NiMH charging

This might be a stupid question, but I have read lots of stuff about "in transmitter" battery charging and still do not understand.
I use a 8 cells pack of eneloop NiMh batteries to power my Devo10. Right now I charge them using my Imax B6A (not the best choice, but it all I've got).
Two problems :
- the JST connector of the Devo is quite weak and I would rather charge "in place" than plug/unplug the pack every time.
- I cannot charge Lipos during this time (this loooooog time, as I charge at C/10)

Question is : should I use a power supply or a wall charger to connect to the Devo ?
In other word, does the Devo have an internal charge circuitry ?

It's only my opinion, but I never charge any battery inside. I do this one time and the battery was to hot and ruined my model car.

I use also eneloops in my DEVO and I know about the week connection but I don't unplug the pack. I take out every battery and charge in a spearete charger.

For charing I use a UCT 100 6.

My eneloos are around 5 years old and I don't trust them for charching in an TX

I also internally charge my 10 and 6s - and my 7E before I sold it. Just use a wall wart.

The internal charger was designed for this kind of charging, and should be safe so long as the wall wart provides an appropriate voltage and enough amperage. It's also a lot safer than recharging LiPo's, as NiMh batteries are a lot less obnoxious in their behavior when abused. If I were using a Tx pack of some kind, I'd recharge on my 4-button charger and always take it out. But charging without having to open the transmitter is to convenient. I also use an "auto wart" (plugs into cig lighter in the car, provides appropriate voltage/amperage) for recharging them at the pond, as I tend to run down the Tx's more often than Rx packs.

www.deviationtx.com/forum/6-general-disc...devo-10-wall-charger

How fast is the internal Devo 10 charger charging the internal Nimh pack? 50mA?
Looks like it is not going for 200mA (Spektrum DX8) or 400mA (newer Spektrum transmitters)?

There is a label on the outside which says 50mA (0,05A) when you plug in a power supply.

I also use a 3s 1300mah lipo pack mounted to the back. Like described on walkera-fans.de.


Probably it is best to have a 2nd plug soldered on the internal nimh 8 cell pack so you can open the battery door and plug your charger into?!? Well, there is not that much space...

Thomas

Hello,
so do you need to limit the current external or do you just take a power supply which supplies 12 V and 5A. Plug it in and the charging circuit will only take 50 mA?
I'm asking this because I'm using my Devo 10 often for simulation and I'd like to recharge while flying in the simulator. Or would it be possible to put another connector at the back and supply the power directly to the transmitter without a battery? Anyone tried this?

Mario

Yes, the 10 draws 50mA, so any wall wart that supplies at least that will work, and it will only draw the 50mA. That's why charging batteries in place with the internal charger is safe while using an external charger with some higher current draw might not be.

You can use the Tx while it's plugged in. Never tried it without the battery in place, as not having to deal with the battery door is my main reason for using the internal charger. Other than weight, it's not clear why you would want to do that.

Thank you for your answer!
I've tried it already and measured the current. If it's turned off it draws about 20 mA, but my rechargeable batteries were pretty full. If it's turned on it draws about 130-210 mA. But this is changing. If your tx starts to vibrate it goes to the high value.
Another test I did is, will the tx work without batteries it did. Then it drew about 20 mA less than with batteries.

The good thing with 2+ external 3s 1300mah lipos is that you can look for 2-3C charge rates.
At least you can load your lipos >50/200/400mA.

You can turn the Devo10 on - use it (SIM) / fly with it - and plug the lipo parallel into the charger port so it does not drain the nimh too much.

This is my 50mA internal charger workaround which would take endlessly compared to ~12 hours Spektrum DX8 (200mah).

Thanks for the answers !
I found a 12V 1.5A power supply with the proper polarity in my scrap box. It does the job
Just wanted to be sure because I already killed a radio a few years ago using a power supply instead of a charger.

Just an FYI, I charge mine with a 9v wall wart and it charges just fine.

You can change a Charger.

I recently bought a Devo 7E and I am loving it except one thing!
I use it with Eneloops but it's a real pain to remove the batteries to charge them. I plan to use a wall wart to charge in-place but there seems to be no charge indicator even when the TX is on. I guess deviation has no control or sensor on the charge circuit to know when the charging is complete. Is there a HW mod that can introduce a simple LED to indicate the charging status? I looked and couldn't find one.

Hello. I have 4 Ni MH 1900 mAh batteries for my devo 7e deviated.
I charge with power supply 9v 1A max.

How long does it take to charge the battery?
Is it better to keep Devo off?