Chargers- what do you use?

[chicagokenji]

Kenji, you're saying the discharge rate is too slow...

If you are just bashing that 4100 is just fine.

The 3amp charge rate is low. If you have a fully discharged 3600mah stick pack it might take a full hour to charge the pack. If the charge rate was 5amp you could probably charge it fully in about 35 minutes.

the discharge rate is too low. One of the ways I regularly use "discharge" is if I have a set of NiMh cells that I haven't used in a long time. I'll take the pack and discharge it at 20amps until the discharger cuts off. I then charge the pack until it peaks as fully charged. I then discharge it again. I wait ten minutes and charge it again. Generally this brings the pack back to life. If I was to just grab an old set of cells, charge them, then take them off the charger when the cahrger says it's done, the pack will feel flat with no punch and it will also most likely not have anywhere near the total runtime that set of cells is capable of.

FWIW, you can make a 20amp discharger by taking two brass rods and soldering ten 1157 bulbs to it and also use a 5.4 volt cutoff switch. Dean's sells a lightbulb discharger for about 40 bucks, I think. You can make your own for about 25.00.

But as Tex said, if you aren't racing just charge your cells until they are done put them in the vehicle and run the vehicle until it's dead then charge it up again. Each time during the day you run it the cells will work better. Thsi is assuming you are only running the vehicle every now and then. If you run it alot, just run the batteries all the way down until just your steering servo is the only thing that works, then put the batteries back onthe charger for 5 minutes then just stop and put your stuff away. 6 cell NiMh packs like to be stored with some juice in them because they slowly discharge on their own just sitting there.

I thought racing 10th scale was something you wanted to do on a regular basis. That's why I posted about the ICE.