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View Full Version : An easy fix for "false peaking" woes?!


Yipcanjo
10-18-2002, 12:10 PM
This is "old" news to many of you, and "welcome" news to a few others, but I've finally gotten rid of my "false peaking" problems while charging! Here's the story...

I've had a Duratrax Intellipeak Pulse Charger (standard model) for close to two years now. I have had false peaks that entire time, and more so as I've gotten higher mAh packs. In general, my NiMH packs would false peak 7 or 8 times per charge! Hopefully I don't have to tell you HOW frustrating that is. My NiCD packs would usually false peak 1 or 2 times -- not too bad, but still annoying.

Out of sheer frustration, I finally decided to stick a large fan (house fan) in front of my charger while charging -- just to see if it helped at all, though I wasn't expecting much. Why wasn't I? Because my NiMH packs would usually false peak after just 2 or 3 minutes... barely enough time for the charger to get warm. In any case, to make a long story a bit longer, my false peaking woes seemed to have gone away!!! I took my absolute "worst of the worst" batteries (with false peaking, that is) and put it to the test -- not a single false peak during the 1 hour charge! Now my batteries can charge properly, and I don't have to think about getting a new charger - it works fine.

Lesson learned?: if you tend to get a lot of "false peaks" while charging, try placing a large fan in front of it -- see what happens. It fixed my problems and I'm stoked.

:)

Yip

p.s. -- I posted this same message on the Traxxas board, in case you see that too... in hopes that it will make someone's day a bit brighter (like it did for me)

CalmCyclone
10-18-2002, 02:06 PM
The standard IntelliPeak charger gets scorching-hot on race day, after charging several packs at 5.5 amps.

To eliminate the false-peak problem altogether, you could upgrade your charger. Integy offers a v2.5 hardware/software upgrade for the IntelliPeak chargers, which has 6 modes for charging NiCd and NiMH packs. It's only $35 and takes 10 days. Check out the info here (http://secure400.automatedshops.com/cgi-bin/ams/shopzone30.cgi/~wfp16353/High_Voltage.html) (scroll down near the bottom of the page).

I just bought a Reedy Quasar Pro charger to replace my IntelliPeak, otherwise I'd probably upgrade it.


CalmCyclone
R/C veteran, R/C racing newbie

assoc.b129
10-18-2002, 02:30 PM
heh thats cool:) when you send your charger in, do they have to take the chargers case off and soder it in, or is it an external unit?

thanx:)

Yipcanjo
10-18-2002, 04:26 PM
That is *very* wacky, but very cool as well. Does anyone have more information on that software upgrade (besides the Integy link)? I'm definitely interested....

:p

Yip

k_sw31
10-18-2002, 08:24 PM
anything like that for the super brain :confused:

aliikane
10-19-2002, 07:11 PM
I think heat can be one of the problems to cause false peaking. If you want to do something to also help the problem, try putting Deans plugs on. My batteries before would never charge correctly with the Tamiyas and would get super hot and false peak. Now, they never false peak and they stay cool. In my opinion they are a must.

k_sw31
10-19-2002, 08:54 PM
I already use deans plugs, and my super brain doesn't false peak very often...

pudder
10-20-2002, 12:31 AM
What a weird problem. Today me and a friend were trying to charge some of his batts on my Tekin charger and well on the regular modes they were always false peaking, so I just put it to the "cold start" mode and it never false peaked at all. :) I love my charger!

rx78gp03s
10-20-2002, 03:13 AM
well if u play with the amp adjuster on the intellipeak charger, it'll false peak automatically. i've had no problems about false peaking with my intellipeak pulse charger. just leave the amp adjustment alone, and it'll be good. also put the charger in front of a fan.

Yipcanjo
10-21-2002, 12:27 PM
Putting the fan on it IS A MUST, in my opinion. I've also been able to bump up my charging rates, which is very cool.

:D

Yip