nickypoo

iTrader: (1)

ive never discharged my cheap nimh packs because they were throw aways in my eyes with a lipo upgrade in the future. i now have 4 lipos and a charger and want to know if discharging is necessary and what benifits it has?

thanks, im new to electric rc

bymannan

No No No, if you discharge they'll be gone. Just keep them at about 3.8V for cell for long term storage. you can keep them fully charged for about a week with no harm.

One important note, when you charge, make sure you charge in a rate no higher than what the battery can take. If you don't know, charge at 1C. This is the math:

mAh of the battery / 1000 = 1C.
So for a 5000 mAh battery - 5000/1000 = 5 - you charge at 5A for 1C. 10A for 2C and so on and on...

If you charge it at the rate higher than it can take, you are looking at a nice little fire.

lowroad

iTrader: (79)

Well, most of what he just said is true, but most lipo chargers have a discharge mode which brings them to a safe level for longer term storage.

AbsolutAdikt7

what about chargers that dont have balanacers built in?? What do you recommend for a balancer?

bymannan

I use the very cheap and good Turnigy Accucel-6 50W 6A Balancer/Charger and there is a storage function built in. It's a fantastic charger, but a bit slow for large battery (only 6A).

buggy8

iTrader: (18)

is this right? I am big on learning so I'm sure there's a lot more.

I have a few friends who've been running lipos for a couple years and their batteries seem to last a heck of a long time. This is what they tell me:

Charging at a lower amperage will maximize your battery life.

Charge based on mah, not the cell count...


5000 mah means charge at 5 amps
4500 mah means charge at 4.5 amps

lowroad

iTrader: (79)

well, yeah, but charging a 4500mah at 5 amps is totally fine also. When the other guy up there is sayin 1c or 2c, he's not referring to cell count, he's talknig about C as in charging rate. You are both saying the same thing and are both correct.

bymannan

On most batteries you'll find the max charge rate as "C". For example, most Turnigy batteries are 2C. This means that if you have 5000 mah, you can charge them with up to 10A.

chiro972

iTrader: (10)

If your pack is rated for 2C or 5C then you can charge a 5000 mAh battery at 10 amps or 25 amps respectively. I would never do that and I pretty much keep to 1C.

Also, what the others said is right, never totally discharge like you would have with NiCd or NiMh. It can literally cause them to burst into a very hot and very smoky flame. However, also never leave your lipo's fully charged for a long period of time. Get a good lipo charger. Any good ones have a storage feature that will bring the battery down to about 30% or so charge. Mine balances as it does this, so my cells end up around 3.84V per cell I believe.

nickypoo

iTrader: (1)

awesome thanks everyone