really need advice on this

[Drayken D]

I have been discharging some Maxxpaxx, 1900's on a 26amp bulb setup. I drain them ALL the way down. Lately, I have been getting alot of false peaks, I have to keep hitting start button again, and again. After a while, it catches on and charges fine.(I have a Millennium. I know it is not my charger, cuzz I have tried different ones, and not the power source. It IS the batteries. If I do NOT use the discharge bulbs, after about 2 or 3 uses, the false peaks go away for good, unless I dishcarge again.

I know I am supposed to use a 5.4volt cutoff for NiMh, but I was told that I do not need one for NiCd's. What am I doing wrong. The batteries do good, once I get them to charge. I bought some expensive racing batteries, and want to know how to discharge, before I start to use them, since they should be done the same everytime.

[ammoace]

The first thing that comes to mind is that you don't want to completly discharge a battery pack to 0 volts per cell. The rough target number escapes me right now but I'll post it if I find it again.
I found it, .5v per cell is what Orions auto discharger stops at.
Just my thoughts,
Jerry

[ammoace]

I found this after doing a search for discharging: http://www.rccaraction.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=000218
Hope it helps,
Jerry

[Leet TC3]

Often if you dishcharge a pack, even a matched pack, you will discharge individual cells in the pack more than others. That is why when discharging a pack, never go below .85 volt per cell (5.1v for a pack).

It sounds like you are dishcharging your pack too low. The manual for the Turbo 35 charge mentions over-discharged packs as a reason for false peaks. To combat this, the Turbo 35 and many other charges have a "lock out" feature, which prevents the charger from shutting off for the 1st 10 minutes.

The problem you mention is quite common, and your batteries are still ok. If you don't have a charger with a lock out feature, you will either have to discharge your pack in another manner, or just put up with those false peaks.

[Drayken D]

thx guys. I don't mind puting a 5.4volt switch on my bulb discharger, but will this affect the batteries? If the batteries dump to lower than 5.4 will the dump better for racing than ones that are always dumped at 5.4?

[DerekB]

What do you have the voltage threshold set at?

[Leet TC3]

If you have saddle or side x side packs, you can avoid the problem of some of the cells discharging less/more than others in the pack. A few manufacturers (trinity, etc.) sell cheap bulb/resistor type discharge bulbs that discharge each cell in the pack individually.

About twice every month I equalize all my packs with the Trinity discharger.