What now?

[Rhinochugger]

Last year I bought a 9.6v saddle pack for my diesel. it was a little bit slow to take a good charge, but eventually I got it into good shape.

I left it a few months ago, half discharged.

I dragged it out of the sub-zero garage yesterday, and I cannot get it to take a charge at all. I've brought it indoors, and it's at room temperature, but still no luck.:wits:

What now? :thinking:

 

[johnsaintjim]

Ian do you have a piccie of the battery pack? What shape is it?

 

[coyote97]

aaahhhhh....its no good to leave packs uncharged!
perhaps u can get it allive with a 18 or 20 V shock....but thats something one should do with experience.

but it has taken damage now, definitely!

Frank

 

[Westcott]

Is your charger one of the "intelligent" variety?
Some of these won't charge fully discharged batteries.

I use a charger designed for RC car packs - it works out for itself how many cells it has to charge, and what voltage and current to use.
It seems to bring old cells back to life, if possible.

Hamish

 

[Rhinochugger]

OK The charger is intelligent - was designed for battery packs and is an Ansmann ACS410

Piccy of the battery, a bit tricky until I recover it from inside the loco

 

[johnsaintjim]

OK The charger is intelligent - was designed for battery packs and is an Ansmann ACS410

Piccy of the battery, a bit tricky until I recover it from inside the loco

Ian I was just wondering if I have a spare pack I could lend you to try it out but I don't have any shaped ones.

 

[Rhinochugger]

OK The charger is intelligent - was designed for battery packs and is an Ansmann ACS410

Piccy of the battery, a bit tricky until I recover it from inside the loco

Ian I was just wondering if I have a spare pack I could lend you to try it out but I don't have any shaped ones.

It's a saddle with 2 packs of four cells packed sideways, each pack being connected by leads, and a Tamiya connector.

Cheers

 

[Bram]

I have had that problem before now, had to give the pack a good jolt from an RC car charger first then put onto the intelligent charger to finish

Hope this helps

 

[dgt]

I know it's no consolation and isn't really at all helpful... I'm hoping that these new Sanyo Eneloop rechargeables are going to avoid this happening to me.

Dave

 

[johnsaintjim]

I haven't seen the new generation batteries in Sub C size yet. I must say the Sub Cs I have had have not given any trouble so far. I do always put them away fully charged so maybe that helps.

 

[Rhinochugger]

I have had that problem before now, had to give the pack a good jolt from an RC car charger first then put onto the intelligent charger to finish

Hope this helps

Anybody got an R/C car charger? :-

 

[Rhinochugger]

Today we have some good news and some bad news :thumbdown:

The battery charging issue is resolved - the fuse had blown, and I had replaced it with one that had corroded terminals - Doh!

However, I discovered that I had been talking a load of old cobbrels, because in the end, I had used 2 x 6v packs, and wired them in series to give me 12v

We then move back to the performance issues of last year, whereby a 12v battery pack is giving not very much haulage power.

The other issue is that the IP Engineering motor and gearbox which was supposed to give hundreds of running hours, was grumbling away badly. I think the ratio can only have been 30:1, which we decided may have contributed to the haulage difficulties, but the motor shaft has far too much end play, and it's grinding against the end caps that IP supplied with it.

The dilemma:

Do I pay £25 for a new IP motor with their new 40:1 gearbox (which would all drop staright in)

or do I use the motor out of my Keystone loco (which I think is the same as a Bachmann big hauler) with its 35:1 ratio, and try and fashion up some sort of a gear box/cradle? :callme::callme: