Telecaster

My Feedback: (1)

.. they come fresh off the charger? Do they seem to have a little less charge if you charge them and use them a day or so later?



And secondly, what type of battery has the most muscle in it? I have NiMH batteries ranging from 1500 maH to 4600 maH @ 7.2 v and I have 1 3000 maH NiMH @ 8.4v

Can I do better?

I'm primarily running an Evader EXT2 with a Traxxas xl-5 esc and a Titan 12T motor

nitrosportsandrunner

a warm nimh pack will put out a tad more amps.
but its not really good for the battery to be used right off the charger.

with lipos, its totally different.
charge a lipo, let it sit 2 weeks and it will have the same power as when it came off the charger!

a 2s 30c 5000mah turnigy lipo will really wake up your rides. those trucks dont have low-voltage cutoff. but you can just get a low-voltage alarm off ebay.
pick up a turnigy lipo/charger off hobbyking.com and a LVA off ebay for under $100 total. that lipo will have more power and runtime than any of your nimh packs.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

My nimh batteries usually have about half the run time if i wait a couple days to use them after I charge, and yes they will be a little more powerful right off the charger. Perfectly normal. [8D]

Telecaster

My Feedback: (1)

hmmm... there's some food for thought.


How much do the chargers cost that will charge a 5000 mah lipo in under an hour?

nitrosportsandrunner

i use the imex b6 lipo charger. you can get it for $45 shipped on ebay(with a AC power adapter)
it will balance charge my 5000mah lipos in just over an hour.
you would get around 30minutes of runtime on a 2s 30c 5000mah turnigy lipo in your trucks(maybe even longer)

The_Shark

hobbypartz also sells lipo chargers for cheap, got mine for just over $40 it can do 6s, 5A balance, do NIMH, NICD, Lipo, LIfe,PB and have a charge interface (you can plug it into your computer, but hard to get program to work)

lipos are cheap now days.

Ybenjulkay2x

Just make sure not draining the lipo more than 80% if you do the batt will caught on fire, i fly heli with lipo.

DaveG55

You don't want to charge a lipo in under an hour. Lips's work best when charced at 1C, which means charged at their rated mAh. So a 5000mAh battery will best be charged at 5A and will fully charge in an hour. Actually a bit less due to their not being fully discharged but it will still be close to an hour due to the charging curve they need.

@cummins driver and to the OP's original question; if you're losing 50% of run time in just two days then something is not right with your batterys. It is normal for nimh's to lose some charge to internal loss and that is worse the first day. But even at it's worse internal loss should be no more than about 10%-13% after a couple of days. That means that if you have a battery with 20 minutes of run time soon after charging then you should have at 18-19 minutes the next day and 17-18 minutes the next day. After that the self-discharge rate is between .5%-1%/day.
Storing in a cool place will slow the self discharge rate.
Also, the higher the mAh rating, the higher the self-discharge rate seems to be.

378

My Feedback: (4)

My glow ignitor doesn't seem to care. As long as it has a charge, it works fine, and I don't notice my engines starting any easier when it's fresh off the charger.

rc awesome

After a couple minutes of running a lipo it will seem to get more powerful.

TIGER76

Always try to run mine ten mins or so off the charger if possible for best results, like said after a couple of days they start to drain and need a recharge boost.
Only time i wouldnt is if they were hot but then they shouldnt be that hot if charged properly

mlwgf8

My Feedback: (8)

The charger is alittle irrelvant when it comes to how fast you can charge. The charger will need to be able to charge high amps, but the key is you will need batteries that can handle being charged at high amps. Most chargers can do 5 amps easy but most packs aren't rated to charge at 5 amps.