Balancing Question
 

Whats up guys. I just got a Common Sense Balance Pro lipo balancer for my Thunder Power Pro Race 2c battery. In the balancer`s instructions, at one point it says, that if the cells are at more than 3.2v, it should be charged at a rate of up to 2C. What is a rate of 2C? My chargers rates, are rated in amps. .01amp-5amps. Can anyone break down what this is for me?? Thanks alot

"C" means capacity in mah , so 2C is double of the capacity in current.

C is current -its calculated from capacity divided by 1000 - if batt is 5000mah, 1C is 5000/1000 - 5amp. 2C would be 2 x 5amps = 10amps. If your charger can only go to 5amps, you'd just charge this 5000mah at 5amps. It would just take longer to charge.

Awesome. Appreciate it alot fellas

ok... similarish qn.

iv just recently gone from 1:18th to 1:10th and iv noticed that compared to micros/minis, the bigger electronics are a real kick in the pills for your wallet. im used to forking out $20 on ebay for an ok lipo but for 10ths its anything over 100. So... i was wondering. i have in the past bought 1500mah 20c 11.1v lipos for my 18ths and been happy with there performance and price. iv been thinking of wiring up 4 of these in series to make them 6000mah and 80c for my 10th. the dimensions of 4 packs together would fit perfectly. however i hav no experience wiring lipos in series and i know that precautions should be taken. should i charge the individual packs separately and then wire them in series on each charge? or somehow rewire the ballance wires and charge it like a single pack on 4c? cheers
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just realised i wrote series in the above... i meant parallel

As long as the 4 packs contain the same number of cells you can parallel any number of packs together. Using 4 would indeed give you a 6000 mah 11.1 volt pack and can be treated as such when charging and using. It can and should be left together if used together.

All the + will be hooked together and all the - will be together. Same for the balance taps if you want them to stay equally balanced between packs as well. I can see it getting very messy with 4 packs and having a lot of cost/labor/complexity compared to one pack.

If you connect the cells to the balance tap in parallel, the balancer will not see the cells individually. That defeats the purpose of balancing. The heli how-tos on charging two heli lipos at the same time all wire the balance wires in series so the balancer can see and balance each cell. This is a how-to charge and run a pr of 3S1Ps as a 6S2P lipo. Note what he says in the 1st paragraph.

http://www.rbgrn.net/content/46-how-...ks-single-6s1p

It will be complicated trying to get this right and you may never get there. There will be 12 cells involved and I've never seen a balancer that does more than 6cells. If you do any of the connections wrong, you risk all the batts and your charger. The other poss is to charge/balance them separately and then run together. Not the best, but an option.

Just buy a 10th or 8th sized cheap lipo and maintain it. Far less risk that something can go wrong.

Parallel cells are balanced automatically just because they are connected. Leaving them unparalleld will result in "packs" being equal , with potential un balanced cells within each pack. If left this way they can be balanced "on the side" so to speak with 1-4 balancers.

Balance and charge the packs separately, and just have the adapter to connect them all to the car.

But you can find an okay pack for $50 these days on E-Bay.

Also, look into Apogee packs, the one in my RC18MT has been awesome.