the ir3 battery

[impact]

My IR3 battery keeps crapping out after llike 3 hours when it has a full charge. What should I do??????

[impact]

thanks

[Doug]

I must say I was one of those people who read the manual that came with my IR3, saw those outrageous numbers on how many shots you'd get per charge on your IR3 and laughed.

I assumed I'd have to charge it after each day.

I did so for a while, then I decided I'd like to have a good idea of how many shots I'd get (with intellifeed).

It's now been 9000 shots and two months later... I'm down _1_ bar on the meter. I'm guessing this will get me through the season unless I find a team.

Crazy good battery in my opinion.

[djmjohan]

yeah, the manual says 350,000 shots on a full charge. seems crazy doesn't it?

in my experience, my ir3's go from full (4 bars) to 3/4 (3bars) pretty quickly.

But then they stay at 3 bars almost forever. I've put about 14 cases through one iR and the battery bar has only just gone down to the 2nd bar.

And that includes a week of leaving it on by accident. I didn't notice it until the next practice.. (it goes to sleep mode, but there still is a small amount of drain)

[saslade]

There seems to be a bunch of bad battary packs going around. Just had mine replaced and the new one is not right. At the shop we have had three new IR3's with bad packs. When I split the packs I found a lest one bad cell, reads - voltage, and leakers. Am about to use an older NiCad pack untill we get a good NiMH pack. Before anyone flames me, I am a certifided Electronic Tech with 23 yrs working on aircraft equipment. Including battary packs.

[saslade]

Update. Recieved a new battery and tried to charge it. Same problem as above. Quick charge then three hours later nada. So, not for the faint of heart, I got out the next bigger hammer. Note that the charge system on the LCD works differently then the IR3 or at lest reports/displayes differently. I made sure that it was up to snuff, and brute forced the new battery. 6 hours later and a very hot battery, all cells hot!!!!!, I now have a battery that seems to be working. Let you know how the battery lasts.

[Hep]

Same here when I first got my C & C IR3 I had to get the battery replaced. It would take a full charge then just dump after a day off being turned off completely. My Dark hasn't had that problem. Like stated before probably a bad batch of batteries.

[saslade]

The brute force worked. There is a difference between how the LCD and IR3 sense the battery state. Allowed me to balance the pack and charge it.

[Roy]

Ya im amazed how long m,y battery is holding out . im living off it , my charger broke . can ayy body help the little metal rod fell out .

[angel3169]

yeah,..mine is kinda wierd too,...i can charge fully,...itl stop after bout 20mins-1hr and turn it off and it will go out sumtime the next day,....but yet after i carge it fully, and play a day and leave it on, it will last that whole week at 3/4full,...i have never seen how long it will last b/c i play every weekend so i always charge it the nite b/4 just in case

[kire]

The NiMh are tolerant of being recharged at any time (unlike Nicads), but be careful when charging them. If they get really overheated (too hot to hold in your hand) when you "brute force" the charge, then they could be hurt.
If you got "bad" or "hurt" cells in the battery pack, then your "brute force" charge will be a temporary measure. You'll see the voltage drop substantially a day after the charge.

I've done a ton of work with these type of batteries in RC cars (receiver & radios) and find that a good first charge for NiMh batteries is the key to getting good performance.
In addition, I've had problems tracking down "odd" Angel problems, that have been traced to bad battery packs (even new packs). I've noticed, some of the packs showed adequate voltage but not enough milliamps to get the job done (especially using the intellifeed).

[saslade]

I aggree that the brute force charge is a last measure. It was and as you said very temp. I am wondering if anyone has tried to balance one of these packs using R/C chargers?

[C.Carles-AOG]

Possibly building a custom battery with matched cells would be better? Anyone try it?