NIMH Batt Capacity Funky

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MonsterAir

MonsterAir

Lone Racer 🤠
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2,369
Location
Long Island NY
Have a 6v 5000mah nimh that when set to discharge to 5v won't go past 6ish volts. Should I keep cycling the battery or? It also discharged less than I put into it so I thought that odd as well.


And yeah, yeah. I'm gonna get some lipo's but not til spring.
 
Couple questions for ya, how old is the battery, what kind of charger and has it ever been cycled before. Nimh batteries work to their full potential after fully cycled. They also recommend every say 20 charges or so, to cycle the battery again. With that said, my Venom Pro Duo charger has a cycle function, to which (depending on its state) will either fully discharge then fully charge or fully charge, discharge and then charge. You can even select how many cycles you want it to do. Its a way of conditioning your battery. I always do it with my NiMh packs.
So to your question, if you don't have a cycle option on your charger, fully discharge your pack. It can take some time depending on how much is in it and your discharge rate. Once fully discharged, then fully charge it. I use a 5000mah Nimh pack on my Raminator as the reverse and throttle servos stock are not high voltage...thus they could get toasted on a 2s lipo. No shame in a Nimh pack as long as it works for your application.
 
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Not sure how old it is, came with a used truck I bought recently. I've cycled it twice and it's taking in more than in discharges, weird... Got it set to cycle 3 more time, we will see I guess. Taking in 2500mah and discharging 1500ish.
 
So I just got done cycling 4x @ 3A. Then charged @ 4.5A and it took in 4000mah and ended at 7.6V. Going to discharge and charge one more time @ 4.5A. Not getting overly warm so looking better.
 
It should take 5amp charge/discharge all day. Nimh you could almost push 2c charge rates. 1.5c was normal. 1c was extra cautious. You'll find after you cycle it several times, you will pick up almost full capacity of the pack, but subsequent charges will slowly drop off. It's best before storage to fully discharge then charge to peak. They typically should be attended once a month. Lipo is so much easier, and if your not ready for that a LiFe battery runs the same voltage as your hump pack. No pesky nimh issues.
 
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