Ravenseye Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Hello folks! I work at a hobby shop and deal with a lot of radio controlled products every day. I wanted to put some things that you aught to think of if you are thinking of choosing one of these items for the kids (or the bigger kids) in your life! 1) Unless the product has Lithium-Ion batteries, charging the batteries up the day before is useless! Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) or Nickel Cadmium (NiCad) batteries will lose the power from the charge overnight. Lithium batteries keep that charge up to a month before you see a noticeable fade to it. 2) Batteries are dangerous!! DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, LEAVE A CHARGING BATTERY ALONE!! Lithium batteries can catch fire, and scoot away very fast. Nicads and Nimh cells can explode if something wasn't spot welded in the pack correctly. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THEM THROUGH THE CHARGE CYCLE! Check them by holding them with your hand (Unless you see or hear something bad from a distance) to feel whether they are feeling too hot. Nimh and Nicad will get warm (some call it hot, some call it warm) when they are charged. That is normal and completely fine. In fact, they should be used when they are warm/hot as this is when they'll have the best oomph in the vehicle. 3) Please, read all instruction manuals, and understand fully what you are getting into. If you do not understand when the manual tells you to adjust something, ask! I'd hate to see something that should be enjoyable and fun turn into frustrating and stressful! An hour or so reading through the manual will help a ton and alleviate a lot of frustration on your part! 4) Use whatever you have, whether it's a $20 Air Hogs helicopter, or a $1000 airplane responsibly. While something like the Air Hogs won't do a lot of damage to things, bigger things can (and do!). Please use your head when playing with these things! Thanks folks! If anyone has questions about this stuff, please ask! I love sharing my knowledge with people when it comes to hobby stuff and can suggest excellent places to look for great stuff! -Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansieDZ Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 Hi Mike! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I have a question about charging batteries in the charger: after charging,should you take the batteries out or leave them in the charger (unplugged)? I've read about "low self-discharge" and "high self-discharge" (I think) which is when the batteries lose power just by being in the device,whether or not they are being used. Could you address this issue? (or p.m. if you think the info would not be useful to others. it may be a stupid question that everyone but me knows the answer to!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenseye Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 No questions are dumb questions! Thanks for reading and asking! Now, to answer your question: Take the batteries out. There is a chance, depending on how the charger is programmed, that the charger will continue to trickle charge the batteries even though they have reached peak charge. If this happens, there is a chance that the batteries could overhead and exhaust/explode. If you leave them in the charger unplugged, they may discharge to the point where the charger won't charge them again. To be on the safe side, whenever the batteries are done charging, remove them from the charger as soon as possible to avoid any chance of bad things happening. -Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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