1. What if anything do you do to show which battery packs are charged?  I could no doubt find some kind of brightly coloured sticker at Staples that I could stick on after charging and peel off when the pack goes into the plane but sooner or later I'll run out of stickers on a long weekend and be out of luck.  I was thinking in terms of a reusable item.  I have rechargeable lawn equipment and that system uses an orange clip that snaps over the battery terminals after charging.  Is there such a thing as a 'dummy' Deans connector that could be plugged into the battery but doesn't connect the leads to anything?

2. While stripping the wires of a battery pack in preparation for installing a Deans connector I managed to short out the pack briefly - a crackle, a bright spark and I dropped everything.  The battery was not hot, swelled or have any obvious external sign of distress but to be on the safe side, I sat it out on the back patio (concrete paving brick) for about an hour.  Nothing happened and the battery looks fine externally but will it be safe to charge and use after being subjected to the brief short?  I'm hoping that I don't get a lot of conflicting opinions on this one.

Thanks for your help.

I put a rubber band around the pack when I charge it. That tells me it's charged. When I take it out of my battery case to use, I remove the rubber band and use it to fly. Then I know that it is discharged.

Later - Bob Hunt

I use battery buddies - they slidfe over deans or XT60 connectors - red = charged - black= used..

Rubber bands!  Simply brilliant.  Now why couldn't I think of that?  Thanks for simplifying my life.

And thanks for all the advice on my other question.

2. While stripping the wires of a battery pack in preparation for installing a Deans connector I managed to short out the pack briefly - a crackle, a bright spark and I dropped everything. ...
...Nothing happened and the battery looks fine externally but will it be safe to charge and use after being subjected to the brief short?  I'm hoping that I don't get a lot of conflicting opinions on this one.

I once did that with a 2S 1200 pack and could find no ill effects.

If your charger also does discharges, you could cycle the pack a couple of times (double checking it is in a safe place) and watch if the pack behaves normally: similar capacity as other packs, similar charge time/current, no heating...