nomaak

For 19 and stock touring.....has step charging seen any advantages over regular charging? thanx.

flysti

iTrader: (3)

step charging is more for if you are running mod to gain more run time.

if you like give it a go & see if you like the results.

i still like the normal linear charge at 6.0 amp's for both stock & 19 turn.

cyrrus

iTrader: (5)

Hey, I could be wrong. What I heard that Ib3800"s are a finnicky cells. They prefer liniar charger at 6 amps. This is what I heard is best to keep the cells at top form.

Hagberg

Step charging is not needed for IB cells.

Frans H

why not ?

Step charging is keeping the cell temp down.

flysti

iTrader: (3)

yes but ib's like to be warm as they perform better with a bit of heat in them. i.e more voltage.

step charging was built around gp cells

lookinco

I just did a simple test. I have two packs of IB3800 and I cycled them two times. The first time with step charge at 7A > 0.5A > 6.5A and the second time with 6a linear. I charge and discharge both pack with the ICE charger.

The numbers on the label are:
Voltage IR Runtime
1.198 2.0 399s
1.199 2.0 398s
1.198 2.0 398s
1.199 2.0 399s
1.199 2.0 399s
1.199 2.0 399s

The result is that with 6a linear charge, the pack have a higher Average volt and a lower IR.

Here are the numbers:

-------- Pack1 Pack2 (step charge 5mv)
AvG Volt 7.350 7.328
Resistence 29 27

-------- Pack1 Pack2 (6a linear 5mv)
AvG Volt 7.382 7.415
Resistence 28 27

With step charge, the peak temp of the battery is around 110 ~ 115F
With linear charge, the peak temp is around 120~122F
Both peaked with about the same capacity, around 4200mah

After first cycle, I discharge the rest of the pack on the team wave discharger until 0.9v per cell and store them until the next cycle. I then discharge them again on the team wave to 0.9v before I charge them again.

The numbers in the test might not be very accurate, but at least we could look at them and compare.

teamgp

I did this same type of test with my first set of IB3800's back in August on a CDR5000 and discharging at 30A. The results were very similar to what you found.

However, I also tried linear charges of 6.0A, 6.2A and 6.5A. At 6.5A, the voltage and runtime went down when compared to the 6.0A charge. But at 6.2A, the voltage went up a little with not much dropoff in runtime or change in IR from the 6.0A charge.

tsuiyuen

wo ...thx guys~!~~
those really a gd reference ar!!!
anyone tried for GP cells?
i just get 5 packs of GP3700~~

jamescam

iTrader: (10)

Any heat problems charging at 6.2A? What peak detect did you use?

teamgp

I'm using this rate now and have the peak detect at 05 or 06 on the MuchMore, depending on room temp. The packs are coming off the charger anywhere from 118-122F and rise another four to five degrees afterward.

Motor City Hami

Wait. What was the step that you used? You started high at 7A, then went low to 0.5A, then high again at 6.5A? Do any of the step chargers allow you to charge the first 1/3 of the charge at 3.5 amps, then the next 1/3 at 4.5 amp and the final 1/3 at 6 amps? I would be curious to see what that does as compared to a straight up 6 amp linear charge.

lookinco

On the ICE, the step charge function is very flexible. There are 4 stage that you could choose and is adjustable in every 100mah increments.

I used 7a > 0.5a > 6.5a because that is what in most step charging profile for the IB3800, including the Hara profile for the much more charger.

Frans H

@lookinco: what was the time in days/hours/minutes to the next charge ?

My experiences are that the IB cells have better numbers on the second charge off the day !! whatever charge method in use