Originally Posted by
jnwjosh
Someone school me on LiPo charging voltages and rates? I'm reading conflicting information about how many amps to charge at, and what storage and "never go below" voltages should be?
As far as storage voltage, I've always stored packs at 3.85V per cell. I've also went by information to never discharge to 3.0v per cell.
Soon I'll have a new and better charger that's capable of really pushing some juice, and I see that the charge rate is adjustable. Is there a formula I can use to calculate a good safe charge rate? What if I wanted a little quicker charge? The information I've seen so far is to charge at "1C", so basically I'd charge a 1000mah pack at 1A, a 2000mah pack at 2A, and so on. What's confusing me though is for packs that are 2S, 3S, whatnot. Do I double this? (1000mah 2S at 2A, 2000mah 2S at 4A, etc)?
For example, I'm going to have a 7.4V 5000mah 2S 100C pack. What would be a good safe charge? 5A? What about a quicker charge? Maybe hit it with 6A? Or since it's a 2S would I need to hit it with 10A for a safe charge and 12A for a quicker charge?
The safest way is 1C but some manufacturere's say you can go higher. eg, Thunderpower says you can charge up to 5C but will shorten battery life. I usually charge at 15A but don't do the high discharge thing some guys do. My storage mode puts my 2 cells at 7.55 volts. Never discharge a cell below 3.0 volts. Most people stop at 3.2-3.3 volts to be safe.