Battery Problems

[W.I.L.F]

Of late, I've noticed a large drop in rate of fire from my TM M4. After charging both of my batteries (8.4v 1500 mAh NiMh), the rate of fire is as high as usual, but after leaving the batteries unplugged for two days, the rate of fire is as slow as it would be when the batteries are about to die.

Can anyone please point me in the right direction as to what the problem is, and maybe how to fix it?

Thanks in advance,

Will

[Gaffa]

Re: Battery Problems

Go Lipo!

Hehe no just joking mate, although these days it's an option I recommend everyone considers.

Firstly- are these nickel cadmium batteries? ie, Ni-Cad's? If they are, the problem is as follows:- when you charge the battery for the first time, it should be slow charged. Then the battery should be fully discharged.
Following this the battery should then be quick charged for when you need to use it.
After using it, you must completely discharge it and leave it like this before the next time you need it.

Otherwise:-

Have the batteries been left in the cold during these two days? I shouldn't think that they'd use that much power over just two days though. How have the batteries been stored if not in the cold?

The most likely problem is that during the charging process, they're over charging or that these Ni-Mh batteries have started to suffer from a little memory effect.

Slow charge the batteries until full, and then pop them onto a discharger until fully discharged. Slow charge until full - slightly warm to the touch.

[W.I.L.F]

Re: Battery Problems

They've just been left on a shelf, basically. I'll follow the steps that you told me to follow, anyway.

[Gaffa]

Re: Battery Problems

Should be okay then.

Report back when you have an update. Good luck!

[W.I.L.F]

Re: Battery Problems

Cheers, mate

[happyal]

Re: Battery Problems

Do you have a smart charger? to get rid of the memory effect you need to do as Gaffa said, if you think you are losing capacity another thing you can do is to completely discharge the batteries and fast charge them at a very high rate, wait for them to cool, then discharge again and recharge slowly.

This is what we use to do for our RC cars when we had older cells we wanted to reformat. It needs quite a good charger to do correctly.