lipo question

[XZIVR]

Originally Posted by ShelledPants

A 1600mah battery takes about 40 minutes to balance charge... which is a very fast charge for any battery. no point in rushing it and damaging the cells.

That's mathematically impossible unless you are charging at over 1C or the battery is only half dead. From fully dead (minimum cell voltage) it takes any battery 1 hour to charge at 1C. Longer if you are balance charging because the charger has to stop and adjust individual cells along the way.

[ThunderCactus]

Don't charge LiPo over 1C, not 1A
I charge my 11.1v 4900mah battery at 4A, balance it at 1A

[ShelledPants]

Originally Posted by XZIVR

That's mathematically impossible unless you are charging at over 1C or the battery is only half dead. From fully dead (minimum cell voltage) it takes any battery 1 hour to charge at 1C. Longer if you are balance charging because the charger has to stop and adjust individual cells along the way.

That's because lipos rarely drain happily below half battery.

[drek]

So im confused...what should i be charging my 11.1v 2400mah 20C batterys at lol....1A 2A 2.4A??????

[m102404]

For your battery...2.4A MAXIMUM....there's no harm, other than it taking longer, to charge it at a lower Amperage.

There's lots of stuff written up about what discharging and recharging does to the actual crystals and chemicals in a battery cell...and what fast charging (at max charging rate for that pack) vs. slow charging (less than max rate) does to the chemicals.

Personally...I charge it at the max rate...and if the battery seems to be not holding a charge after many, many uses...I just chuck it and buy another one.


I don't know specifically about your charger...however it does look a lot like the Xchanger B6 model. That model does have same modes you describe, "charge/balance/discharge". For my B6 changer I plug the connector into the main charging wires...and the balancing tap into the balancing port...and select charge. It will charge and balance the pack at the same time. If you press one of the buttons while it's charging you can see the voltages for each of the cells. If one cell is lower than the others (usually not by much) you can see it charge that cell up until it catches up with the others...then they'll all start to charge up together.

You should be balance charging EVERYTIME you charge a LiPo...it is critical to seeing that you do not overcharge one cell, and to catch it if you have a dead cell. How your specific charger balances/charges...dunno.

I highly recommend that you figure out how to get to the screen that shows the individual cell voltages as it charges (if it's like the B6 charger it's the 2nd button from the right after the charging starts)...and watch it while it charges (i.e. you don't need to sit there staring at it...but rather check it every 5-10min).

[coach]

Originally Posted by drek

So im confused...what should i be charging my 11.1v 2400mah 20C batterys at lol....1A 2A 2.4A??????

Charge your lipo at a max of 1C of what your battery is rated at.

1C of 2400mah = 2.4A

1C of 1100mah = 1.1A

hope that helps clear things up.

[Hightimes]

I balance charge my 11.1v 1000mah at 1A, 11.1 1200mah at 1.2A and my 11.1 1500mah at 1.5A

That's the info I got from hours of reading on the web.