How do I charge lipo at 9.6A / Orion Carbon Advantage
 

I have the orion carbon advantage, and today I went to charge my pack at 9.6 A and it would stay at 1 amp. Can someone post the settings to charge the orion 4800 pack at 9.6A

Thanks

Big Mike,

The recommended max charge capactity is 4.8 amps. This is directly from Orion's website. Here is the link that explains the charging for lipos. As for the charger settings I am not sure about the Orion.

http://cms.teamorion.com/orion/instr...in_li_inst.pdf

Also, the way LiPo batteries charge, the charge rate won't be at the full rate for long. LiPo charging drops the amperage as the battery nears its full charge. It will drop to well under an amp before the charging process is said and done. Leave it be. :-)

Tell the charger it's looking at a 9600 mih 2 cell and hang on to your hat. The charger still detects the same peak values so it's not an electrical disaster waiting to happen. People down our way are having good results with no damage showing.

Post the results if you survive !!

VV

Charging at more than 1C will most certainly affect cycle life, even with Kokam cells. It may not blow the pack up, but it's not going to last as long overall before you start to lose capacity. It's really not worth it, there's no benefit beyond faster charging. It's not like NiMH where the battery performs better if you use a higher charge rate.

Mr. Black from Team Orion has said both the 3200 and 4800 batteries can safely be charged at 2c (and he's stated this will be soon...if not already updated on their web site.)

I use the 6.4 amp setting for my 3200's, you just scroll through the settings to set the battery type (LIPO) the Mah Rating (4800) and the charge rate (9.6 amps)

Then select charge.

I usually use 1c charge, but my last race (the 3 hour enduro race at sines already posted here) i used 2c because of limited time. No visible harm effects were felt. The battery is cold at charge (just like 1 c charge), same puch.

Given that said, i would charge at 1C if you have enough time ;)

I know MrBlack said it was "safe," and I agree. But I think you will find the cycle life graphs between 1C and 2C charging are NOT equal. 2C clearly has an affect on cycle life, though it's may not be enough to matter since the batteries last forever. Maybe 1.5C would be a more reasonable middle ground. Personally, I stick with 1C because I have plenty of time to charge between races (alternating two packs) and would rather not stress my batteries more than necessary.

that is what is happening, it was on a re-peak that it happened

That is the old story, we can now charge these at 9.6amps. If I can only run one pack, then that is a much better charging option. I have a hard time making it to the line at 4.8 amps, lol

I have a duratrax ice and it is stuck at 1C charging rate too. Like was posted earlier, I have to increase the pack mah on the ICE for it to charge faster, but at the same time I lower max capacity charge.

For instance, when I charge my maxamps 4400mah pack and I want to charge at 6A, I have to set the mah to 6000 and I just set max capacity to 75%.

I suppose it's worth noting that you don't have to charge at multiples of C. If you can make it to the line with time to spare by charging at 1.5C, that will be easier on your packs than 2C. I'm not trying to dispute that it's safe, in the sense that 2C won't melt your packs. But I think it's important to realize that it can shorten the cycle life.

...I guess all I was doing was STAYING "On Topic" as to the question asked...

I agree charging a 4800 @ say 5-6 amps is probably a good target...and would probably be less hard on the battery...and if it charges quick enough for you needs...why charge any higher?

The question here wasn't what the SAFE charge rate was...it was HOW to make the ORION CHARGER charge the 4800 @ 9.6 amps...

Advantage
 

To charge on the advantage at 9.6 all you have to do is set charge amps to 9.6. Thats all I had to do to mine just now and it worked fine for my orion 4800. It jumped right upto 9.6 amps after about 15-20sec. And yes the batteries can be safely charged at 2C rating, it does decrease cycle life. But if you have to do it, go right ahead. When you have the time though I would just stick around 1C.

And people wonder why lipo's go up in flame. If your charger isn't designed to charge at 2c for your pack mah, you are asking for trouble. You will get away with it for a while, but the law of average's will get you in the end. After all, we're only human. :) Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you can't do it, but should you do it? Why not just by a FMA Scorpion charger? It safely charges up to 10 amps! (shrug)