E-flite Apex Peak Charger

Hello All,

Does anyone have any experience with the E-flite Apex Peak Charger? I have one to charge the 6 cell 320mah and 270 mah packs I use with my wattage minimax, and have only used the 400mah charge rate, as its my understanding slower charging is better.

Initially, the charger seemed to work fine, and I followed directions (don't remember if they came with the plane or with the charger) on charging and discharging the battery pack. Now, after maybe 5 enjoyable flights, the charger says the battery is peaked after a very short period of charging, and this is after I've discharged the battery to the point at which the ESC diverts all power to the receiver/servos.

Is something wrong with the charger? Am I doing something wrong? Am new to electrics, and any help would be appreciated. When I was just flying glow, never had battery problems with my reciever and transmitter batteries using the supplied dual chargers, but of course these take a lot longer to charge, don't peak detect, etc.

Thanks,

Zman

Reply to
Zman
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I haven't used that particular charger but I have used other chargers that exhibit the same symptoms. The problem is not in the charger but in the battery pack. In my experience this happens mostly with old battery packs or with packs that have been mistreated. If you connect a voltmeter to the pack and watch the voltage as it is being charged you will see that the voltage rises quickly at the beginning of the charge and then starts to descend, despite the fact that the pack is nowhere near fully charged. It is this peak in the voltage that fools the charger into thinking that the pack is fully charged. Usually this happens during the first couple of minutes of charging.

The workaround is to restart the charging cycle. Be persistent. It may take several attempts to get past this initial "false peak", but it will, eventually. You will know when the pack is fully charged because it will be warm. The charging chemistry for Nickel Cadmium batteries is endothermic, meaning that the pack absorbs heat during the main part of the charging cycle. (Note that the above statement is not true for Nickel Metal Hydride batteries.) It is only after the pack is fully charged that it starts converting the excess charge current into heat.

I would avoid running your motor until the ESC cuts off power to the motor. I don't know what the cutoff voltage is for the ESC you are using, but if it is too low you risk discharging one of the cells in your pack to the point where it is reversed. This will not do it any good.

Jeff Bean

Reply to
Jeff Bean

Adding to what Jeff wrote, also check the connections between battery and charger. Sometimes a bad conection can cause premature cycle termination.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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