[NSRCA-discussion] NiMH Question

[Michael Cohen]

I am cycling my batteries and getting ready for the flying season.  On my initial 5 cycle run at my NiMH batteries, both my 1650 mAh packs cycled very low.  One pack that I have not used since end of November only cycled up to 850 mAh and the other pack I have not used since end of September only cycled up to 1000 mAh.  My charger is set to 5 cycles, charge and discharge are set to .65 amps with a cutoff voltage at 1.1 Volts per cell.  I am now trying 1.00 amp charge/discharge with a 1.0 volt per cell cutoff and it is looking better, but I have some questions:

1)  Did I damage the batteries by letting them self-discharge too low?  I know NiMH batteries have a higher self discharge rate than NiCD batteries, but I am not aware letting the NiMH batteries run down could cause damage.

2)  Is this a normal behavior?  Maybe NiMH just need a little more juice at the beginning of the season.

3)  Is the cold garage a factor?

Thoughts?

Mike Cohen
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.nsrca.org/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20060223/33c1910a/attachment-0001.html