Originally Posted by
Fly'n Fish
Hi all,
how does a esc protect against a battery being overly discharged? I assume it monitors battery voltage and cuts the juice at a certain point? I know that lipos hate to be over discharged.
Also, I have lipos that have sticker saying dont charge over 4.2V per cell but my Swallow charger is pushing over that, is this a problem and should I bin the thing and get a shiny new something or other....?
thank you
The esc monitors the battery voltage and will enter LVC (Low-Voltage Cutoff) at a preset figure which can usually be set by the user. I set mine to 3.4v per cell so in a 2s pack it would cutout at 6.8v on load.
You are correct in that one of the worst things you can do with a lipo is take it down too low. As a general rule I won't take my lipos down past 3.4v per cell at the extreme.
In competitions where you have 5 minute runs you rarely get anywhere near LVC and so many pro racers disable the LVC completely but I wouldn't recommend that for practice or bashing.
The max you should charge a lipo to is 4.20v per cell. Its actually against competition rules to charge above that nor is it safe. Ive seen lipos explode when charged above 4.20v per cell. Your charger may have a setting deep in the menus to set the charge voltage correctly - to me it sounds like its setup wrong or charging the battery in the wrong mode entirely. Check that it is set to LIPO mode.