Help, charging batteries.

[Dbeast71]

Why is everywhere I go they tell me the proper way to take care of my batteries, and it's always different? Does anyone know a good A-Z way to care for your batteries?

Do you dishage them down to 5v's at 20 amps? Like the dean's black box and bulbs.
Do you put them on a 20 amp disharger and leave them at whatever voltage that is (0 or .5?)? Like a disharge tray.
Do you dishage them at 1 amp down to 2.6v? Like my charger.
Do you leave a load on the battery after it's been disharged to keep it from regenerating back to 7.2?
Is it better to slow charge (like they used to say way back) or say 4-6 amp charge?
Do you run it down in the car, or on a disharger, or not at all. I've heard it all.

What is the resitance on the discharge trays? they wouldn't be that hard, or that much to build.

Please and thank you.

[cabbynate]

What type batteries do you have?

[FactoryTeam Guy wannabe]

ok here is how you should charge and discharge your batteries if they are Nickle Cadmium. Charge them with a peak charger at about 4-5 amps 4 amps for lower capacity batteries and up to 5 amps for higher capacity batteries. Then after the batteries have peaked take them off the charger and re-peak them about 5 min. later or when ever you are ready to use them.... such as re-peak the batteries while the race before you is going on or if you are just gonna mess around then just wait 5 min and then re-peak them. The point in repeaking is so that all of the batterie cells equalize and then you can charge them all up together so they all have close to the same capacity in them.
-As for discharging I would use a discharge tray if your batteries are side by side. But if they are in a stick pack formation then I would look into orion's digital discharger if you have about $70 you want to spend. For somthing cheaper check out www.integy.com (http://www.integy.com) for some stick pack dischargers, they automaticly cutoff the voltage at a certain level it is usually 5.0 - 5.4 volts for the whole pack. 5.0 - 5.4 volts is a good cutoff level for nickle cadmium batteries. Oh and by the way dont worry about dead shorting the batteries (or making them so they wont re-generate to 7.2 volts) because I have heard so many things that go wrong with this process so I wouldn't recomend it....
HAPPY RACING :D

[cck]

Hi factory Team, I just want to know where I can buy the Orion Digital Discharger? Because I have searched a lot of online hobby shops for it, but couldn't find it. Even from the Orion's e-shopping. Thanks!

[Dbeast71]

I have some matched 2400 side by sides, some unbuilt 2400's. Some stick 1700, 1800, 1400, 1300. Nothing expensive, I'm on a budget and most of my packs really **** . I want to start racing and can't spend 100 a pack so I gotta make do. I was hoping to regenerate my old packs some.

Thanks for the info.

[SmokeyNDBandit]

Chris
I have 7 NiCd packs -- 1 unmatched 1700, 4 matched 2000s and 2 matched 2400s.

My routine is I don't have a routine. I charge them when I need to. Sometimes I run the batteries down in the car until they're dumped (another method of discharging). Sometimes I don't. Sometimes the batteries get stored away fully or partially charged like following a race and left that way and charged up the next week and they perform fine. I've never had a battery dump on me in a race.

Don't get me wrong, NiCds should be reconditioned ( I have a Dean's bulb discharger and Pro-Match Smart Trays for the convenience), but I just don't cycle them after every use. I'll do a cycle on them about maybe once a month or whenever I feel like it. I find that a good charger and a proper charge is more important for the batteries. NiCds are durable but one thing I won't do is use a pack more than twice a day because they're being put through such a high charge/discharge regimen.

OK, so there.