Battery life

[calibra]

Hi all,
This is my first post so be gentle with me!
I have a Mini Titan and am using Poly Pro 2200 11.1v 3S1P batterys.
My charger is a Graupner Ultramat 14 and i regularly balance the batteries with an Overtec Tornado balancer.
My problem is that the batteries seem to be failing after around twenty five charges. Is this normal?
The batteries hold voltage ok but as soon as I run the heli it twitches like mad which is what normally happens when the batteries are low.
I brought a new battery and this works fine.
Any thoughts welcome.

[MartinM]

25 charges is a little low, however what are you dischargeing to?

The best way is to read what the charger puts back into the pack. You have 2200mah batts so never use more than 80% thus you never want to put any more back than 1760mah. More than that you will take the cycle life down....

Have a look next time you charge, I fly my MT for about 7 mins at the most on 2200mah cells.

Martin

[Ashley Davis]

25 is low, the Tornado packs are Enerland cells and should go for about 50-70 cycles.

[calibra]

I normally fly till the tail starts to glitch (around 7 mins) and the voltage does not drop below 10v. Manufacturers spec says 9v minimum.
Will check Mah.

[MartinM]

I tend to find flying till you notice the lower voltage is too much !

How do you know it is not below 10v when flying or you have an alarm set to 10v ?

[Leebert]

Hi, Welcome to the forum.
From what I've been told, 3.2 volts per cell (under load) is a good cut off for Enerland cells. That equates to about 5 1/2 mins flying for my TRex.

The only sure way is to fly for say, 5 mins and see how much charge gets put back into the battery. As others have said, it should be no more than 80% of the battery capacity (1760 mAh) for a good battery life expectancy. If the charger puts back a fair bit less than 1760mA then extend your flight time by 30 secs and try again.

[calibra]

5 minutes? Crikey it hardly seems worth it.
My transmitter is a Hitec optic 6 and the timer alarm is just too quiet to hear outdoors.
Might have to take an alarm clock with me!