Battery Runtime Tests

[Namuna]

I've been wondering for some time exactly what kind of runtimes I could get out of the different car batteries available. So I finally broke out my Peak Charger and went to work.

So, without further blah blah...Here's the details.

Tested:
- Stock Bit Char-G Battery (Nicad, rated at 50mAH)
- Stock ZipZaps Battery (NiMH, rated at 100mAH)
- High Capacity Battery (NiMH, rated at 160mAH)

Test equipment:
- Peak Charger (Dymond 'Super Turbo Charger')
- Modified charge stand

Test procedure:
Charging: The Peak Charger was set to a 1amp (1,000 mA) charge rate and it peak detected the voltage and stopped automatically when 'peak' charge was attained. Since the batteries had been sitting around for some time, I ran them through a few charge/discharge cycles until I got a more consistent result.

Discharging: The Peak Charger was set to draw a constant 200mA (it actually fluctuate between 200 and 210) while it automatically monitored the voltage. When the voltage reached a certain level, the charger automatically turned off.

While testing, each battery was run through several cycles of charging/discharging to get a 'truer' runtime.

Results
Stock Bit Battery: 3 to 4 minutes to 'peak' charge. Then a very consistant 8min 30sec runtime

Stock ZipZaps Battery: Approx 3 1/2 minutes to peak charge. Over 11min runtime

High Capacity Battery: Approx 5 minutes to peak charge. Over 20min runtime

What's it all mean
These are more 'scientific' tests, in a real world situation you'd be charging your car on the stock charger at much higher current and for shorter periods and it would be dependent upon the juice in the batteries you used. Still, the charge times aren't very much different, but the runtimes sure are!

Also, I had my Peak Charger set to discharge at 200mA...Your average motor uses considerably less juice (refer to my Motor Usage Tests in my sig), which means you'll actually get even LONGER runtimes than I posted if you charged for the same amount of time (at the same current)...Since I ain't about to spend hours and hours testing, I used a little bit higher current.

I'm not quite sure how the charger handled the voltage. It requires a minimum 12v input (the Power Supply I use feeds it 13.8v) and if I understand the workings correctly...It just pumps it all out to the battery being charged, but the battery only accepts as much as it needs. The Charger then monitors the pack voltage and shuts off accordingly. If this is true, then I've been overly cautious about using higher voltage.

I've got pics, but the gallery is still wacky (from the Server crash not too long ago). Once it's back up, I'll post more pics.