Hey it's Winter (with a capital W), and there is not much flying to be done. So what should you be doing? This is the perfect time
to go through all your models, whether Car, Boat or Plane and cycle those batteries. That's all those NiCD, NiMH and Lithium. . ...
.. .....Firstly charge them up, then proceed to discharge, recording total amount and date and write it on your battery. Now Recharge,
again checking capacity. Battery manufacturers use 80% or less of indicated capacity to recognise that the battery is no longer able
to perform. This is especially important for our hobby use as the packs will drop voltage rapidly under load.
Why cycle Lithium?
This
is simply to check the packs well being and amount of capacity available because of the characteristics of lithium you won't notice
capacity or voltage drop off.
New page (half completed) with
Connectors available from Titan Energy. If you don't see the one you're after please do contact us.
There is also available the specialist leads for our hobby like the "
Retract Servo lead with seperate Power" which can be assembled
to your specific model. Jammed retract servo(s) pull an amazing amount of current and a ten minute flight drains the battery to a
critcial or fatal amount.
Been there done that and had to pick up the peices.
This is especially true of the ARF spring wire retract which will slowly bend
during the days flying until it does bind, usually after take off.
I've developed these leads over a period on small to large models and now use one of the "Twin Servo Retract leads" in the Hanger9 P47 setup for the two JR8711 servos.
(I have just recently had to replace a set of lithium packs as they were down to 50% indicated capacity, yet still performing).
Improvemnets in HEV's (Hybrid Electrical Vehicles) is an on going process and one of these is the Energy Transformed National Research Flagship in the UK with their new battery, the CSIRO. It is currently being tested on their own track and accordiing to this article has clocked up over 100,000km's (so who is the poor bugger behind the wheel?). An important improvement in the batteries used in HEV's is the ability to last as long as the vehicle, providing in my opinion a proper fuel alternative and environment safe disposability of the actual batteries. No use having HEV's that constantly need to replace expensive and harmful batteries through the life of the vehicle. This article shows we are going to achieve an alternate fuel/electric powered vehicle that may well be friendly to the environment both on and off the road. I do however have reservations about testing the battery continually to achieve the kilometers, where as this would only happen if the vehicle is used constantly like a taxi, the average road user is looking at 5, maybe 10 years of motoring. I will see if I can elict a response from the Research facility regarding the batteries performance over 5 to 10 years service.
Don't forget improvements in these cells filters down through to your laptop, IPOD, etc.
Quite a few customers have shown interest in Batteries and the "Facts and Fiction" surrounding them. When first starting out witthin
the trade I was given the Battery Bible to read. Today you will find this book
"Batteries in the Portable World" by Isidor Buchmann
on the web. It is divided into many bite size chapters, easily digested and referenced. It is also unbiased and comprehensive in its
assessment of chemistries, chargers and manufacturers. Because of this it is refered to as the "Battery Bible".
Updates may seem to be behind the times, but battery technology is increasing at an exponential rate, and the information given provides the base product facts. An example is SANYO's new "eneloop" NiMH technology with low self discharge characteristics, however early on the book it describes energy density, cycle life and size stating new chemical additives of hydride materials reduces the rate of NiMH self discharge but at a cost of lower energy density. Hence the SANYO HR-3UG 2700mAh AA cell becomes the SANYO eneloop HR-3UTG 2000mAh from the family of AA HR-3U, HR-3UB, HR-3UF.
It is a great reference for all chemistries - Lead Acid, Alkaline, NiCD, NiMH, Lithium Ion, LiPolymer.
If you have any quiries please contact us.
Recently a documentry on TV1 looked at the hazards of charging Batteries and in particular Lithium Polymer (LiPo) type cells. With
a fair bit of punishment these batteries were made to explode and/or ignite.
Over the years we have always been asked how best to
charge and look after your battery packs, whether they are automotive Lead Acid, Nickel based (NiCD/NiMH) and now the new form of
Lithium used in Camera, laptop, powertools, etc.
The two best pieces of equipment are pictured here. The Smoke Detector only costs
$10 and should be placed directly over the area being used for charging. How many of us charge out in the garage or workshop,
although we may have fire alarms as part of our house or business security, don't have one in the vicinity of the most dangerous appliance?
The other is a simple 24hr wall socket timer. ($25 incl GST) If you are charging batteries with a charger that doesn't self regulate
as some of the older units are designed, use one of these to stop charging after 4 or 5 hours. A simple calculation of battery capacity
divided by charger amps in will give a maximum time for charging.
Other safe tips include removing clutter and flameable material near where you are charging. Place the charger and battery on the
concrete floor of the garage. For those hobbists charging Lipo's invest in a lipo bag, all your Model Shops carry these and they certainly
work to contain the effects demostrated on TV1's doco.
A range of batteries have been through the analyser. This is normal procedure before placing an order and offering them as part of
our range. Of particular interest was the "Energizer AA lithium" cells continually promoted as the longest lasting battery. The battery
tested was the new E2 Lithium AA and this was new out of packaging. Discharged at 0.1amp (our lowest setting) the battery gave a 2950mA
capacity result. This dischage was in no way done to industry standard, as that is a rather complicated method, however it certainly
indicates the battery has a reasonable capacity, and yet for the price the latest Alkalines are running about 2800mA, and the new
Panasonic is even higher. Price wise we are happy to promote Alkaline in view of the above test.