinyrc]

I just used my high-end peak charger to charge a pair of BC-Gs w/ stock 50mAh cells, and the results were staggering! Not only was there more punch (proved by new lap records set with both) but the runtime was just unreal - over 30 minutes - with stock cells - driving flat out the whole time!!! I want to try it with a 150 cell next - I just need to find a 2 hour block of time to spend wearing the cars down!!!

[NorCalCoug]

High end peak charger?

[DarthRacer]

Strange that you post this.

I have a second controller that I was going to tear down for the charging pad. I was planning on connecting it to my Tekin BC110 and giving the 'ol MS batts a peak charge. It's nice to know that it works so well.

[tinyrc]

Originally posted by NorCalCoug
High end peak charger?

i.e. that which is used for charging packs on larger RC cars; instead of timed charge, it monitors the cells and charges them properly! :)

[tinyrc]

Originally posted by DarthRacer
Strange that you post this.

I have a second controller that I was going to tear down for the charging pad. I was planning on connecting it to my Tekin BC110 and giving the 'ol MS batts a peak charge. It's nice to know that it works so well.

That's exactly what I did - took the charging pad from a spare Tx, soldered on some fatter wires, and jacked into into the 1-14 cell charger. I charged at 0.5A - I'm not sure if I want to push it any higher just yet!

[Blue Bit]

Wow, this is nice info. Can I know what model peak charger you use? ,, how much would it be?

[SPEED]

hmmmmm SO the Peak charger didn't mess the batteries up??? COol!! How long did you have to charge it for???

Blue bit- peak charges can raange from $30 to $100 maybe even more for high end ones.....they're used for lager RC's like 1/10 and all. I wonder if using a normal 15 minutes charger would work, probably not, you can't set the charge- leve either, i don't think, gott go look at my charger........

[Blue Bit]

Originally posted by SPEED
Blue bit- peak charges can raange from $30 to $100 maybe even more for high end ones.....they're used for lager RC's like 1/10 and all. ........
thanks:) I've been looking around the net for one, but I want to know what model/make tinyrc used. I never got a chance to get one of these back in my1/10 days (about14 yrs ago). The $30.00 ones I saw I beleive had a constant voltage rating ( I may be wrong)

[tinyrc]

The charger I used is $140 :eek: - probably not worth it if you only drive Bits, but I now use it for BC-Gs, Epochs, Mini-Zs, Micros, and even the Rx pack on my 1/6th Nitro Elise! If anyone is interested in a new charger, email us at the Shop we can get you a really good one at a discount. Note that it's very hard to find one that will work with a BC-G, because you need fully adjustable charge rate; some will allow a choice of 1A/2A/4A etc., none of which are safe for this size of cell. In addition, most chargers will do 6-7, 5-8, 3-10 or some similar range, but not many go down to a single cell.

[r.c.dealer]

I have a super brain 959 peak charger. What amperage did you set your peak charger at, also what charge rate?

[tinyrc]

I charged at 0.5A, which is a choice on the 959, so you should be okay there - however, the 959 is intended for 3-8 cells; you may be able to use the single cell mode for the 1/3AAA cell, but I would call MRC before attempting this to make sure it's okay. :)

[Blue Bit]

you are right, it's a bit too much for me at this time. But eventually I'll invest in one after i get a miniZ & epoch. But thanks for the info, this is good to know:)

[actofgod]

Please post your results with the 150mah nimh's as soon as you get them. This is cool! :)

[tinyrc]

I've been experimenting with the 50mAH cells, and they've been taking 67mAH or so of charge. The 30-40 minute runtime is starting to make sense. I've been charging at 0.5A and it takes about 6 minutes. This makes perfect sense, since the cell is 0.05AH. In order for the controller to charge the cell fully in 45 seconds, it would need to charge it at 4A! That would explode this tiny little cell! As such, the default charge time must only fill the cell a tiny fraction of the way! I'll do the 150mAH test soon, I just need to set up a relay team because I don't have 2 hours straight to spend wearing it down! :D
bc12c

[actofgod]

So can you reach peak capacity with the controller if you charge long enough?

With the 150mah battery users getting 3x as long run times, it may be b/c they're charging it 3x, expecting the batt to hold the charge. If what you're saying is true, you should have the same results charging the stock 50mah 3x since they never reach capacity. So the increased runtimes are just due to our expectations of increased capacity and our resulting longer charge times? :)

Can you simulate the effects of charging with the controller to find out how long you have to charge to *really* reach capacity?

[bdebde]

I was going to try that too. I have a Tekin BC112C peak charger for my 1/10th scale. Great to hear it works so well!

[was ist los?]

hey tiny, are you using a novak millenium?

[tinyrc]

Originally posted by actofgod
Can you simulate the effects of charging with the controller to find out how long you have to charge to *really* reach capacity?

Good question - I think the thing to do here would be to have one of our electronics guru members figure out what the exact charging rate is on the controller?

Btw, I added pics here:

http://tinyrc.com/gallery/trcprojects

:)

[tinyrc]

Originally posted by was ist los?
hey tiny, are you using a novak millenium?

Nope, Indi 16x4-Pro. :)

[mikey-flies]

I gave this a whirl with my supernova. Wild :) Great power and runtime. I imagine the runtimes should pick up a bit too as we were only using a small portion of the battery for quite a while.

[bdebde]

I tried the peak charge. Right on! Running a Zip Zap with the no reverse mod, red gears, red motor. It does powerslides, runs on (low) carpet, even gets up on two wheels (same side, no wheelies). Run time is a good 45 minutes with the stock 100mah ZZ battery and has more punch. The charge rate of .5 amp may be a bit high for these little cells, I charged at .3 amps with the same rusults. Higher charge rates can shorten cell life.

[tinyrc]

Test Results are In:

Using two cars, both with 1.0s (since I wasn't sure if running for hours straight might burn the motors out!), one with a stock TOMY cell, and one with a TinyRC.com 150mAh NiMH:

bc12c
50mAh NiCad
Charge Time: 10 minutes
Capacity: 78mAh
Runtime: 44 minutes!!

bc12m
150mAh NiMH
Charge Time: 20 minutes
Capacity: 174mAh
Runtime: 2 hours, 14 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

That's enough to do 6 1/64th scale 24H of Lemans in a row w/out stopping for gas!!! :D

[HO502cid]

Originally posted by tinyrc
Test Results are In:

Using two cars, both with 1.0s (since I wasn't sure if running for hours straight might burn the motors out!), one with a stock TOMY cell, and one with a TinyRC.com 150mAh NiMH:

bc12c
50mAh NiCad
Charge Time: 10 minutes
Capacity: 78mAh
Runtime: 44 minutes!!

bc12m
150mAh NiMH
Charge Time: 20 minutes
Capacity: 174mAh
Runtime: 2 hours, 14 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

That's enough to do 6 1/64th scale 24H of Lemans in a row w/out stopping for gas!!! :D

WOW! Thanks for the detailed write up. When did you find 2 hours and 14 minutes to run the car?:D

[Clint]

2+ hours!!!!awesome findings.


i have a rayovac nimh/nicd charger that stops when the battery is charged(AA/AAA usually 3-4 hours..less if it still has a charge).

i will throw one of the 150ma batts in there and check it out..
if this works..then we have a 12 dollar charger you can get anywhere.

[mbartell]

I have one of these chargers too. Are you planning on making an adapter that allows you to charge just the battery, or are you going to put in a pad-type charger? all you would need is a battery sizes patform with acontact on each end. this would be really slick for the multi-cell set ups.

[Clint]

i charged a spare 50mA nicd in the rayovac charger today...took 12 minutes to charge..didnt even get that warm...lasted about 40 minutes(seemed like forever)

will have to try a 150mA nimh tomorrow.
:)

[actofgod]

great.. I have a rayovac charger too.

Clint, how did you get the 1/3AAA to fit in the charger? Just use a strip of metal on one side or what?

[Pojo]

holy crap.....damn all of you smart scientists....

[FMZPLAYER1]

I just measured the charge current from a Z-car charger (funny pod thing) at 0.88amp /45 sec time, using energizer alkaline AAA's.
That will run my car for 4.5 mins with the yellow 2.2 motor on a tile floor. If I charge twice, I get about 7-8mins, and the car has more torque too.

From my calculations, each charge would give the batt 11maH
If my Z-car ran 4 mins on that, that would mean it was taking about 165mA to finish off that one charge in that 4 min run time.
(average current drain for the run, steering being used maybe 1/4 of the time, oval course, bumpy tile floor)

So if my 100mA batt was fully charged, and I ran it the same way (using 165maH driving/steering), It should, in theory, run for 36.3 mins.

My charger would have to give 9-45 second charges (6.81mins at 880mA) to reach the 100ma capacity-- Of course the batt would probably fry from such a high charge rate if done all in one session

Maybe some of this might help others figure out what their cars draw from their batts (I did all this calculating since I couldn't directly measure the car's current drain)

I think the RF receiver circuits must draw somehere around 10 mA, since one charge will take an hour or more to "fade away".

[Eurallis]

b1spd :btm: bc12c b27m b22 bbcelbl
Sup, just thought I could do my part to help out.
I too have a Rayovac Ni-Cd/Ni-Mh/Rechargeable Alkaline Charger
(Model No. PS1, which now seems to be replaced with another charger for the same no.) Anyways this is the charger I own and
like above mine has a microprocessor and charges to the peak.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1941358755

I took out my stock 50 mah battery for this test and I really don't
know what to think about the results compared to the other
people's findings, so here are mine.

14 min run time (didn't time the charger), unknown charge left in
the battery
13 min 45 second charge time
14 min 35 second run time

Now you can see why I'm not sure what to think, great run time,
but at a long charge time cost. So Clint I would really like to know
what type of battery and particular charger you are using, thanx.

Maybe this may help...back of the charger reads input: 115v 60hz
(8w) output: dc 2v 200ma X 4.
I took photos of the whole setup and will upload them later.

[mustang_steve]

Well, i wanted to do this mode, but was too lazy to do it right, so i took a controllert i dont need (was for a bit pcb to zz car mod) and wired it so t4eh batteryies go stright to the charger, then plopped by recently tuene NiMH booster on it.....about 10-12 mins later i smell burning :( turns out hte chassis melted and warped around hte charger :O

well needless to say, im gonna buy another booster, and thank god hte pcb is swappable, so im prolly gonna place it on to another chassis (my rx-7 is screaming for a bit o boost).

My NiMH battery didnt fare so well, it was on the berge of bursting, the nipple on the positive end popped off 2 mins later with a loud pop......it was hatter than all hell too.


after thinking about it, i was feeding 3 volts into the ppoor thing...i should wire the batteries in parralell instead of series.......oh well live and learn.

[Ovgron]

jesus man! you only need to charge the nihm batteries for about 1 - 3 minutes, not no 12 minutes.

[DriveWRX]

Originally posted by Clint
i charged a spare 50mA nicd in the rayovac charger today...took 12 minutes to charge..didnt even get that warm...lasted about 40 minutes(seemed like forever)

will have to try a 150mA nimh tomorrow.
:)

Clint,

Great idea, man! :D
I tried it with my Radio Shack charger. It discharges the batts first then charges.

It worked but....
I have to charge 2 batteries at the same time, it won't do single cells.
It took forever to charge. It still wasn't done charging 30 min. later! :mad: The batts never got warm though.
So, I took the car off the charger and ran it. I had about 30 min. continuous running time.

Good run time, but NOT worth the charge time! :rolleyes:

So Clint, what model Rayovac charger did you use? Please tell us! ;)

[FMZPLAYER1]

I made a crude but effective charger out of 2 C cells and some resistors. I just switch resistor banks to vary the charge current.
I tried 75mA for half hour, (slow but safe approach) -- car ran for 15 mins or so, still has a good amount of charge in it too.
Next time I might try 100 or 150mA , and watch my digital voltmeter for the peak.

I also have a rayovac charger, but I think its peak detection is less than perfect ....(I dont trust it since it roasted some of my 1600mA AA cells!) It would probably blow my Z car to bits! :lol

[Clint]

it's the rayovac ps1 charger. the second time i charged the 50mA battery it took an hour to charge.(it must not have been drained all the way the first time).

it still lasted about 40 minutes. :)

i do have to make sure there is at least a pair of batteries in the charger for it to work..but i just throw in a normal aaa rechargable in the other slot.

[Ovgron]

this ==> http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=305&item=MK-173&type=store

It says it can do 1.2 V at most any rate needed, plus it will automatically fully discharge the pack. Im not sure if it is a peak detecting charger though, otherwise I'll have to make up a quick timer for it. The charger looks good for other stuff, too. Ill put a charge jack in the transmitter with the 1900 mah NiMH AA's.

[actofgod]

Question 1: So if the Rayovac PS1 charger works well and charges great at 2v 200mA per battery, then that means in theory you could find/make an AC/DC adapter with those specs and connect the wires straight to the charger pad? The main gripe I'd have with this mod is taking the batteries out of the car to charge them. You'd have to time it this way though.

Question 2: How would you alter that for a dual-cell car but charge them together with one AC adapter? Would you need 4v 200mA, 4v 400mA, 2v 400mA, or 4v 400mA? I'm assuming you'd have to double one or both of those numbers :)

Question 3: Has anyone tried using a 1-hour rapid NIMH charger? If it can charge a 1600+ mAh battery in one hour while the PS1 takes much longer, could it do a 1/3AAA in a fraction of the time, like 5 minutes or so instead of the ~40 for the PS1 charger? These chargers are only for NIMH and not NiCd.

Question 4: For those who don't have a peak charger, can we just start charging with our controller for like 10 cycles and expect the battery to hold it? Or do you have to charge slower than the controller does to fully charge without risking damaging the battery?

Answer some of those for me please!

[Eurallis]

Thanx for the NFO Clint, now I believe I know where I went wrong. Here are the pictures I took while doing this, unfortunately I have but one car and just the battery that came with it. So let me see if I have this right Clint, you took 2 50 mah NiCd batteries and placed them together in one bay, then took a AAA and placed it in the bay to the right or left of it? BTW thanx Ovgron for the url link I can't wait to see how that works. actofgod the only thing that I was thinking of doing was wiring a scrap charger post piece onto my PS1 that way I wouldn't have to bother with the way I have it wired now :rolleyes: Anyways, I hope this helps.
PS. that spring came out of an ordinary pen, had to stretch it a little though.

[Eurallis]

2nd photo

[FMZPLAYER1]

How about making jumper wires running from the charger to another car charging base? -- (never have to pull the batt from the car)

Could try to make a fake AA cell with wires attached, (so it easily fits in the charger), and then run the other end to the new charging base?

To make the fake aa cell, I actually took the end caps from a dead zinc carbon AA cell, and taped/glued them to a suitable sized cylinder. I have also used the whole aa cell (after having taken it apart and scraped out the "guts" ) --leaving a nice "shell" to attach wires to.

[Ovgron]

I went ahead and ordered the charger kit i posted about above. I should get it in about a week. Ill post if it does anything interesting.

[actofgod]

Originally posted by FMZPLAYER1
Could try to make a fake AA cell with wires attached, (so it easily fits in the charger), and then run the other end to the new charging base

That's really creative. I was looking for an AC adapter that put out 2v 200ma when there's 4 perfectly good ones sitting right next to me in one convenient unit :) Smart idea with the fake AA! Now we can still use the built-in charge protection circuitry without taking out the battery.

That answers my Question #1. As for #2, please try this on a dual-cell setup if you have one and see if it will charge it too (though taking longer) or if you'd need like 2 fake AA's connected to one charging pad.

[ejaf]

This thread is great...

One question I was wondering about...if that rayovac charger can handle this little soldiers, I was wondering if anyone has played with the idea of using one of those "smart" intelligent chargers out there. I have thought about trying one of those, but have been unable to find a good spec sheet on them, and the "details" for most of them out there say that they can handle 1200 maH AAA's. But if they're really "smart" and detect voltage drop (I think the IC most of them use is the Maxim 712/713 chip), then would they be able to detect such a drop on these sized batteries?

[FMZPLAYER1]

Never had dual cells, (too chicken about blowing my motor I guess) But I think you'd need to get the voltage from 2 AA charging bays if the peak charger is to work properly. The thing is you need a charger that is the type that wants to charge 2 cells at a time. You'd need to find the terminals that actually have the voltage on them.

I just tried a test on my energizer nimh charger, put 2 AA's in (real ones) and then measured voltage from one charge bay to the other. It was about 3.3 volts (the batts had some charge already). My charger takes 4 cells, but only in 2 sets of 2 (you'd be able to charge 2 cars with dual cells with it). Need 2 fake AA's (you'd put your wires on them where the charger reads about 3 volts)

I tried to measure without any batteries in the charger, but the voltage was really high (17 volts, with almost no current) -that could be bad for your car if the batts have a loose connection inside your car. The car's receiver probably doesn't draw enough current on it's own to bring the voltage down to the usual battery levels.

To be totally safe about that, I'd put a few LED's across the voltage output (3 in series should do)-- that way, if your batteries in the car have a momentary loose connection, the led's will light up and clip the voltage down to about 5-6V (depending on the type of led)
Under normal conditions, these led's wouldn't light from just 2.5 to 3.5v from normal battery charging or if they did, it would be very dim, and shouldnt affect the charging much.

Led's only begin to glow at 1.6V, and usually operate at 2.1v (approximately). The 3 led's would begin to glow if 4.8v or more was present.

[Rogue]

Has anyone found out conclusively if the super brain is safe to use or not? It looks like it has a single cell charge mode that would work. If it is ok to use, does anyone have any test data of charge time vs run time?

[mikey-flies]

I've been adjusting my charging rates, and I usually now charge at 300 ma to 500 ma. Typically this charges in about 20 minutes give or take and will run close to 2 hrs. I've charged up the car, ran it for about 20 minutes, let it sit overnight, and all the next day and driven for about 5-10 minutes the next night before recharging. I use the supernova 250 charger and use 150 NiMH cells. 2.2 motors and a variety of gears. Any of the smart chargers that can do NiMH (Or Nicad if you use them), peak detect, can charge down to 1 cell, and can charge down to .1 amp should be ok.

[Ovgron]

I built the charger that I posted about earlier. I finally figured out how to adjust the timing to about 5 mins. with the jumpers and pot. After an automatic discharge (nice feature) and two 5 min. charges on a stock LXX clone with a LXX 80 mAh NiMh cell @ 750 mA I set the stop watch and went at it. It drove for about 15 mins, better than ever, with no change in power seen. At 15-17 min it started to slightly lose power, and was performing as it would with a controller charge. It stayed suprisingly consistant till the 24 min mark, then just abruptly lost power for the next 30 secs till it was dead. Pretty impressive for some stock clone and a 20-something dollar charger kit. Ill try a 2 button cell 2.4v 70 mAh and a dual button cell 2.4v 180 mAh sleeper. I can fit a bunch of 70 mAh buttons, so mabye a 4 or 5 1.2v cell sleeper could be made up. Who knows?

[Rogue]

Hey Ovgron, how were the instructions on assembling the kit? I am not an electrician, but can follow instructions. My wife says that I don't follow hers very well, but that is a whole different matter. Are you satisfied with your new charger or do you wish you had tried something different?

[bdebde]

Originally posted by Ovgron
Ill try a 2 button cell 2.4v 70 mAh and a dual button cell 2.4v 180 mAh sleeper. I can fit a bunch of 70 mAh buttons, so mabye a 4 or 5 1.2v cell sleeper could be made up. Who knows?


Where you getting the button cells? I take it they are rechargeable.

[Ovgron]

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=160300&type=store <====Thats the batteries. Look on the bottom for the button packs.

The instructions were very complete. I have no complaints. Everything was i order. Even the resistors. They come in a ribbon that corresponds with the assembly order. No counting bands or anything. It was easy and took me about an hour, but i took my time. All I used was my 25 watt weller soldering iron, some 60/40 solder, and some end cutters (my leatherman was brought out a time or too, also). If anyones interested, ill post how i got 3 to 5 min charge time (rather than 1 or 14 hour) with it.

[Ovgron]

it would be a lot nicer with an enclosure, and the proper 15 volt, 800 mA power supply.

[kenny_dilger]

Are you guys using your peak charger with the battery in the car and the PCB connected so that the charge would also go through the PCB in the car? If so are you doing this with multiple cells?

Thanks,
Kenny

[arceeguy]

FWIW,

I use my DuraTrax Piranha Digital peak charger ($50) to charge my batteries. I set it for 100mAh capacity, and 200mA charge rate, 6mV peak detect. It takes about half an hour to charge the cell, and the car will run for well over 15 minutes with the red (2.6?) motor. I also installed a small on/off switch, so the battery doesn't drain down all the way when I'm not using it.
I had to cycle the cells a few times before I got close to the rated capacity (100mAh, and 80mAh). I used a #112 flashlight bulb as a discharger, the #112 is designed to run on 1.2V, it draws about 220mA, so it'll drain a cell in less than 30 minutes.
I guess I could bump up the charge current to charge them faster, but I figure the batteries will last a whole lot longer (more total charge cycles) with the lower charge current.

[kenny_dilger]

Thanks for the info. Are you charging the batteries while they are in the car so that the charge is also going through the PCB? If so are these dual cell cars or single? Does it matter if the peak charger goes through the PCB? It won't burn anything up will it? I have a Robbe Infinity II and will be peak charging my dual cell cars.

Thanks,
Kenny

[arceeguy]

I modded the controller so I can select the controllers internal charger, or an external charger. All it took was a Radio Shack SPDT switch and female coaxial power connector. The power jack is also how I connect the bulb discharger. I was thinking of mounting the flashlight bulb inside the Tx, so it can be used as an "emergency" flashlight when your helping someone else look for that lost steering spring. ;)

My mod will be able to charge a 2 cell (or more) BCG no problem, because it totally bypasses the internal circuitry.

[zzz]

Originally posted by arceeguy
I modded the controller so I can select the controllers internal charger, or an external charger. All it took was a Radio Shack SPDT switch and female coaxial power connector. The power jack is also how I connect the bulb discharger. I was thinking of mounting the flashlight bulb inside the Tx, so it can be used as an "emergency" flashlight when your helping someone else look for that lost steering spring. ;)

My mod will be able to charge a 2 cell (or more) BCG no problem, because it totally bypasses the internal circuitry.


Could you give us a pic of your controller. I notice that you got the Duratex is that from Hobbico? I was considering in picking one up. Why did you set it @ 6mV?

[zzz]

has anyone tried this with a dual 150mAH mod Zip?

[arceeguy]

As soon as the "holiday rush" is over, I'll post pix of the mod. Just getting through the holiday shopping, and picked up a Hot Wheels K.I.T. racer to use for parts. ($6 for a motor and battery, and maybe some other useful parts aint bad!)

Also, anyone know of a program I could use to illustate the schematics? (nothing expensive like PhotoShop, something less than $50 would be nice!)

[dxhatchback]

i have a pure energy battery charger... it puts out 1.7 volts and 550 mA. is this too much? thanks

Travis

[tory_103]

Originally posted by arceeguy
As soon as the "holiday rush" is over, I'll post pix of the mod. Just getting through the holiday shopping, and picked up a Hot Wheels K.I.T. racer to use for parts. ($6 for a motor and battery, and maybe some other useful parts aint bad!)

Also, anyone know of a program I could use to illustate the schematics? (nothing expensive like PhotoShop, something less than $50 would be nice!)

dude, just download a demo of PhotoShop or download the whole thing......... there are all sorts of nameless ppl who just love nothing better than to give this stuff away....... just what i heard *wink wink*......l8r

[arceeguy]

Originally posted by tory_103
dude, just download a demo of PhotoShop or download the whole thing......... there are all sorts of nameless ppl who just love nothing better than to give this stuff away....... just what i heard *wink wink*......l8r

I've been tempted to download some packages from Kazaa or WinMX, but I want to keep things legal. (I know, I'm a party poooper!) Heck, I'm still running Windoze 98! I do have a couple of PC's running Linux, because Linux is free - and most of the apps are free. Maybe I can find something suitable that will run in Linux.
Time to hit http://www.tucows.com!

[mcharles13]

Anyone know of any cheap solutions that will peak charge correctly?

[bitchargen]

so, really, u just need 2 nicads.
nimhs give so much runtime.
but do they give much more speed then nicads?

[met-sb]

if i can get my scanner working or use webcam i can take pic of my two, 12 volt alkalines a stole from home depot

the alkalines are a milimeter taller than the stock battery and 12 volts and only cost like 99c for a pack of two

i dont think anyone is crazy enough to run 12 volts through their bit but they can get the batts from home depot and try

[bdebde]

Well, I think that the 500 ma charge rate is pushing the limit with these small batteries. Some cells seem to handle it fine, but others have died on the first charge. I have ruined a few at that rate. Seems that 300 ma is safer, haven't fried any at that rate (yet).

[arceeguy]

Originally posted by bdebde
Well, I think that the 500 ma charge rate is pushing the limit with these small batteries. Some cells seem to handle it fine, but others have died on the first charge. I have ruined a few at that rate. Seems that 300 ma is safer, haven't fried any at that rate (yet).

Typical recommended charging rates are up to 2C. (which would be 100mA for a 50mAh cell, or 200mA for a 100mAh cell, and so on...)
Staying within these guidlines will give you hundreds of charge/discharge cycles. The built in charger really kicks these things in the butt with high current, so the cells typically only last a couple of hundred cycles. (the packaging on one of my clones states up to 300 charge cycles for the internal NiCd)

[skidmark2000]

PLEASE HELP!

I thought I would try all these cool peak charged ideas.

First, I built one of the AC/DC chargers that uses a simple Radio Snack power supply that connects to a charging pad. It worked great at charging all my cars. The schematic was posted on one of these forums.

Having used the AC powerd charger I decided it was time to enter the big league and PEAK CHARGE my cars. I used alligator clips to hook up the Rayovac PS1 charger to a charging pad. Well, it PEAK CHARRED my cars! I only had them on the pad for about 40 seconds. Don't ask me why I did it to two cars :(

The end result was two cars that ran fine for a very very short period of time. Even when I charge them using the normal chargers they still poop out at about 1.5 minutes. I changed batteries in the cars but that didn't help. They are essentially useless now

My questions are:
- Do you have to take the batteries out of the car to use the Rayovac charger?
- How can I go about repairing my car? Do I need a new PCB?



I've learned from my lesson and am now using the cheap $9.99 cars from Walgreens for my experiments.

------------------------------------
Shen qi wei
Microsizers
Mega Toys
Zip Zap
b6way :btc: b38 b10 b26
b27m b35m b49m

[Mr.Qla]

ok......im not quite getting this?????? wats a peak charger first of all and if u r talking about the chargers that charge big r/c's i have one but i think the voltage is too high for it and i dunno how to do this anybody got like pictures???? of how to do this and wat i need to do this

[FMZPLAYER1]

A peak charger measures the voltage while charging a battery, when the battery is fully charged, the voltage actually drops a tiny bit, the charger stops when it detects this.

If you keep charging a battery past full charge, it gets wasted as heat, which can eventually fry the battery.

If you have a digital meter, you can watch the voltage slowly climb for most of the charge time, then the last few minutes it will climb much faster, untill it hits the peak, and then drops back a tiny bit.

[cheesehead]

I'm going Lithium.
If anyone wants a set of plans for a good Li-Ion/Li-Po peak charger, just ask. I'm going to use my beloved Apache 1-2 cell, if I can just find where I put the stupid battery....
The advantage of Li-Ion over 3 200mah -cells:
-Cheaper (2 li-ions for 6.00 (1=3 NiMh), a 200mah is usually about 5.00)
-Slightly faster (the Li-Po puts out 1/36 more voltage, with a WAYY flatter discharge curve)
-FAR HIGHER CAPACITY (can anyone say 800 MAH! That's a long runtime!)
P.S. if someone knows of a small Li-Ion battery, let me know. I intend to mount mine on the top, and simply make a ugly car. If I could find one that would work internally, that would be nice.

[hobbymanqwerty]

I finally think I understand this peak charger thingy...
Now, do you get a battery charger and then you put your battery from your cars into the charger(so it fits of course) then charge it like any old battery, so then your battery can get a full 15 minute charge without going it bung or exploding, and with some of you guys, you have bought ones that you can attach your controller pad to so you can charge your batteries in the charger without actually having to take the batteries out.:rolleyes:
if this is right i need to know 2 things, this has to be in ultra laymans terms when you reply, how many batteries can you fit into a aaa battery slot on a charger so you can char-g a heap at once and if you are wanting to attach a controller charging pad to a charger do you just get some wiresand attach them from the pad to the charging output thingies. oh and one last thing, what voltage and amp levels does your charger have to be

[DrDanke]

I got a sweet duratrax intellipeak setup that I will use to charge my bit, not to mention I have 1800+ mah nimh AA's for the controller. I can't wait to get the upgrade nimh for by bit.

[Matic]

Originally posted by mcharles13
Anyone know of any cheap solutions that will peak charge correctly?


http://www.universalhost.de/html_bit/b-charger.htm

this is the cheapest way I beleive... You can even get 2 free samples of MAX 713 chips at http://www.maxim-ic.com/

[RacinSkillZ101]

cool fast and simple

[Eiwoh]

hi, i recently made my super bit charg dual cell, but after i charge it everytime (i use a piranha peak charger at .3 A) the bit stops working, then if i wait for a while(about an hour) or i desolder the batteries and put it back in, it starts working again can someone tell me why? i'm sure its not due to a loose connection that causes it to stop working as the solder joints i put on it were pretty strong and nothing has been disconnected

[bdebde]

You may be putting too much voltage to the circuit board during the charge, causing the circuit to cut out (i think they have over voltage protection). When you remove the battery, it allows the circuit to reset. This may or may not be the problem, but sounds like it could be. I like to put a small switch between the batteries and the circuit board on multi cell cars, to avoid this problem. Also, you can try making the battery connection to the charger before powering up the charger. I know my Tekin peak charger will give a surge over 20 volts if it is powered up before plugging in the battery.

[Eiwoh]

ok, i'll try putting in a switch then, thanks!

[Lord_Nick_D]

I just peak charged my clone with my charger I set it to 500ma under nicad and said the battery was up to 100mah with a 6mv sencitivity I topped off at 98mah its a charge n go clone I thought it was a nicad battery but with that amount maby it wasnt does anyone know the specifications on the battery?
Nick

[AUTO-M-T]

So i could get an old controller and put my losi peak charger on (From my mini-t). Could i use a connector on the controller to make hook up a snap. This with the 150mah NiHm would be great. Also, how easy is this to do and were can i get an extra controller.

[ejaf]

Has anyone tried this with a Triton charger?

I am trying to cycle my 1/4 AAA 150 maH batteries I picked up, and it seems like it can't detect the peak.

Just curious...

Eric