Pro peak constellation

[ady]

sorry people, still have problems. i am now discharging and charging my new 8.4v 7 cell 3300mah packs. i discharged them which took 20 mins, at 0.3 discharge, and voltage ended at 6volts when finished. then i charged it at 0.3volts as i wanted to trickle charge them. After 5 minutes i get a warning saying output voltage too low, all im trying to do is learn how to discharge and charge them on trickle to cycle them before my next event. once problem is sorted how long should a trickle charge take?, sorry but i have no instrutions for this charger.

Have you programnd the charger that its charging/discahring a 7 cell pack (8.4v pack) ?

As if its trying to charge the pack and its saying output voltage too low, means it maybe set to cahrge a differen type of pack.

Mr Stu

[ady]

i have set it to a 7 cell pack,nimh and 3300mah, but couldnt see where to set pack voltage.

Picking the number of cells and battery type gives the machine the information required to allow it to pick the correct voltage.

Im assuming a typo 0.3 Amps NOT 0.3 volts.

6 volts is very low ..the recommended lower limit is ......I think ... 1 volt per cell.

You could try calling it a 6 cell pack till the battery revives a bit ( this should top it up to 7.2volts )....then reprogramme to 7 cells.

New thought ....whats your power supply?
I think Ive had that error when the power supply cant provide enough OOoomph!

(Message edited by woody on July 11, 2007)

the power supply is a propeak 13.8v 20a dual output, from technobots. yes a typo should be 0.3 amps. when a 8.4v battery is fully charged should it be around 10 volts?

Yes Adrian that sounds about right for a fully charged 8.4v paack. Though after a day or so it may settle down to about 9.5v but thats fine.

Weird as it sounds but if a battery pack is showing up its voltage when checked, its flat. LOL. So a 8.4v pack, if its showing 8.4v dead on or slightly under, then its flat or very near flat.

Mr Stu

[woody]

I dunno then Adrian....you could try this.

http://www.batteryspace.com/prod-specs/RR.pdfhttp://www.batteryspace.com/prod-specs/RR.pdf

[ady]

does anyone know how long it should take to charge the battery, it read 8.4v when i put it on charge at 2.0a, and in 11 mins it was charged to 10v and finished, seems a bit quick? i wondering if their are any other easier to use chargers out their as this thing seems to of been a waste of money.

If the battery is flat (1V per cell) and you charge at the 1C rate (ie 3300mA for 3300mAh) then it will take ~1 hour + a bit for the efficency loss & some types of chargers turn off every minuite or so to check the battery voltage). If you want your batteries to last dont charge more than this. Trickle Charge is usually 1/10C (ie 330mA for 3300mAh) and can be left on perminantly but most recommend 14 hours). Chargers that display capacity while charging is only an estimate but is usually pritty good. To find out the true capacity you need to fully charge and then discharge to 1V per cell. Note battery capacity is usually measured at a 1/10C discharge rate (depends on manufacture) so discahring at 1C rate will reduce the capacity displayed on the charger but NiMh are quite good at that rate so wont affect them much, Pb ones are the worst.

In any case if you discharge at 1C and it takes less than 50 mins(1 hour for 3300mAh) something is wrong, at 1/10C it should not take less than 8 hours (10 hours for 3300mAh). If its not your battereis then its your charger but it sounds like one of them is wrong if the charger is setup correctly.

[ady]

Will try again tonite, thanks mark