Battery Charging - Help Please
 

I hope it's ok for me to post questions like this in the forums here. I haven't really searched for general forums, but have found some helpful answers here.

I've recently purchased 1900mah and 3300mah batteries. I have a piranha fast charger that didn't come with a whole lot of instructions. Actually it came with two lines of instruction that didn't offer a whole lot of help.

It tells me...

1300-1500mah -15-23 mins
1700-2000mah -28-33 mins

The needle when charging a 1900mah pack, at 30 mins (2 15 min cycles) is still within 3 to 5, and batteries last about 10 mins in my stock traxxas rustler. Are the batteries fully charged when those 30 mins are up... or should I charge a third cycle til needle on the meter hits 0?

It tells me also to discharge to 1.5 on the meter... before charging a battery. this is why I ask about charging to 0.

with these 3300mah batteries (still waiting for them to come) should I charge them 3 cycles? (45 mins fast charge) ?

Sorry for all the questions... much thanks for the help in advance.

Isn't that a nicd charger?

The box says it will do nicd or nimh batteries. The charger I have is a Duratrax Piranha CX-15 AC/DC Fast Charger w/ meter.

I purchased it with a combo package from Tower Hobbies.

Charger Link - http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXSF53

I never messed with a timed charger, if you want to upgrade, http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...p?&I=LXCLD5&P= this one is great and under 50.00

Yeah, timed chargers aren't the best. They can under or overcharge your pack quite easily. Do your packs get warm at the end of the charge? If they are still cool, they are not charged all the way. If they are hot, they are being overcharged.

Do yourself (and your batts) a favor and get a decent peak detection charger like the one posted above. I've had great luck with a MRC Superbrain 959 until I got my Hyperion charger, but the one posted above has slightly better features.