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We will charge this battery with our Suaoki ICS4 4A battery charger.
| Charging Parameters | Value |
|---|---|
| Battery Type | SLA (includes Flooded) |
| Speed | Fast (4A) |
| Max Voltage | 14.4v |
| Current | 4A |
Charging Steps
Discharge Test
A discharge test was performed using the SkyRC Max B6 charger. In order to get the test to run to completion, we had to disable the Capacity Cut off and the Safety Timer (See appendix).
We will use the NiCd Discharge test setting the discharge end voltage to 10.8v. The discharge test will draw 0.5A per hour until it reaches it's cutoff voltage of 10.8v.
First Discharge Test
For this discharge test, we first charged it fully and then discharged it. We discharged it using the using the Lead Acid discharge with no cutoff voltage. Should have used the NiCd discharge test but didn't know to use that at the time.
This The discharge test revealed that the battery had a capacity of 6579 mAh (6.6Ah) as opposed to the expected 80Ah. We are only getting 8% of the rated capacity!
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| Test | Final Voltage | Capacity (mAh) | % of Capacity | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 27, 2019 | 10.16 | 13,392 | 17% | Added distilled water |
| Nov 1, 2019 | 8.69 | 22,226 | 28% | Added more distilled water |
| Nov 7, 2019 | 10.0 | 24,543 | 31% | Shook |
| Nov 12, 2019 | 10.5 | 27,291 | 34% | Shook |
| Nov 18, 2019 | 10.5 | 29,315 | 37% | Shook |
| Nov 24, 2019 | 10.5 | 30,847 | 39% | Shook |
| Nov 30, 2019 | 10.6 | 32,413 | 40.5% | Shook |
Questions
- Does a lead acid battery rated at 80Ah actually give you 80Ah??
Conclusions
We managed to get our battery back up to a reasonable value and in the process discovered:
- we had been charging our battery as an AGM battery which charges at 14.7v as opposed to 14.4v
- we need to check the water levels of our battery yearly.
Appendix
Disabling Safety Timer and Capacity Cut Off on IMAX B6
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