Sovereign GT Question

[fsa46]

Can anyone tell me what the NiMH battery pack on the GT peaks out at when fully charged ?

 

[Critterhunter]

Can you be more specific as to your question? Are you talking the voltage read while it's on the wall transformer still or after you've removed it. There in lies the rub, because on the transformer the voltage will slightly rise and fall during the normal charging process. Once it's fully charged the voltage will then take a bigger dip and then sit around that #. That's how regular chargers know to shut off the charge on nimhs or nicads, when they see that bigger dip of the voltage compared to the smaller ones during the charging process. It's called a m/v threshold setting on chargers that let you set it. Usually around 5 to 7 m/v for nimhs, or around 12 or 14 m/v for nicads. If you can read the voltage of your pack while it's still charging then you can tell when it's peaked by noting if the voltage has dropped and is now lingering around the same number say an hour later when you check again, rather than still climbing.

If you are asking about what the voltage of the pack should read when peaked and is not hooked up to the charger, that one can be tricky. The rule of thumb would be roughly 1.2V per cell or more for a fully charged 10 cell pack, so it should be right around 12V or higher if the pack is fully charged and the cells are healthy. BUT, not always the case. Check the voltage right after it's off the charger and it can read much higher. Check it several hours later and it might read a good bit lower as the false surface voltage fades away. Check it in a week and it'll read somewhat lower even as the pack begins to self discharge.

But right off the charger, let it sit a couple hours then check the voltage. It should be right around 12V. Even if it's say only about 11V or so you are probably good. Not all nimhs or nicads will hold as high of voltage per cell as others, but that doesn't mean they still won't give you long run times. It's the capacity more than the voltage that determines how long a pack will run. So long as the voltage is above about 9.8 to 10V on the Sovereign or Excal the low battery alarm won't kick in. If you had a huge capacity pack and it was only sitting at say 10.5V, you might still get many hours of run time out of it because of the reverse capacity. Nimhs and nicads are very flat in their discharge, meaning they hold the voltage pretty flat and stable for most of it. The voltage doesn't drop nearly as fast as they drain as it does on normal non-rechargeable batteries...So long as you are using rechargeables with decent capacity. The stock pack doesn't have decent capacity at only 1000ma, but it's got 2 extra cells in there to prop up the voltage so the run time thing isn't a problem.

 

[fsa46]

Thanks for the reply CH but I think you may have been reading to much into my question. I only wanted to know what the battery peaks out at when fully charged.

I charged the battery with the same smart charger I use for my Excalibur pod which peaks out at 14.3 V when fully charged. My GT , NiMH pack peaked out at 14.9 V .

 

[Tseeker]

What model is your smart charger and where did you get it? I would like to get one for my sov as well, but I can't find one with the same specs as the cheap chinese made one that comes with the unit itself. Thanks.

 

[fsa46]

What model is your smart charger and where did you get it? I would like to get one for my sov as well, but I can't find one with the same specs as the cheap chinese made one that comes with the unit itself. Thanks.

Don't know if I can say it here so I'll send you a PM.