Battery Charger Advice For Rc Virgin

James Day

James Day

Guano Corner Rly - Runs weekly - Guano permitting
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Apologies for my ignorance....

I am a track powered person really, but I have some Paymobil RC, which has been played with now and again and is great fun.

I have agreed to take this to a show and have begun doing some endurance trials with different types of re-chargeable AA batteries to see what kind of endurance I can expect and how many I need.

People have been very helpful and I have had some great reccomendations of different battery types.

However, my chargers just don't seem to be able to get enough energy in to some of the batteries I have bought.

They are all NiMH type and I have Eneloop Pro 2500mah and Energizer 2450 mah, which are both great. I seem to be able to charge these well and have had trains circulating in the garden for three hours on sets of those.

The ones that are giving me a headache are some 4600mah ones which were reccomended to me. These should last nearly twice as long as the others, but should and will are not the same thing at all!

When I put these on a slow charge the charger decides that they are 'ready' when clearly they are not. I am getting only an hour out of them before they run out of puff. Less time than from the less powerful batteries!

The time that I am leaving them on charge does not seem to make any difference either. It seems that once the charger has decided the batteries are 'ready' it stops charging them.

I have come to the conclusion that neither of my chargers can cope with high mah type batteries like these, but I am a novice, so I may have it wrong and advice from those with experience would be appreciated.

Can anyone reccomend a charger that will work with my 4600 mah batteries, or should I just buy more of the lower rated ones?

James
 
Is there really any such thing as a 4600mAh AA battery? - Or is this our Chinese friends being creative with their labelling?
 
Phil,

You could well me right!

They were reccomended by someone who said he had used them successfully. To be fair he is pretty knowledgeable and has done a lot of good stuff, so it was a risk worth taking.

I only have a few which I bought to test, but so far not getting the results I had hoped for. If it ends in tears so be it.

If all else fails I know that I can count on 3 hours of good running from each set of Eneloop Pro or the Energizer types, so that gives me a good yardstick for the show.

I hope to get a couple of good chargers from Neil's link tomorrow and then test these elusive 4600 batteries again!

Perhaps they give out 4600mah before you have to throw them away?

I never have these sort of issues with track power, although there are lots of other issues of course!

James
 
James,
You are, of course, limited by the playmobil design..
Personally, if battery powering a loco for a Client, I tend to over-size the batteries (if I can get them to fit!)..
If I put extra capacity in, I can be sure they will probably never be stressed, and discharged to a very low level.

As I say, we are limited in this respect by the design we are given.

Phil.
 
If you are using a "smart" charger you can adjust the total charge time.
If the charge rate is 1 amp it is going to take roughly 4.6 hours to charge the cells from flat. So make the time out limit 300 minutes. (5 hours).
Depending on the batteries, I do not recommend charging at more than 1 amp.
 
Tony Walsham said:
If you are using a "smart" charger you can adjust the total charge time.
If the charge rate is 1 amp it is going to take roughly 4.6 hours to charge the cells from flat. So make the time out limit 300 minutes. (5 hours).
Depending on the batteries, I do not recommend charging at more than 1 amp.
Click to expand...
Tony, I have an Axtronics Smart Charger which has no ability to regulate the Charge Time. Clearly some 'Smart Chargers' are Smarter than others. However it does do the Job with my 12 Cell AA Nimh's (2100 type) that are in my 3 Aristo Revo setups. We used these last Summer for a Timetable where my Massoth Kit was in Germany due to a problem (don't ask). The 3 Locs/Railcar/Box Motor were still going strong after 4 Hours of running, but not of course continuous as there would be waitning time in Loops, running round delays etc. One of those Trains is an LGB Wizzy Cranks with 2Bogies the Box Motor also has 2 Bogies (USA Trains?) so I am happy with run duration. I have also put a similar Battery Pack in an LGB Sumpter Mallett and that runs well, though we have not yet tested the duration on that beast. However I reckon it will be litle different to Wizzy Cranks. Battery packs all came from Peter Spoerer.
JonD
 
I've found that 2500MaH batteries give plenty of running time with the R/C inter-city type Playmobil train, although running with the centre section knocks this back a bit, but I always have spare sets made up so it's just out with one battery case and in with another.

What I have found is that using these "fast" chargers gives a shorter running time.
 
Thank you all for your inputs. I appreciate the wealth of advice that has been given.

Quite happy to have lots of batteries charged and ready on standby, but they need to be charged properly or they are useless, also I need to be able to establish a rough idea of how many I will need.

Apologies, but I am mystified by the last link, as I can't see how it would be used. Presumably you charge one battery at a time using flying leads? This is all new to me!

James
 
It will charge multi cell packs via the connector plug. Its not really designed for individual cells unless you mount them in some sort of battery box.
AAA7.2v600nimh.jpg
 
Have I got it wrong?

I thought the smart/balance chargers connected to the battery pack via a multi-lead connector, which in effect meant each cell was charged individually??
 
Mine is a couple of years old Phil and its two wires.
 
If connecting multi NiMH batteries then only a twin wire flying lead is needed.
The 'multi' connector is for attaching Lithium batteries.
I use one of these.... Ansmann Xmove 2.0 Station Quad Charger (special offer from Kings Lynn Models at £89... not sure if they still have them
It is a smart charger (other brands are available ;-) )
It can do any type of battery/multiple at the same time. (up to four types of batteries/multiples can be done at once.
You can see the twin connector for NiMH, NiCd, Pb and then the multi connector balancer for the Litho sort. (if the Litho pack already has a balancing circuit on board, then you can still use the twin flying lead to charge the Litho pack


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Thats just flash!;)
 
PhilP said:
Is there really any such thing as a 4600mAh AA battery? - Or is this our Chinese friends being creative with their labelling?
Click to expand...


I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that you are right about these.

I have charged them all night and in the latest trial (Rained On, not Rainhill) they managed around 75 minutes, which is a vast 15 minute improvement on yesterday! I have some new chargers coming, so will give them another go after charging on one of these, but I am not too hopeful!
 
James Day said:
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that you are right about these.

I have charged them all night and in the latest trial (Rained On, not Rainhill) they managed around 75 minutes, which is a vast 15 minute improvement on yesterday! I have some new chargers coming, so will give them another go after charging on one of these, but I am not too hopeful!
Click to expand...

Might it be worth discharging them to their rated low-voltage (there is a voltage for most batteries you should not discharge them to below this), then let them cool down, and then give them a full charge?
 
Phil,

I will try that, thanks. Don't see that it can do any harm!
 
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