This is a good, quick explanation of what charging is all about. Too bad I didn't ask this question 2 weeks ago. Oh well... Off I go to the Sirius website.
cheers
Don
Matt Lydon wrote:
003101c0b34e$e68a2cd0$01000001@mattswin2k">Straight "Charging For Begginers" answer, Don -
With a wall charger, you have to charge for 18 hrs for a full charge. If you
constantly go fly and run your pack 1/2 way down, then charge, your nicads
will develop 'memory' and get weak after running that 1/2 charge you usually
fly, and you'll have problems. If you forget to unplug the charger, you can
kill a (battery) pack. If you let the pack sit around, it runs down, so you
have to top them off regularly. You're also supposed to 'cycle' them (run
them all the way down, then charge them fully).
When you grow into more sophisticated planes, and just more planes, you'll
have different size packs in those planes, which (with wall warts) require
multiple wall warts of differing charge rates. Pretty soon you have a room
full of planes with charge wires running everywhere, tangles of chargers, in
boxes, etc.
You fly all day with your new favorite superplane, boomers 'til 7pm, running
the battery all the way down, and the weather for tommorow should be
perfect, so you want to come back for more the next morning......but your
wall wart won't recharge for 18 hrs, so you have to wait until 3 pm to go
flying - bummer, right?
Enter the Sirius charger (and others like it, but it's the best in my, and
MANY other's opinions). Dead pack to full charge in less than an hour for a
'standard' pack. Plug it in and forget it, it auto shuts off at full charge,
switching to 'trickle', which keeps the pack topped off, 100%. No memory
problems. Handles different size packs. Charges 2 packs at once. Runs on 12
volts, so you can plug it into your lighter socket and charge up on the way
to the field. Run your pack down flying all day?....plug it in and charge up
while you're lying to your buddies about that eagle you where thermaling
with.
Personally, I have about $300 in charging junk sitting around gathering
dust. From Accucycles, Ace trikle adapters, multichargers, an old Ace
cycler, and a zillion wall warts (which come free with radios, which tells
you what they're worth.... since I bought a Sirius charger, I use nothing
BUT the Sirius. ). Since I've started in r/c (about 15 years now) I've waded
through metric tons of articles, tips, discussions, whatever! about charge
techniques, charge curves, c/10, c/50, cell reversal, ad nausea.
A hundred and small change is an extremely small price to pay for plug in
and forget it, no worries chaging.
Matt
PS. George, that last testimonial check you sent me bounced, cash this time.
;-)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Munro" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 9:18 PM
Subject: [RCSE] all this chat about chargers???Hi everyone,
I have a real "newbie" question... I've been following all this
chit-chat about chargers since I just got my first radio (JRxp652) and,
of course it came with a charger. Why would I want to spend $100+ for
another charger when I've already got one?
no flames please :-)
thanks in advance
Don Munro
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