Hobbico Accucycle Elite

[blackwaterstout]

As an avid RC airplane flyer over the years I've invested a pretty substantial sum of money into the hobby. (way too much actually). One of the things I purchased a couple years back was the Hobbico Accucycle Elite. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXEYD4&P=0 . It's a peak sensing charger/cycler for multiple battery types. It's been rock solid for use in charging my receiver and transmitter packs along with also charging the LiPo packs that I use on my electric airplanes.

I'd really like to use it to charger my new LSD NiMH packs but I'm wondering what the best method of accomplishing this is. My RC packs are prewired 4,5, and 8 cell packs with non traditional connectors that plug right into my Accucycle. But in order to charge loose cells I'm going to have to come up with some type of caddy or harness that allows me to connect the loose cells to the accucycle. Since this is something I have not gotten into yet I'm curious as to how you guys accomplish this with your non-traditional chargers.

I'm looking forward to using the accucycle to measure cell capacity via the use of battery cycling. I've done this for years on my NiMH 5 cell RX packs and it gives me a good idea of when I need to replace them.

As a side note, one of the problems you run into in RC hobbies is that the older NiMH packs that we used worked great when freshly charged but had a high self discharge rate and if you did not fly your plane for a month or so you always had to top off the battery before flying.

Just for reference, a 4-cell 2000mah NiMH battery pack (4.8V) for RC use cost about $30 for most hobby suppliers. If I made my own I could buy a single pack of Eneloops or Rayovac Hybrids for $9. Would just take some soldering and some shrink wrap. (A harness of some type would work but in RC weight is king and anything you can do to save weight is gravy.)

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Blackwaterstout,

I use an adjustable clamp to hold 1 or 2 cells, then use a tube to hold more than 2 cells straight so they can be clamped together.

If you do a search on battery clamp by CPF member Cy you can see some pictures of his set up. The "issue" with clamping multiple loose cells is to minimize the contact resistance between each cell. Understand that this added resistance can throw some chargers off a little, so it is worth the effort to minimize this as much as possible.

Tom

 

[N162E]

Radio Shack has 4 and 8 cell AA holders for under $3.00. Get yourself one of these holders, attach the appropriate connector and you are good to go.

I hope this is not too simple a solution:welcome:

 

[blackwaterstout]

Radio Shack has 4 and 8 cell AA holders for under $3.00. Get yourself one of these holders, attach the appropriate connector and you are good to go.

I hope this is not too simple a solution:welcome:

That sounds like the ticket. I'll have to pick one up so that I can use the Accucycle instead of that cheap piece of junk that Rayovac includes with their Hybrid cells.

Thanks.

 

[wasBlinded]

Radio Shack has 4 and 8 cell AA holders for under $3.00. Get yourself one of these holders, attach the appropriate connector and you are good to go.

I hope this is not too simple a solution:welcome:

In my limited experience with the inexpensive RS cell holders, they do not handle high currents well, so charging rates were very limited. They are cheap enough to experiment with, though!

 

[N162E]

In my limited experience with the inexpensive RS cell holders, they do not handle high currents well, so charging rates were very limited. They are cheap enough to experiment with, though!

That potential is there. I use them with my CBA and I had a problem once which was the fault of a loose connection. These holders have 9 volt button connectors on them, Radio shack has the pigtail to make the connection. Don't make the connections any longer just attach the Banana plugs to the pigtail and it should be more than adequate. RS will have the plugs too. The weak link here is the pigtail wire which is not larger than about 22 gauge, once again for 4-8 AAs that wiring should be more than adequate.