Battery Charging Times

[altchris@blueyonder.co.uk]

Hi,

I've recently purchased a Hirobo Shuttle Plus and a Hitec Eclipse 7 on
eBay, but the manuals don't seem to mention charging times for the
receiver and the transmitter... And while I'm talking charging - how
long should I be charging the glow plug capacitor?

I just want to be sure I'm not under/over-charging anything.

Thanks!
CP

[funfly3]

altchris@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've recently purchased a Hirobo Shuttle Plus and a Hitec Eclipse 7 on
> eBay, but the manuals don't seem to mention charging times for the
> receiver and the transmitter... And while I'm talking charging - how
> long should I be charging the glow plug capacitor?
>
> I just want to be sure I'm not under/over-charging anything.
>
> Thanks!
> CP
>
depends on the charger and batteries, what capacity batteries and what
rate is the charger, normally on a standard set of batteries & charger
14 hours but if you have the standard charger and and a larger RX pack
it could be 24

[altchris@blueyonder.co.uk]

funfly3 wrote:
> altchris@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've recently purchased a Hirobo Shuttle Plus and a Hitec Eclipse 7 on
> > eBay, but the manuals don't seem to mention charging times for the
> > receiver and the transmitter... And while I'm talking charging - how
> > long should I be charging the glow plug capacitor?
> >
> > I just want to be sure I'm not under/over-charging anything.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > CP
> >
> depends on the charger and batteries, what capacity batteries and what
> rate is the charger, normally on a standard set of batteries & charger
> 14 hours but if you have the standard charger and and a larger RX pack
> it could be 24

Thanks. And generally, is it a matter of seconds or hours for the glow
starter?

[funfly3]

altchris@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
> funfly3 wrote:
>> altchris@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I've recently purchased a Hirobo Shuttle Plus and a Hitec Eclipse 7 on
>>> eBay, but the manuals don't seem to mention charging times for the
>>> receiver and the transmitter... And while I'm talking charging - how
>>> long should I be charging the glow plug capacitor?
>>>
>>> I just want to be sure I'm not under/over-charging anything.
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>> CP
>>>
>> depends on the charger and batteries, what capacity batteries and what
>> rate is the charger, normally on a standard set of batteries & charger
>> 14 hours but if you have the standard charger and and a larger RX pack
>> it could be 24
>
> Thanks. And generally, is it a matter of seconds or hours for the glow
> starter?
>
my glow starter is 185Ma the battery is 1200MaH so 1200/185 is 6.5
roughly so from flat 6.5 hours (this is assuming 100% efficiency) I
normally pop mine on charge the morning I am going flying for a couple
of hours but I do have a field charger with me to top it up if necessary
Kevin

[Marc Heusser]

In article <1158050474.801196.37230@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.c om>,
altchris@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:

> funfly3 wrote:
> > altchris@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I've recently purchased a Hirobo Shuttle Plus and a Hitec Eclipse 7 on
> > > eBay, but the manuals don't seem to mention charging times for the
> > > receiver and the transmitter... And while I'm talking charging - how
> > > long should I be charging the glow plug capacitor?
> > >
> > > I just want to be sure I'm not under/over-charging anything.
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > > CP
> > >
> > depends on the charger and batteries, what capacity batteries and what
> > rate is the charger, normally on a standard set of batteries & charger
> > 14 hours but if you have the standard charger and and a larger RX pack
> > it could be 24
>
> Thanks. And generally, is it a matter of seconds or hours for the glow
> starter?

If you can afford it, one of the newer computer controlled chargers will
charge faster and stop in time (eg robbe power peak ultimate lipo or
similar).

Marc

--
Switzerland/Europe
<http://www.heusser.com>
remove CHEERS and from MERCIAL to get valid e-mail

[Doug McLaren]

In article <marc.heusser-48E097.12593312092006@news.unizh.ch>,
Marc Heusser <marc.heusser@CHEERSheusser.comMERCIALSPAMMERS.inva lid> wrote:

| > > depends on the charger and batteries, what capacity batteries and what
| > > rate is the charger, normally on a standard set of batteries & charger
| > > 14 hours but if you have the standard charger and and a larger RX pack
| > > it could be 24
| >
| > Thanks. And generally, is it a matter of seconds or hours for the glow
| > starter?

Kevin's (funfly3) post gave the math there -- capacity of your battery
/ charge rate of the charger. Six hours is probably a good average
value for a ni-starter, but 8 or 12 hours won't really hurt it.

Fully charging your ni-starter isn't nearly as important as fully
charging your TX or RX pack -- if your ni-starter dies, well, you
borrow your friend's. If your RX or TX pack dies, your plane/heli
just crashed and so let's hope you bought a bag for the pieces.

| If you can afford it, one of the newer computer controlled chargers will
| charge faster and stop in time (eg robbe power peak ultimate lipo or
| similar).

Of course, you don't have to spend a lot on a peak charger. For
example, this one --

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXDXA2&P=0

is only $30 and will charge 1 to 10 NiCd/NiMH cells at 0.5 to 2.5 amps
-- which will cover pretty much every glow powered flier will ever
need, and most small electric fliers (except for those using LiPos) as
well. I've never used this specific charger, so I can't really
comment on it, but there's a number of other similar chargers out
there with similar specifications and prices.

Granted, having a display to know how much charging you've done is
nice, as are discharging and cycling functions, and if you want to do
LiPos you need a LiPo charger (and this is NOT one), but really, if
you're at all serious about R/C, you should have a peak charger. Few
things suck more than finding out that the weather turned out to be
great, and you can go out and go flying today after all, but then
realizing that you haven't charged your batteries yet and not having a
way to do that in an hour or so.

--
Doug McLaren, dougmc@frenzied.us Nostalgia is living life in the past lane.