IMax B6AC Charger

kgolgo · March 26, 2012, 9:05pm

Hello,

I would like to confirm my plan to charge NiMh AA 220mAh 7.2V battery back (6 cells) on the IMax B6AC charger. Again, I am painfully green with this type of thing and just want to ask the experts.

Here it goes:

Connect the 4 mm banana plug to the output charge (red to +, black to -), then connect the other end to the cable to the T end of the JR connector cable with male terminator. Then connect the male terminator end of the cable to the female terminator of the pololu NiMh AA 220mAh 7.2V battery back.

Then as for the program, I would select the NimH batt, then select the NimH default program. It says 0.1 Amps ? Is this correct. (Would you recommend modifying this?) If I hit enter twice it will blink and I can modify it. I understand to hit enter again to stop the blinking. Then to get to the current limit I press inc/dec and then hit enter at the 0.6A default (or should I modify this?). How do I think start the charging? Is this automatic or do I have to load this program? A little confused by the flow chart.

How will I know the battery is fully charged?

Thanks for your support!

aaron · March 29, 2012, 7:23pm

Hello.

You are on the right track. For the battery you have, you can increment the charger to charge at 2.2 A. To begin charging, hold down the enter key (which says start above it) until it beeps. The screen will indicate that it is charging, and it will beep when it is finished charging. For recommended charging currents and times, see page 16 of the user’s manual. For your battery, it should charge for around 84 minutes.

-Aaron

kevin · March 30, 2012, 1:54am

To explain the 2.2 A charging current, a general guideline is to charge a NiMH battery at a maximum rate of 1C, which means the rate that it would take to charge or discharge the battery in one hour. So for a battery with a capacity of 2200 mAh (milliamp hours), its 1C current would be 2200 mA, or 2.2 A.

(You typed “220mAh”; this is assuming that you have a 2200 mAh pack. If you actually meant 200 mAh, a 0.2 A charging current would be more appropriate.)

- Kevin