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From the Suffolk Aero Modelers, Long Island, New York

How's Your Nicads?

by Ted Brindle

The Nicad batteries that we use in our transmitters and aircraft wear out with time. If you have a battery pack that is more than three years old, you should be keeping a close check on it by cycling every month. If it is five years or older, you should replace it and be sure to properly dispose of the old cells. So, how do we tell the age of our batteries?

Most Futaba battery packs and individual Sanyo battery cells (which most OEM radio manufacturers use) have a two-letter date code stamped somewhere on the pack or cell. The first letter of the code is the year of manufacture and the second letter is the month of manufacture. 1996=A, 1997=B, 1998=C, etc. January=A, February=B, March=C, etc.

If you have a battery or pack with a date code of IB, it was manufactured in February of 2004. Probably still okay but keep a close check on it. The pack in my 8UAF transmitter was ZF, or June of 1995 so I replaced it. I found one pack with a date code of WC which translates to 1992; replaced that one without question. Q

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