Mmk I think I understand. So if the charger just stops at 4.2v per cell. What's the point of putting in the mah info on my charger?

Couple more things. Im noticing my charger's amps drop to 0.00 at exactly every minute for a couple seconds then it climbs back to to 10amps. (thats where I have it set currently) Is this normal? It literally happens every minute exactly.

On my charger it currently shows 3 cells and what Volt each one is at. I understand Im charging in parallel, but technically there are 6 cells being charged right?

The burp each minute is likely for the charger to better check the lipo condition, see how it’s responding for safety, and take internal resistance measurements. Good stuff in my opinion.

In parallel there are pairs (or more) of cells at the same voltage. Probably best to occasionally check the individual cell voltages of each pack by itself before charging to keep tabs on each packs condition. As long as they are all similar all’s good, if you see issues of cell balance while parallel charging it takes individual pack measurements to determine which pack is letting the team down.

Mostly just general info. Can give you an idea of how much of the battery you are using in a race, some guys might use that to help choose a smaller lighter battery possibly. Or if you run the full pack out it gives a way to check the condition-capacity. Capacity of a battery generally reduces with age.

So should I still set my Mah to 10,000 then when im doing my two 3S 5000mah batteries at once?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoEEbFo_co

This should answer some questions about parallel charging.

You got it. Depending on the details of the firmware it may not make much practical difference, but that's the correct idea.

Some chargers have a capacity safety limit, if it goes so far over it may shut down thinking something bad is happening. And it probably changes at least the default amps. Other than that I don't think it makes much difference.

So your saying out of the 6 cells being charged (two 3s in parallel) while charging, the cells are in pairs off 2? Then my charger does an average of each pair and that is why it only shows 3 cells on my charger screen?

The charger only sees one pack. Let's say for example you were charging a single cell pack. You wire them up in parallel by connecting the positive leads to each other and the negative leads to each other. From there you run a single positive lead to the charger and a single negative lead to the charger. So the charger thinks you wired up a single pack. It will have the combined capacity of both packs. The packs are directly connected to each other so they will equalize since they're in parallel.

Now say that each set of these single cell packs is a cell in one of your 3s packs. You have 3 sets of cells wired up in parallel. So the charger sees 3 cells.

Hopefully that makes sense.

I hope I don't cause any confusion but I have an example.
There are some 2s lipo packs you can buy that are 2s2p, where most are 2s1p.
Let's say I bought a 7.4v 5000mah 40c 2s2p.
I would charge it at a 2c rate of 10 amps, and the charger would ideally put ~5000mah.
Well, inside the pack, there are two cells wired in parallel, another pair the same way, and then both pairs are put in series, giving the 2s pack four cells total (hence the 2s2p designation). The charger only sees two cells. Each of the four cells in the pack are actually rated at 3.7v 2500mah 20c, with 1c charge rate.
Parallel charging is essentially doing the same thing as charging this pack, except instead of the two pairs of cells being within the pack, each pair is its own pack.

Ahhh ok. Both of your examples were good. Makes sense now. Another site I read that the first cell in one of my 3s packs is kind of linked to the first cell in the other pack. And same for the 2nd and 3rd cells.

Clarification, the C rating doesn't change when building up packs. To make a 40C pack requires 40C cells. C never changes regardless of connections, series or parallel.

Same for the charge rate, if you charge a pack at 2C all cells are seeing a 2C charge rate.

The cells are directly connected, that's what the paraboard does. Thus the paralleled cells are quickly equalized in voltage when first connected, then stay at the same voltage together as they are charged.