Whats wrong with my batts?? could i make my own?

Avose

Right, so my batteries are both pretty much knackered >.<
One is a 1250MaH 8.4v ASG from MIA.
The other is 2000MaH 9.6v Intellect from Hobbyairsoft.
I'm also using a smart charger bought in Hobbyairsoft.

I really dont know whats up, i heard Intellect is a good brand, so i have no idea why the 2000 MaH one would have broken . A full charge doesnt even last ten shots

Shortly after, my older battery started acting up, and it only lasts about one or two mags (300rds each)

Could the problem be my charger, or is it the gun, or are the batts just screwed???

I cant get to hobbyairsoft or mia anytime soon, so now ive just had the (maybe not so) bright idea or making my own:)

If i got myself 6 rechargable batteries, and wired them all up with nice deans connectors, would i be able to use that as a rubberbands and paperclips type fix temporarily??
(1.5v X 6 = 9.0v )

Thanks alot,
Avose

NakedDex

Sounds like you've got dead cells in the packs. Once that happens, they're pretty much scrap.
Are they NiCd or NiMH? What's the current rating on the charger? What age are they?
There's a large number of factors to take into account when trying to find out why a battery went dead. Sometimes it's just bad luck, like getting a bulb that blows after a week. Unless you had a multimeter to hand, there's no way to know for sure what's gone wrong with the pack, and certainly even less chance of finding what caused it.

As for making a pack, firstly, you've gotten your voltages wrong. Rechargeable cells are not 1.5V each, that's the nominal voltage of a disposable dry cell. Rechargeable dry cells are 1.2V for both NiCd and NiMH. Buying the appropriate cells to make up a pack for an airsoft device will actually cost you about twice the price of buying a pre-made pack in a store. There's nothing to stop you from doing it, but economically it's not worth the hassle (and unless you're pretty good at soldering, and have a very good iron, it's a lot of hassle. There's more to it than you think).


If you have a multimeter to hand, I can talk you through determining the actual fault with the cells, but if that's how they're peforming, they're both scrappable. Time to pick up a new one.

Avose

they are both NiMh, and i dont know what the current rating is :P sorry. ( it automatically changes to the correct voltage depending on the battery if that helps)

and what do you mean by age? the first one was bought bout 4 months ago, the older one i dont know.. is that what you meant? :P

and yes i do have a multimeter, so please tell me how.

And is there definatly no possible fix? cause i bought the intellect one, and within 2 or 3 weeks it was gone... Do you think Hobbyairsoft would replace it for me? or have i left it too late? (i still have the reciept)

Thanks again,
Avose

NakedDex

The current rating is written on the charger itself. Unless it's a fast charger, it probably says something like "Output: 250mA". The reason I asked was that fast chargers sometimes effect NiCd packs adversely, but that obviously isn't the case here.
Age as in how long you've had them and how often they've been used in that time. Four months is pretty young for a pack really, you'll usually get about a years regular use out of them before they begin to degrade.

To test the pack's integrity, you'll need to strip the heat-shrunk plastic sleeve around the entire pack. Be careful not to nick the plastic covering on the cells themselves.
Once done, expose the ends of each cell without damaging the insulated spacer between them or the solder tags.
Set your meter to volts and test each cell individually. At full charge they should read about 1.4/1.5V. A discharged cell should be about .9V/.8V. A damaged/"dead" cell, however, will read much lower. Usually around the .2V/.3V mark.
If you find any damaged cells, you'll have found your reason for your pack not providing power for longer than a couple of hundred rounds. You can replace that single cell, however - and this is vitally important - the replacement cell must be identical to the others in the pack. If it's not the same, you'll have an imbalanced battery and end up with the same problems with battery life again.

Retail price for a replacement NiMH cell is about €2-4 online, and as much as €6-8 in stores. A airsoft pack, as you can tell from your own, consists of seven or eight cells in series. Even if you got cheap cells online, it'd still be as cheap to buy a replacement pack. Not to mention the trouble making those packs up can be (I've had to make them up before for much larger systems where it was more economical to build than buy, quite a pain in the rear).

Hobby might replace it, but I wouldn't hold my breath. They're good guys in there and may look favourably upon your plight, but batteries are consumable (and abuseable) items. It'd be a bit like going back to B&Q with a light bulb and asking for a refund because it blew three weeks after you put it in.
You can ask, but I'd assume the answer to be no.

That said, if your pack has failed after just a few weeks, I would postulate that either your charger has an overcharge problem and is frying the pack internally, or your rifle is shorting the pack somewhere in the wiring loom. Maybe drop the rifle into the guys in there to have a look at while you're in there, and explain the problem you're having. They might find the cause and be able to sort it out for you without any further dead batteries to mourn over.

Avose

Ok thanks alot for the help, next time i get a chance i will drop into Hobbyairsoft or somewhere of the sort, and maybe they can tell me which one is acting up and destroying my batts. :P

you've been a real help man

Thanks again,
Avose

darman28

Also if u have a bad hadit of leaving ur batteries connected in ur gun when ur not using them, this can seriously shorten there life span

NakedDex

That would be true if it weren't for the fact that it's a myth.

Inari

darman28 wrote: »

Also if u have a bad hadit of leaving ur batteries connected in ur gun when ur not using them, this can seriously shorten there life span

The main reason for not leaving a battery in a gun is so it is incapable of firing...not to prolong the life span of a battery