battery charging

[kalsh]

It is a long time since I ran an electric RC car but I still have my old chargers which were for the old 1200 nicads. I have some newer batteries which range from 1400 to 1800 now. My question is for charging directly from a 12 volt car battery do I simply increase the time from the original 15mins for the old 1200 nicad  to 22 mins for an 1800 nicad or do I still only charge them for 15mins? The old quick charger I had for the mains power was a 30min charger for the old 1200 nicad, again do I simply increase the time to say 45 minutes for an 1800nicad??? I am sure there are many out there who understand electris and can advise me accordingly. I probably will invest in a new state of the art charger which will simply charge them and go to trickle when charged but in the meantime I want to use the gear I have.

 

 

[Gruntfuggly]

What you could do is to keep charging them until they start to get warm - providing you can hold them comfortably in your hand they should be OK. Time it to see how long it takes, then just charge them for the same period next time...

[DJTheo]

Correct, you increase charging time proportionally to battery's capacity or charge it till it gets warm.Third (and best) option is to get a modern charger with peak detection and suitable for NiMH as those old ones won't give maximum punch on modern cells, take too long and may over or undecharge them (both not good for battery's lifetime)

Cheers