RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I want to get a new high(er) capacity battery for my tank but cant seem to find any higher than 2500mAh ni-cd ones out there.
I am sure I have seen internal pics of tanks with 3000-5000mAh ni-cd batteries in them. Perhaps I should be using ni-mh?
It seems the 3800mAh ni-mh I have in my t-34 runs for ever (charged it once 3 months ago, but I know it needs less), but the
2500 ni-cd in my Tiger seems to be empty in 20mins, the 1700 that came with tank runs for about 5 mins now
which leads me onto my next q. I have a delta peak quick charger, has a 1,2 and 3 amp charge rate, which seems to switch
from quick charge to trickle halfway through the charge time. Its supposed to be an 'intelligent charger' and switch to trickle
when battery is full but if I put it in tank then it runs for maybe 10 mins max. I worked out I need to do 3hr 45mins @1 amp
for the 2500 but as I said it only runs for about 20 mins, when the 1700 would run for that time when I used the charger that
came with tank. Is my that charger not working properly?
Any help is greatly appreciated (btw had the 1700mAh batt since Feb)

hi markofzollo first of check to see if the charger is just for nims or nims and ni-cads



rshermanking

Sorry should have said, it does both ni-cd and ni-mh, from 4.8-9.6 volt.
Cheers,
Dave

hi dave by the look of it they are false peaking , if you have got one or borrow one try a slow charger which may take aday or more to fully charge the battery then try in the tank and see what time you get . if you can when runing the tank try not to run the batterys right down low , and when you have finished with playing try not to store the batterys in a flat condition but in a charge up state . also how long do you leave the batteries on for, with the batterys and charger i use normaly take an hour to charge up .


hope this might help robert

Hi ,
I got a 7.2 3800amp tamiya battery last week from rctanks.de Dominique is very helpful and speaks english.

I am using elmod, (heavy on juice),and tank is quite heavy an get lots of run time from this battery.

Good luck
John

Forgot to mention. I use a smart charger. Less chance of damaging or overcharging batteries.

John

Hi John, I checked out that 3800 you ordered and its a Ni-Mh, thanks anyway.
Robert, I have the origional Heng Long charger that came with tank, I worked out 7hrs @500mA, Il give it a go later.
In studying electronics I was told Ni-cds should be fully discharged before charging to maximise performance, hence the discharge feature on smart chargers, mine seems to not work as I press the button it does nothing. I only got the thing a couple months back, maybe I need to see if I can get my money back and get a different one.
I have read that Ni-cds are better for high drain applications like heavy tanks, otherwise I would have switched to Ni-Mh by now.
Cheers

hi dave i`m glad i was of some help to you, on discharging try not to go to low as this might be the cause of your trouble . if the battery is flat when you take it out of the tank then theirs know need to flaten it eny further ,
if i don`t use the discharge fuction on my charger i will use a 12 volt 55amp car bulb connected to the battery then wait until it starts to got dim then discnnect it and then charge it back up again . don`t leave the room if you do it that way as you do need to keep an eye on it , the only time i discharge my batterys is if they have been sitting around for a bit and not been used .
the charger i use is the graupner ultramat 16, which will do ni-cad nims lipos lif and gel type batterys and can charge them up in about an hour dipending on what setting i use.


robert

I contacted the place I got the charger from and they will replace it once they recieve it back, quite pleased as I bought it 4 months ago .
So I guess there are no Ni-cds over 2500mAh? Maybe when I have a working charger that will suffice.
Cheers for input
Dave

Hi - slightly off topic

I was impressed with the 2000mah ni-mh battery that is in the slightly more expensive Heng Long Tanks (panz 4 metal ir) - compared to the awful 1700s - I charge both from an old MPS 240 volt fast/trickle charger (which seems to work well seeing its badged for NI-Cd only). I use the 1700s in my carpet basher plastic tracked Panzer 3 ... fun tank!

Any way - to my point - I also have a 3600 mah Li-PO - these are great batteries!

Awesome power and you store them fully charged, hardly lose charge. - I had to fit a fuse to my metal track n gbox panth with this battery in as it ate my RX-18 - but since then (I have blown a few fuses) My Panth can mash through all sorts of terrain and steep gradients with good lastability.

Anyone else switched to Li-Po?