Nimh batteries

[Snowflake]

I just got a Nimh battery and the people from the hobby shop said I would need to cycle the battery every 20th charge and to keep track of how many charges. He was fairly sure that I would be able to do this with my charger . I have an onyx 245 charger. I looked with out hooking up the battery on the charger and I didn't see a cycle feature. Do I have the correct charger to cycle batteries?

[WHITE-TRASH]

Why on earth did you get a nihm battery? Terrible batteries is what got me to put my rc stuff I storage 15 years ago and lipo got me to break it back out and I've been loving every minute of it since.

[TooOldForThis]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

I just got a Nimh battery and the people from the hobby shop said I would need to cycle the battery every 20th charge and to keep track of how many charges.

You can ignore that advice. The main benefit of Nimh batteries these days is how well they can safely tolerate neglect, which isn't the case for others like Lipo. A lot of people in the hobby look down on Nimh because the state of the art has moved on, but if it's a low-amp application like casual crawling, they're fine.

Having said that, Lipo batteries perform better and are a great upgrade when you're ready.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by TooOldForThis

You can ignore that advice. The main benefit of Nimh batteries these days is how well they can safely tolerate neglect, which isn't the case for others like Lipo.

That's not true. NiMH batteries can start fires and even explode! No battery should be neglected!

[TooOldForThis]

Sure its possible, but they're a lot less volatile than Lipos.

Edit: In hindsight, "safely tolerate neglect" was a poor choice of words. I meant it relative to Lipos where you need to think about balance charging, cutoff voltage, storage charge, etc.

[Highmark]

Seems a bit much to me... If you drain them until the truck won't move anymore and they're reaching approximately the capacity you expect on a charge I wouldn't worry about it too much. NiMH cells are a tough chemistry and won't suffer to badly if you aren't putting a lot of effort into maintaining them. I suspect that your charger can cycle as it appears to be lipo capable.

The older NiCD chemistry batteries developed a 'memory' over time, whereas if you didn't charge / discharge them fully they would become weaker over time. I think you're guy was probably old school enough to have carried that forward. NiMH cells mostly fixed the memory issue, although some cells required some low amperage cycling (the GP 3300's come to mind) to reach their peak ratings or if they start to get a little flat.

[Greatscott]

Originally Posted by WHITE-TRASH

Why on earth did you get a nihm battery? Terrible batteries is what got me to put my rc stuff I storage 15 years ago and lipo got me to break it back out and I've been loving every minute of it since.

Agree and disagree. Lipo packs are better packs in all respects, save one, learning curve. If you are new to the hobby, getting NiMH makes since, less to think about. Once he has gotten a handle on the rest of his rig, he can move on to lipo. The big thing is the charger, out of the gate you want one that can charge just about any chemistry. Now, if you have a good RC mentor that can help smooth out the learning curve a bit.

Originally Posted by TooOldForThis

You can ignore that advice. The main benefit of Nimh batteries these days is how well they can safely tolerate neglect, which isn't the case for others like Lipo. A lot of people in the hobby look down on Nimh because the state of the art has moved on, but if it's a low-amp application like casual crawling, they're fine.

Having said that, Lipo batteries perform better and are a great upgrade when you're ready.

This myth is a hold over from NiCDs. NiCDs would develop a memory if they were not discharged every now and then. HiMH do not develop a memory and do not require periodic discharging. If fact, discharging a NiMH beyond where it has dumped will damage the pack.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

That's not true. NiMH batteries can start fires and even explode! No battery should be neglected!

I think it would be fair to say that NiMH packs do not need as much care and feeding as lipo packs. But, all batteries are stored energy, and require a requisite amount of respect.

[WHITE-TRASH]

Originally Posted by Greatscott

Agree and disagree. Lipo packs are better packs in all respects, save one, learning curve. If you are new to the hobby, getting NiMH makes since, less to think about. Once he has gotten a handle on the rest of his rig, he can move on to lipo. The big thing is the charger, out of the gate you want one that can charge just about any chemistry. Now, if you have a good RC mentor that can help smooth out the learning curve a bit.

Lipo is real easy to figure out. If someone cant grasp the simplicity of lipo when starting from zero then they will have a bad time in most aspects of rc. The tough learning curve is coming from nihm or nicd and thinking that lipo is like a supercharged version of them and then wondering why their junk is on fire.

[Rekreant]

Try charging your nimh at 1C and tell me again how hard it is to start a fire with them lol. Nimhs are a waste of money in anything but double and triple A sizes.

[Snowflake]

Ok first of all I simply asked if I had the correct charger to cycle the NIMH batteries. Not what your opinions of them are. If you must know I run LIPO in my own car. This car is a older car that doesn't have a LIPO cutoff or warning. I don't want to put one on as this is an older car it's been discontinued I like to have it so when I take other people out that don't have cars they can drive something to. So i think i got that my charger could cycle batteries. Does anyone know how to cycle a battery with my set up. Once again I have an onyx 245. Any and all HELP would be great.

[WHITE-TRASH]

Perfect screen name choice.




Yes I know, mine is that of a lowly trailer park dwelling sister fawker. The irony is if never lived in a trailer park and I don't have a sister.

[Snowflake]

I actually got this nickname because I always used to throw kickbacks and I only had this snowflake light to light up the area where we were. Someone said I'ma call you snowflake and it stuck lol


Oh and my real name is David is that close enough to dave? Lol

[ferp420]

Cycling the battery is just charging all the way and discharging all the way you dont need a special charger or feature to cycle the battery

[TooOldForThis]

Originally Posted by ferp420

Cycling the battery is just charging all the way and discharging all the way you dont need a special charger or feature to cycle the battery

^Yes, this. Nevermind the fact that it's a hold-over from the days of Nicd and isn't needed for Nimh. Someone else already mentioned this. OP should consider the collective knowledge of the people in this forum might outweigh the lone guy at his hobby shop.

Granted, our delivery of that knowledge can be pretty crude.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by WHITE-TRASH

Lipo is real easy to figure out. If someone cant grasp the simplicity of lipo when starting from zero then they will have a bad time in most aspects of rc. The tough learning curve is coming from nihm or nicd and thinking that lipo is like a supercharged version of them and then wondering why their junk is on fire.

When I first got back into RC I was confused by LiPos and somewhat afraid of them because of all the talk of fires. But then I was given the 1C rule and that makes it as simple as can be and I realized 95% of the fires were caused by idiots.

Originally Posted by Snowflake

Ok first of all I simply asked if I had the correct charger to cycle the NIMH batteries. Not what your opinions of them are. If you must know I run LIPO in my own car. This car is a older car that doesn't have a LIPO cutoff or warning. I don't want to put one on as this is an older car it's been discontinued I like to have it so when I take other people out that don't have cars they can drive something to. So i think i got that my charger could cycle batteries. Does anyone know how to cycle a battery with my set up. Once again I have an onyx 245. Any and all HELP would be great.

Get used to off-topic stuff here. That's the way it is. It's an open forum. People will give you their opinion about the topic on hand and other stuff. You have to be thick skinned and easy going to survive here.

Originally Posted by WHITE-TRASH

Yes I know, mine is that of a lowly trailer park dwelling sister fawker. The irony is if never lived in a trailer park and I don't have a sister.

Your poor brother!

[Rekreant]

Originally Posted by jatotheripper

your poor brother!

omfg lol

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Get used to off-topic stuff here. That's the way it is. It's an open forum. People will give you their opinion about the topic on hand and other stuff. You have to be thick skinned and easy going to survive here.

Good advice I'm fairly new to the forum if you haven't noticed lol

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

Ok first of all I simply asked if I had the correct charger to cycle the NIMH batteries. Not what your opinions of them are. If you must know I run LIPO in my own car. This car is a older car that doesn't have a LIPO cutoff or warning. I don't want to put one on as this is an older car it's been discontinued I like to have it so when I take other people out that don't have cars they can drive something to. So i think i got that my charger could cycle batteries. Does anyone know how to cycle a battery with my set up. Once again I have an onyx 245. Any and all HELP would be great.

From the sound of it, what you need isn't a NiMH battery, it's a lipo alarm. That will allow you to run Lipos in your older RC without making any mods to it whatsoever, assuming that your existing Lipos fit the car's battery tray.

https://www.ebay.com/p/RC-Lipo-Batte...3539617&chn=ps

As for NiMH, I think they do have their place. I trust my kids to recharge their own NiMH packs but I won't entrust them to recharge a lipo. NiMH packs are also great when I want to throw an RC into my truck to use later on. I don't like the idea of leaving a lipo in a hot truck. I'm sure they can tolerate 100+ degree temperatures without issue, but I'd rather not find out that they can't.