I just got a Hobbico Quick Field Charger MKII for that new field box, and the instructions talk about various batteries. I have a Hobbico SuperStar 40 trainer, and Futaba radio.
My question is: Do both A/C and TX use Nicad batteriies, and what is a good charging rate for them. I can set the rate separately for each.
As always, thanks for all the expert help!!!!!
Rich, Excellent Flight Navigator Bad Student Pilot
Decent field charger, overall.
NiCd battery charge rates _should_ be marked on the battery, and yes most OTS batteries these days are still NiCd type. Futaba are, and they're marked. Cheers, Fred McClellan the dash plumber at mindspring dot com
In article , Fred McClellan wrote: | On 8 Jul 2003 18:32:42 -0700, magellan snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Rich | Beauchamp) wrote: | | >I just got a Hobbico Quick Field Charger MKII for that new field box, | >and the instructions talk about various batteries. I have a Hobbico | >SuperStar 40 trainer, and Futaba radio. | >
| >My question is: Do both A/C and TX use Nicad batteriies, and what is a | >good charging rate for them. I can set the rate separately for each. | >
| | Decent field charger, overall. | | NiCd battery charge rates _should_ be marked on the battery, and yes | most OTS batteries these days are still NiCd type. Futaba are, and | they're marked.
What he said. Though the rate given on the batteries is usually a slow charge rate, not a quick charge rate (though some do give a quick charge rate too, those that are meant for quick charging. I doubt that your transmitter or receiver packs will give a quick charge rate.)
The `low end' batteries that come with most transmitters and receivers are 600 or 700 mAh AA packs. So a charge rate of 600 mA will give you
1 C, which is pretty reasonable. You can go up to 2 C (1200 mA) which is a bit harder on your batteries, but it's ok. Don't go any higher than 2 C on your transmitter or receiver batteries, however. [ If you're not familiar with the `C' notation, 1C means to charge the battery with it's capacity in one hour. So a 600 mAh pack charged at 1C would be charged at 600 mA. 2C would be 1200 mA, 3C would be 1800 mA, 1/2 C would be 300 mA, etc. ]On the off chance that they're NiMH cells (which would only be the case if these batteries didn't come from Futaba) then don't go over a
1C charging rate, and a 1/2 C rate is better.If your batteries are larger, then you'll be charging them slower than you could ... not a big problem. They used to make 500 mAh AA packs, but if you have one, it's probably pretty old and should be replaced anyways.
Of course, it's best to look at the battery pack and verify that they are AA and see what the capacity is, rather than guessing.
Thanks for the info!!! I'll have a look tonight, but 0.6 amps sounds just fine. I'm not in that much hurry, just wanted to be able to do more than 3 flights in a day. NiCad and 1C. I can remember that!
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