JLP75766

iTrader: (9)

I have a fully charged Lipo. Do I need to wait until it is discharged to balance it?

brqsdad

iTrader: (3)

Why You Should Balance Your Packs: Standard lithium battery chargers and battery cut-off circuitry, such as that found on electronic speed controls, must rely upon the average voltage of the entire pack to determine when charging and/or discharging is complete. This is because the cells in the pack are effectively wired in a series configuration.Unfortunately, this has a negative drawback. If for some reason one of the cell's voltages becomes higher or lower than the other cells in the pack, the charger or battery cut-off circuit may improperly sense the voltage of the cells in the pack (because of voltage averaging). When this happens, the averaged voltage of the pack will no longer properly reflect the voltage of each cell in the pack. This improper information may lead to the over-charging or over-discharging of one or more of the cells in the pack. Lithium Polymer chemistry is such that over-charging or over-discharging may substantially reduce the life of the cell and in some cases, POSE A SERIOUS FIRE HAZARD. Hopefully this helps.

Drifting101

iTrader: (8)

No, the only discharge you should ever use with a LiPo is driving it

avs

iTrader: (2)

the balancing should happen during charging. the purpose is twofold:
1) for performance, each cell is fully charged
2) for safety, so no cell is overcharged.

overcharging beyone the max voltage (4.2 for LiPo) is dangerous.
check out youtube or somewhere and see how one of these batteries burn. it isn't a gentle flame, more like a torch.