Charger not charging anymore

Hello,

I have one of those battery charged remote controlled helicopters, those that are very small, light and cheap.
The way the helicopter charged was by plugging in a cable that came from the remote control.
Once the cable is plugged, I switch the remote on and a red light came up, when a green light was on, it meant that the helicopter was charged.

Now the remote red light comes up, but the helicopter does not charge, in fact after about 5 minutes the red light on the remote goes off
unless I switch the remote on and off again.

I took one of those voltage measuring thing and tested the cable that goes into the helicopter, but I get no reading,
if I test one of the batteries I get a full 1.5V

The remote works with 6 1.5V batteries and are all new.

It all worked fine, than I did not used for a couple of years until yesterday when I decided to use it again,
I changed al the battery, the only think I noticed was that one of the battery had some white funny stuff on it,
I cleaned the connection the best I could.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Nic

The WHITE STUFF is an Indication that battery is Leaking and Should be Replaced before it leaks anymore.
Probably that Battery Contact is Also Corroded and needs a Good Cleaning.

My hand tourch had a NiCd 3.6V battery pack and it was damaged. The battery pack is formed by 3 series AA 1.2V battery. After a year few days ago, I charged the pack few minute and I broke the pack and separated these three AA cells. Measured their voltage of each. Two had around 0.5V and one was 1.2V. The one was fine! Maybe among your 6 pieces of rechargeable batteries, some maybe damaged. Measuring their voltage can tell something, maybe.

The six batteries in the remote are probably very cheap "super heavy duty" AA cells from China. They were on a boat for a couple of months then were in the store for a couple of years so they are definitely not "NEW", especially since they are leaking.
You should never measure the voltage of a battery without a load. The 9V battery in my smoke detector still measures close to 9V without a load when it is almost dead after powering the smoke detector for one year.

I have had many Duracell AA alkaline cells leak all over the place. I have never had an Energizer alkaline cell leak even when it is many years old and now they guarantee no leaking.
When the cheap Chinese Ni-Cad cells in my solar garden lights leaked before I replaced them then I cleaned the corrosion off the contacts with CLR.
The cheap Chinese Ni-MH cells in my newest solar garden lights do not leak!

According to its chemistry and technology, do I have to choose Ni-MH, which is better than NiCd?

Ni-MH are Usually BETTER.

Ni-cad is old technology. The cadmium in it is a deadly poison and a Ni-Cad battery has a problem where spikes build up inside it which shorts it. It also has a "memory effect" where if it is not completely discharged then its capacity in the future is reduced. It has low capacity anyway, a Ni-Cad AA cell is (was?) 600mAh. Its charge leaks away in a couple of months or less.

A Ni-MH AA cell is 2300mAh and does not have the Ni-Cad problems. Modern cells hold a charge for one year.
I cannot buy Ni-Cad AA cells anymore.

NiCd batteries are ancient technology. Not only poisons chemistry and "memory effect", but also much more limited number of recharging than today available. Nickel is also far from harmless, there is many people have skin allergy when use plain coins (they are covered by tin layer of Zinc or Nickel, usually used to prevent basic coin metal oxidation)...

In any way, it is advisable not to touch the white thing and if did - soap and any abrasive substance and longer cleaning is advisable, avoiding touching eyes and mouth before cleaning... Well, that should be written on the battery or the box. The same after using lead based 60/40 soldering wire (forbidden in EU for some time now), or in general any other metal.

NiMh batteries are not free from "memory effect" either, however much less than NiCd. For Eneloop brand batteries is claim it is immune (1.45V during charging is sufficient to revitalize cells completely), giving much longer life and reliable capacity according the spec. And also hold charge 3 or more years with very low self discharge rate.

testmpc said:

NiCd batteries are ancient technology.

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I think "Super Heavy Duty" batteries (carbon zinc) are also ancient technology.

audioguru said:

I think "Super Heavy Duty" batteries (carbon zinc) are also ancient technology.

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They are, of course. As well as lead acid batteries.

I do not want to be off topic, but graphene may change the world as electricity and computer industry changed it... It always was a problem to fast store the electricity and keep it long time enough without self-discharge issues...

An amazing thing I heared somewhere that we can erase the memory of Ni-Cd or Ni-MH by discharging the battery fully once. It would be interesting!

Willen said:

An amazing thing I heared somewhere that we can erase the memory of Ni-Cd or Ni-MH by discharging the battery fully once. It would be interesting!

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Nice informative article about:
**broken link removed**

However, deep discharging may also damage the cells further.