How long do I charge?
 

How long do I charge a 9.6V 1600 mah battery for? I don't want to overcharge it and burn it out.

Thanks!

buy a smart charger, the chargers that come with the gun are always crap and will destroy your battery. Smart chargers will automatically turn off and some even beep when done charging so you know when it's ready.

What kind of charger are you using.
If it jsut a wall charger, its going to require some math. (in this case, ditch the wall charger ASAP and get a smart charger)

look at the power block and see what it says for amperage output.
For this example I am going to use 1A


At 1Amp you will charge the battery for 1.6 hours or 1 hour and 36 mins.

If it was 2A output you would charge the battery for 0.8 hours or 48 mins.

You divide the capacity of the battery by the output of the charger, make sure you convert to the same units.


if you are using a good smart charger, it will stop charging when the battery is good to go.

0.8A charger

also, wanna link me to a smart charger?

If it's a power brick (dumb charger), with your rating, charge for 2 hours (though I would recommend you charge for less time, say 1h45m, to reduce likelihood of cooking the battery).

Here's a smart charger:
http://torontoairsoft.com/product.php?id_product=1044

Here's a less smart (but smarter than your dumb) charger:
http://torontoairsoft.com/product.php?id_product=201

I have and use both.

You may want to consider the purchase of a smart charger an immediate issue. Battery explosions are real.

If you want to buy a cheap one, I recommend the Imax B6 off of Hobby King.

I would charge for 2 hours and a little bit (2 hours and 5 min maybe) just because you don't get 100% efficiency in the power transmission when charging. That's actually why the battery heats up.

Think about it this way, when something is rubbed along another surface it heats up because of friction, that friction is essentially "inefficiency" that causes you to need to do slightly more work.

Also I would grab myself a smartcharger if I were you.

:)
[QUOTE=Cobrajr122;1529945]What kind of charger are you using.
If it jsut a wall charger, its going to require some math. (in this case, ditch the wall charger ASAP and get a smart charger)

If it was 2A output you would charge the battery for 0.8 hours or 48 mins.

Isn't that a bit harsh! at 2a on a 1600mw this is not going to be a long relation! :D

It was an example, and 2 amps is nothing....

2A is nothing. Some people charge their batteries at 2C.

I've charged my 2800mAh (NiMH) battery at 1C and 1.2C (2.8A and ~3.3A respectively).

review ur high school physics and post ur questions again.

To anwser OP : have this
http://www.csgnetwork.com/batterychgcalc.html

Or alternatively, you can download Arnie's battery calculator (On arnies airsoft UK), I use that until I gets me that delicious smart charger thar.

It has an LED on it that changes to green when it's done lol...