How long do I charge my Honeybee FP heli (stock) battery for?

Question

Okay, I got my Honeybee FP in the mail today. I'm trying to charge the stock battery (I'll charge the others later on). It's an ESky 8.4v 650mAh NI-MH (Ek1-0100).

It doesn't say how long to charge the battery for. The manual literally says "During the charging process, you can determine whether the battery is fully charged as follows:

1. Voltage measurement:

Use a voltage indicator. This is the best way.

2. Temperature:

When charging, examine the temperature of the battery all the time. When the temperature of the battery is rising, it shows that the charging is close to finish. Please turn off the charger.

3. Calculation of the charging time.:

charging time = capacity of the battery/charging current."

Why does this poor English translation not surprise me? I guess I should have known they would give me a charger that doesn't even have a stupid indicator light on it to tell me when the battery is charged.

Answer 1

Hi,

If you have 650mAh batteries and are using a charger that charges at 300mAh, then a typical charge will be a bit over 2 hours.

The first few times that you charge and discharge the pack, it will not deliver full capacity.  So the heli may be underpowered.  After 4 or 5 charge cycles, it should be better.

You might want to read up on the dedicated RC heli forums.

http://www.rcgroups.com/micro-helis-42/

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Helicopt...

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Electric...

http://www.rcgroups.com/mini-helis-374/

Good luck!