LiPo degredation
#31
This is gonna sound really wrong to some people, but there's a ton of proof to back this up. Charging LiPo's is an endothermic reaction, so charging a warm LiPo actually has a cooling effect. If there is an internal short, a high charge current can make the pack go boom, but that's a different conversation.
There is nothing wrong with charging a warm LiPo. The problem lies with discharging a warm LiPo.
There is nothing wrong with charging a warm LiPo. The problem lies with discharging a warm LiPo.
#32
Tech Champion

Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,342
Even then, the default resting discharge voltage on my iCharger is lower than 3.6 and most literature I can find online usually refers to 3.0V to 3.2V as the minimum safe voltage for a LiPo.
Besides, my Hobbywing telemetry tells me my load voltage regularly dips below cutoff voltage without triggering cutoff. It tries to ignore transient dips.
Besides, my Hobbywing telemetry tells me my load voltage regularly dips below cutoff voltage without triggering cutoff. It tries to ignore transient dips.
#33
With helicopters, packs get hot because of the discharge rates, and you really notice it when you run saddle packs and dont parallel charge. The pack being charged cools quicker. They do seem to start heating up again towards the end, and even more so with higher C rates. I rarely go above 3C and my packs seem to stay pretty cool while charging.
Next time you do a high C cycle, just out of curiosity, take some temperature readings throughout the process. It's easier to compare when you have saddle packs, but you should still see a temperature curve that looks sort of like a U. If you were to compare it to an identical pack that was just sitting there (like if you just pulled two hot saddle packs from your car), you may see that the one being charged initially cooled quicker than the one that's not being charged. It may still end up warmer at the end of the charge, but the curve will be a U instead of a slope. Had me really scratching my head when I first noticed this, but then I did some searching and found a bunch of studies that got way into all the details. Kind of nerdy, but give it a look.
#34
Agree, I've always seen 3-3.2V minimum voltage listed too, and have had good results with 3.2V LVC (no telemetry sadly). I generally see some voltage recovery after say 30 minutes, especially with a deep and/or hard discharge. Are you not experiencing this with the RC or discharger? I believe iChargers have a couple compensation options for storage voltage to improve accuracy because of voltage recovery.



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