Stand Alone charger question
 

So I decided to make a stand alone charger for my LXX. Went to RS, bought a 4AA battery pack, removed the charging platform from the controller, and hooked it up to the battery pack.

Now before I attempt to charge my stock 80 mah Nimh battery with 6 volts of juice, I have to ask, is this a bad idea? I'm reading QFM and forum descriptions of 4.5 volt stand alone chargers for 2 cell cars. Here I am ready to send 6 volts into one cell.

I'm an electronics idiot, which is why I'm naively wondering if this extra voltage can be compensated for by a shorter charge time? If this is not recommended, I'm ready to go back to RS to get myself a 2 AA battery pack.

What exactly is the formula involved when calculating this sort of stuff?

I would try to charge one 80mah with 6volts you might fry it if you leave it on to long. That would be like charging a set of ni-mh 3000 at 10.5 amps, will give you great top speed but no run time and shorten if not kill the life of your battery, use a 2 battery setup from rs. Just my .02

well, I have a dual battery mod wih two NiMH batteries and I use an 8 AA charger (9.6 v). When I charge, the battery gets pretty hot, but before anything can melt, I unplug the charger. The car runs better that normal and actually has increased run times. So I say, the higher the voltage, the better. Just don't overcharge and melt anything:D

Not to sound like an a$$, but why take the chance, I know the cars and the batteries are cheap, but still think about the life of the battery, high voltage=less life.

I finally decided to build a 2AA charger for my single 80 Nimh cell car. Tested it just now, and it works great!

Before, my LXX controller was giving me problems charging, so it was almost impossible to double charge, even if I wanted to.

Now, I can leave my little guy on the charge pad for hours and hours (just kidding... more like 90-120 seconds) with no problem. As a result, my run time between charges has increased from ~5 minutes to 25-30 minutes.