Battery Charger Advice

[Tom212]

Hi guys,

I've been out of airsofting for a couple of years now and recently decided to get back into it. I've had a couple problems with my batteries since I started testing all my old kit out and its made me question my charger.

I can't find any of the instructions that would have came with it so I'm hoping someone on here can help.

I'm worried I haven't set the charger correctly, I'm charging a couple of 8.4v 1600 mah stick batteries.

You can see the settings on my charger here:

12239946_10153696883984898_237421057703998768_n.jpg

I set the 'cells' to 8 because there are 8 'batteries' in the stick. I'm not very technical as far as electrics go so sorry for any incorrect intepretation of this or references.

I'm not sure why I set the mah to 600 or why I would change it.

I became worried when I saw the back of the charger, from what I can see its making me think maybe it should be set to 6 cells as that's next to 8.4v?

12274679_10153696883949898_726536040808402119_n.jpg

Can someone maybe make some sense of this for me please?

[Sitting Duck]

Re: Battery Charger Advice

Think you got 7 cells in a 8.4v
each cell is 1.2v eg:

7.2v = 6 x 1.2v cells
8.4v = 7 x 1.2v cells
9.6v = 8 x 1.2v cells

That is way the nimah's roll

lipo's are 3.7v cells so options are 7.4v or 11.1v
(there are extreme lipos that have a little more juice per cell but not a big ammount - 3.7v (absolute max charge of 4.2v) is the norm

LiFe's have 3.3v - usually 3x 3.3v = 9.9v but do not use a std lipo charger setting as it will damage the life battery by to overcharge to 4.2v - not wise
(life's have limited range/size/burst options so most usually upgrade eventually to 7.4v lipo which freshly charge produces up to 8.4v)

back to your nimah - pretty sure you have 7 cells for 8.4v
or your battery with 8 cells is a 9.6v battery

[Comicbook Hero]

Re: Battery Charger Advice

Sitting duck is right. 8.4v packs have 7 cells (batteries.)

The simple way i remember battery packs is.....

The v stands for the voltage a pack kicks out. If the cells (the individual batteries) are connected top to bottom you add all the cells in the pack together. In this case 7 x 1.2 = 8.4v.

The mAh is the 'storage capacity' of the cell. So each cell has 1600 milliamp hour of storage. You don't add these together as all the batteries are working together at the same time to give you the 8.4v output. (If they were wired top to top and bottom to bottom the battery pack would have an output of 1.2v but a storage capacity of 11,200mAh as the pack would use one cell at a time. Not much use in airsoft :-)

If you have your charger set to 600mAh for charging, it will not fully charge your cells to their full capacity and they will discharge real quick or not perform at all. I'd be inclined to buy a new charger. Nothing spoils a days airsoft than batteries not working properly.

Hope that helps.

[colinjallen]

Re: Battery Charger Advice

The 600mA setting refers to the rate at which the battery is charged; it does not set any form of limit to which it is charged. The 600mA setting will charge the battery twice as quickly as the 300mA setting.