New batteries???

I just purchased two new 8 cell powerex 700 Nimh battery packs. My question is whether I need to do anything special before my first charge? I thought I once read on here that you should condition Nimh packs before using them. Should I just charge them regularly or do I need to trickle charge them first? I've been using .8A for my old Nimh packs (fast charge) but what should I use for trickle? My charger can be set to 100mA or 200mA.

I did nothing special to my 8-cell Powerex's just charged them up and flew. You should however limit your charge rate to 1C (700ma) if you can. I believe charging above 1C may shorten your battery life and give suboptimal charges.

Jeff

How did you mount your 8 cell pack?

I'm assuming you have a stock ECO or Fun Pic. The battery fits nicely between the front struts with 3 cells portion up, cells lengthwise aligned with boom. I rest the front part of the pack somewhere on the bottom of the front platform where I assume your Piccoboard and receiver are mounted and the back part of the pack on the battery mounts. I use 2 rubber bands to secure the batteries from the canopy mount - I usually criss-cross them one side in front of strut, other behind. You can probably just run one in front and one in back of front struts without the criss-cross as well. I have never been able to solidly mount the battery on stock mounts without using 2 rubber bands.

Jeff