who makes a discharge cut-off now? (black box)

[tamiya4x4dryver]

Who makes/sells a discharge cut-off device similar to the old deans black box? Why did deans quit selling those?

[TheIglu]

I'm still rather flabbergasted that someone doesn't make an ADJUSTABLE cutoff box. Seems like a pretty simple circuit to me.....

Any EE's out there wanna take a stab at one?

[dhutch]

yeah, come one, somone on here must be able to knock up a circut diagram for one?

[tamiya4x4dryver]

I really need one. Sometimes I use my bulbs to cycle my batts as my charger doesn't have a built in dischager. I hook my digital volt meter to my bulbs and usually take it down to 5.4 volts and then pull the plug. Unfortunatly I have the attention span of a flea and it's cost me a couple of batts. Another wonderful story is I watched a trinity spec2k gp1600 pack go up in smoke the other night when the volt meter clips touched each other and shorted out a fully charged pack. You talk about stinky.... :D I'm always careful, but I moved the battery and it knocked them together. If that had been my new matched GP3300's I'd have been sick! I need a cutoff... bad.

Are they reliable though? I was thinking maybe that's why they took the deans off the market?

[rccardude04]

Racers edge has a cutoff unit, and integy has a couple of discharger boxes with built in cutoff circuitry.
-Eric

[Battlepack]

http://www.battlepack.com/dischargers.asp

thanks,
Steve

[Cain]

The integy reactors can be adjustable but you have to open the unit to get to the pot to adjust it. You probably will need to do that anyway as the cutoff voltage is a bit low out of the box. I adjusted mine to 5.4V, unit works quite well when I had it.

[TheIglu]

I'm in the process of designing a circuit to use with an adjustable cutoff voltage....

I'll let you guys know if I get anywhere.

[ITurnLeft]

Discharging the entire pack is not the proper way to do it. Over time, the cells become unbalanced, meaning 1 cell will retain more voltage than another, and 1 might go completely flat. This is normal and everyone's packs do it. Now, if you discharge your packs to 5.4v, which is mathmatically correct, you run the risk of over discharging some cells while under discharging others. Over discharging is just as bad as overcharging, infact I'd even say it's worse because the cell can reverse polarity and short the pack.

The only good way to discharge packs is an EQ tray. The Novak Smart Tray is the best thing on the market today, as it has an adjustable cut-off and can dead short. Integy makes one as well I believe, but Novak makes killer stuff. I bought the Novak and I'm very, very pleased with it. $75 well invested.

If you aren't using an EQ tray, it's better to just repeak the pack and forget about discharging alltogether.

[Raster]

I guess with a 7-cell pack, you can't equalize them? Only 6-cell packs?

[ITurnLeft]

Not at all. Just scoot the pack over 1 cell and do the last one + 5 of the first ones over again. Won't hurt a thing. Make sure your tray isn't polarized, the Novak tray is and it does ugly things if you put them in wrong. If it is, just flip the pack over so the poles line up properly.

[Raster]

Not at all. Just scoot the pack over 1 cell and do the last one + 5 of the first ones over again. Won't hurt a thing. Make sure your tray isn't polarized, the Novak tray is and it does ugly things if you put them in wrong. If it is, just flip the pack over so the poles line up properly.

Thanks for the info. I forgot to mention the battery configuration. These would be 7-cells for an E-Maxx, where the 7th cell is on top of the other 6, sometimes running perpindicular to the other 6.

Thanks again,
Ras

[Jeckler]

Make your own cutoff with a relay, a switch and a resistor (or pot if you want it to be adjustable). Lot's of places on the 'net with the info. I've used mine for about 3 years now.
And, it's kinda hard to use a tray with stick packs. :)

[dhutch]

Make your own cutoff with a relay, a switch and a resistor (or pot if you want it to be adjustable). Lot's of places on the 'net with the info. I've used mine for about 3 years now.
And, it's kinda hard to use a tray with stick packs. :)
I dont suppose you got a link to that have you?

- I've tryed looking but i just end up with auto cut of charges etc!!

and i need one, becuase ive just taken another pack down to 0v :(


thanks, danel

[Razoo]

"The only good way to discharge packs is an EQ tray. The Novak Smart Tray is the best thing on the market today" This may be YOUR opinion but my Rayspeed tray does the exact same thing as the Novak and is about $20.00 cheaper!
http://www.yokomousa.com/newproducts/rayspeed/rayspeed001.html
Scroll down to see the tray

http://www.kthobbies.com/~kthobbie/cgi-bin/cart.cgi/RS-16.html
Buy it here for $57.00

[bsoder]

this site has a schematic. It's not fancy but gets the job done, I built my discharger off these instructions, works fine.

http://www.marcee.org/Articles/BatteyPackDischarger.htm

[GT Freak]

so how/could you discharge a stick pack Without teraing it apart :confused:

[dhutch]

You just conect it up to a load, like you would the ESC?

- you geting confused between dischargeing and equalising i think.

danel