coipus_coinpurse

Hi all, I just bought and assembled my field box for glow airplane with a Hobbico 12V 7amp battery and Deluxe Power Panel II. My question is, how does one go about charging the bettery inside the box? Do i have to remove the panel every time, or can i plug the charger into the panel somewhere? Also, how often should I charge the panel? Thanks to all!

Flyboy Dave

My Feedback: (21)

Welcome to R/C Universe....

The charge time depends on the rating of the charger. If it it a 7 amp battery
you could charge it at 1 amp for 7 hours. If it is a 500 milliamp charger, that
would be 1/2 of an amp....then you would charge it for 14 hours. These figures
are for an initial charge on a new battery, or a full charge on a discharged
battery.

Once you get the battery in service, you can simply charge it overnight when
you are going to use it the next day.

Flyboy Dave.

Flyboy Dave

My Feedback: (21)

Oops....I forgot, you can connect the charger to the terminals for the electric
starter on the power panel. That will connect to the battery.

FBD.

Rod Bender

Good Stuff,

I'm about 2 days from doing the same on my OLD field box, the power panal came in yesterday at the local hobby shop, perfect timing. This site is awesome. Great information usually quickly responded too, friendly members that don't make people asking questions feel "not welcome". I've just returned to this hobby after a 10yr idle period. With all the changes, and things forgotten, I've gotten a lot of answers here, and all with a positive feeling. Much appreciated..... Thanks, Greg

Dr1Driver

I agree that you can connect the charger to the STARTER connections on your power panel. However, I would not quick-charge a battery of this type. You can get the appropriate charger from your LHS or order it from Tower. Radio Shack also might have one. You need something rated for 12v @ 700 mA. Notice, I said "rated". It actually needs to put out a little more voltage, at least 15v. A fully charged 12v battery will read around 14v with no load. You might check Red's Battery Clinic [link]http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/[/link] for moe info.

Dr.1

coipus_coinpurse

Thanks to all for your helpful comments!

When I bought the battery from Tower I also bought the recommended wall charger that goes with it, but it was alligator clips on the end. I suppose I'm going to need to replace the alligator clips with banana plugs so I can plug into the 'starter' port to charge my field battery?

Also, when I got the battery it has some charge. Should I charge it overnight before I take it out to the field. I'm just worried about damaging the battery by over-charging it. I'm not sure how to tell how much charge the battery has...

Dr1Driver

Yes, change the alligator clips to banana plugs. It's hard to overcharge one of these batteries using the supplied charger. I'd charge it overnight before the first use. Unless you fly a LOT, or your engine is hard to start, you don't need to charge it every day you fly, just when the starter starts slowing down.

Dr.1

treedog

1 question do i solder the power panel leads to the top of the battery?

Dr1Driver

Your battery probably has 1/4" male spade lugs on it. Get a couple of 1/4" female spade lugs from Radio Shack or elsewhere and use them. That's just a personal preference. There's nothing really wrong with soldering them.

Dr.1

Nerevar

The Radio Shack stores around here quit handling the electrical parts. I suspect that all of them will follow suite soon, if they haven't already. About all they're good for now is cell phones, poor quality toys, cell phones and did I mention they have went to cell phones.

I stopped even going in their stores because you couldn't get out without them demanding repeatedly that you buy their cell phone and their service.

So those 1/4" female spade connectors will probably have to be bought "elsewhere". There is an online store called Mouser that usually has what I need.

Dr1Driver

Check Lowe's or Home Depot, too. Maybe even Wal-Mart or K-Mart.

Dr.1

Rodney

It is easy to ruin your gell cell battery. The most common way of ruining it is to discharge it to to low a value. If it falls to 12 volts, recharge. The other way to ruin it is to charge it to fast or to much. Check out www.rcbatteryclinic.com for some good advice on how to care for all types of batteries.

rcfury

My Feedback: (5)

I use the battery tender jr. Great piece of equipment. Just plug it in your battery and just forget about it. when the battery is done charging, it will stop charging. If the voltage in the battery drops below 12v it will automaticly start chargeing again. When i get back from the field ill just put it on the battery tender and forget about it until I get back to the field. Never have a dead battery again due to over charging or lack of charging.

Rod Bender

Uh.....Nathan, If you've never had a problem with dead batteries, then what happened to your plane in your avatar pic? lol
Just yankin ya bro. Do you have a link to this Jr tender deal? Sounds like a good option for me. I am in the planning stage of my plane hanger's in the garage. Based on other member’s versions, I'm going for the pvc wing and fuselage separate wall racks. I have an outlet on that wall, I'll run a bus bar for all my charging, should reach all of them. Your hands\brain off suggestion sounds favorable...
Got a link?

Thanks, Greg

fredscz

My Feedback: (47)

Greg
Harbor freight had a battery tender on sale for $7.99 plus shipping. Sears has one thats normally over priced, I have bought several off the on line auction sight. I haven't found it necessary to keep my battery plugged in, just put it on once a month at the most and my flight box battery is 6 years old.
FEB

Rod Bender

Thanks Fred,

I mis-read the post and thought it was for the TX & RX charging. The 12volt should not be a problem .... Greg

bluestratos

I bought an automatic charger for my gel cells from Pacific Power Batteries www.pacificpowerbatteries.com Just plug it in and when the battery is full the light goes out. It comes back on automatically if the battery needs it. About $29 bucks if I recall right. I have two 12amp batteries that I have wired so I can go 12 or 24. I just plug my field box in when I get home and the two are always full. The more the amp hours of the batteries the longer the charger stays on, but mine are topped off after each days flying within a few hours.

I have a trailer with 14 models in it and I have it set ups such that all of my batteries, including the NMHD, Lipos, NICD all auto charge and switch to trickle. Most of the chargers are 12 volt so I keep a large deep cycle charged by a regular battery auto car charger while parked, and it charges off of the truck battery when in tow. The few chargers that I have that are 120 are hooked up to an inverter so I never have to reset the chargers when I unplug the ac power.

Regards,
Randy

rcfury

My Feedback: (5)

Well the superstar 40 pictured is well the conclusion of when you get too confortable with the plane. HAHA Around its 100th flight I thought I was an aerobatic champion. You know what happends next....

The battery tender jr is sold at pepboys or your local car parts store. The battery tender could be found @ http://batterytender.com/product_info.php?products_id=4

Just fire and forget, Its well worth the money for me...

sillyness

My Feedback: (25)

Spade connectors can be had at any auto-parts store... prolly better tha Home Depot and the like.

Rod Bender

lol....Great..... I'm going out tomorrow morning with one of oldest ships, my most comfortable, trustworthy, figure 8'n 3' off the ground plane I've ever flown..... Well see how comfortable I get.....lol ..... Greg

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

ACE Hardware stores also carries the spade lugs, both male and female.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Nathan: Good poop on that battery tender. I have been charging my 12 v batteries (two of them) using a battery eliminator, however, it's not a 'smart source' as that battery tender is. It just pumps out up to 15 amps at 13.6 vdc so I have to watch it with charging the gell cells.

DS.

rcfury

My Feedback: (5)

No problem CGretired... I myself speak from experience with bad 12v batteries. Im very hard on batteries. Either overcharging the battery or letting them get below voltage. Which of course turns into a bad battery in a short time. Battery Tender allows me to be lazy when it comes to the gel cells..

Larry S

My Feedback: (6)

Battery tender is the only way to go. You usually get all the connections you'll need to hook up everything. I have a lead out coming out of my field box and when I'm done flying, I just plug it in to the jack coming off the tender. I have had mine on a tender going on three years and no problems so far. Also, I use a battery tender on my lawn tractor for winter plowing and on my Harley in the winter.
Larry

Capt. Bill

I had to buy a new 7 amp battery for my field box after neglecting mine pretty much for a year, so I started reading the charging threads on here. I was in Walmart today and picked up a Black and Decker Float Charger for $14.77. I expect it will do as good a job as any of the other float chargers. It is selectable for 1 or 2 amp charging rate and has LEDs to show bad connection, charging, and fully charged.