Originally Posted by
Herrsavage
Do you lose any power at all by running two packs, through the cables?
Was just at the LHS checking out chargers and batteries, and holy c.rap these lipo batteries are huge!.. A 6S was like a huge brick..
Charger-wise, the guy kind of convinced me that 10a is not necessary, and that 5a is enough.. And that when charging, take the last two digits off the mah number for the charging setting.. I.e., charge at 3.7a for a 3700 lipo.. Rough guideline he said..
I really am a total electric newb...
my rule of thumb in charging
1. the lower the Amps during charging the better it is - it stores more and batteries will last longer. I follow the 'trickle charging' concept. Drawback - it takes such a long time to charge.
2. i always take maximum 75% of the amps during charge. ie..if charging a 5000Mah lipo..i would set it to at most 3.5A during charge...note: at most follows the 75% and if lower, it follows the trickle charging as point 1. a balance of your own time to charge..
3. I always avoid fast charge if i can help it...this is against my point 1.
true..i believe you dont need a 10A charger..a standard 5A intelligent charger is sufficient. A 10A charger will allow you to charge at higher Amps and lower time to charge..but in my opinion, it is at the expense of the life of the lipo..as it is against my rule of thumb of point 1 and point 2.
if you are a racer - then you may need a 10A charger...where you need to charge fast in between heats and after 1 or 2 races..you will 'throw/give away the battery'. Racers tend to charge it with high amps and as fast as possible to get the most of the lipo performance during races at the expense of longer battery life.
the same goes to ESC and motor..i follow the 75% maximum rule of thumb - the max I will set in terms of load(ESC and motor pinion/spur) is 75% as there are other external factors that will increase that 75% to higher..ie. playing in tall grass/loose sandy beach or even on an extremely dry/hot weather..this will increase the 75% to a number that is higher...imagine this..normal setup is 90% tile..when you go on tall grass, where it will increase the load, it will hit 100% or more(tendency to burn) very easily.
above is my rule of thumb in general lay-mans term.