BATTERY HELP PLEASE

[flyingfoam]

I have t28 d and the battery is 1800mah 11.1 v. At what volt amount is the battery dead when checking it. For example i thought the battery was dead when i check the volts it read 11.3 is that dead.

[Kevin Y]

did you check it with a load or without? General rule I was taught is you want to only run it for about 80% of the capacity, that way the pack does not get to far out of balance. And make sure to always balance your batteries.

[Flatlandman]

When you try to fly and the motor puts a 20 amp load on the battery at that level of charge the batt will go down to the cut off voltage. IMO if thats the voltage after a flight then your in the normal range.

Edit; Absolute dead is below 9.0 volts. End of a useful flight is about where you have it. Better batteries with rediculously high discharge rates like 90c will have a lower voltage when done.

[Glacier Girl]

Something else. You should check individual cell voltages, especially if you are using the included charger.
I know on mine the charger seemed to have a mind of it's own at times and even thou it said it was done, I'd either have an under charged pack or an unbalanced one.

I now charge the packs on an Astro 109 with the "Blinky" balancer.

Anyhow, what I was getting at before, taking a reading on the power leads can be misleading, especially if you are not balance charging. Take a reading of say 11 volts on the main leads, and you could have 2 cells reading 4 volts, and one reading 3. Not good, as when you charge the pack it will hit the charger limits as soon as it hits 12.6 volts. And you have 3 unmatched cells. Two could be over charged and one under.

Ditto a problem when you discharge, as when the pack gets to low voltage cut off, one of the cells could be below 3 volts and you end up wasting the pack.

ALWAYS balance your packs for long life, and as KevinY stated the 80% rule is a good one to abide by.