Lipo`s how to charge and look after

holtneil

holtneil

Well-Known Member
Moderator
Hi guys this a care guide on LiPo batteries , there is not a lot you can say or do with a single cell LiPo.
This is a good practice guide there are always other ways but this works and I have LiPos that are over 2 years old have 1000s of flights and are still good , This using a normal 4 button LiPo charger.
CHARGING
Charge at 1C to work this out if you have a 2200 mAh battery take the first 2 numbers and put a decimal point between them this will give you 2.2 amps this is its charge rate , Not all batteries can take 2C or above and if you charge at this rate the life of the battery will be reduced or at the worse catch on fire
mAh Charge Rate in amps
2200 2.2
3000 3.0
3300 3.3
4700 4.7
5000 5.0
HOW TO STORE
If your not going to fly for more than a week store charge the battery to 3.7 volts a cell most chargers will do this automatic if you put it on STORE CHARGE if you know your not flying again for a bit to a store-charge 3.7v per cell.
BALANCE CHARGE
Always balance charge your batteries it takes a little longer but the lipos will love you for it, all cells will be balanced , this is done by the charger normally the last 10 % of the charge is used to balance
FAST CHARGE
This program on the charger will still charge at 1C but what it does do is ,It will NOT balance the cells and will stop the charge at 90% of full , this will still give you a flight of your quad but as it does not balance it will be charged faster than the balance charge
HIGH C RATE CHARGE
This is a big NO if the battery is not made for this , it will say in the spec max charge rate of 1C or 2C; higher if your really lucky.
If you feel the need to do this you need to understand this A LiPo is like a big powerful firework.
If it catches on fire it will burn and has been known to burn houses down , it will also reduce the life of the battery.
CHARGING AND STORING
Store LiPos at 3.7v per cell (the voltage listed on the pack), until you are planning to use them, this will increase the life of the battery and be safer.
It is good practice to charge in a fire proof LiPo sack , so if any thing goes wrong the fire can't spread.
If your battery is puffed out its far safer to not use and dispose of the LiPo
When the LiPos are at a store charge or fully charged ready for the next day store in an ammo tin or in LiPo sacks
Most 4 button chargers are 50 watt this will charge up to a 6 cell but any battery over 5000 mAh will take longer to charge as max charge is 5.0 amps
If you battery is over 5000 mAh the min charger you want to look at is a 80 watt , but these chargers are best run on a power pack , not the ones your get with your laptop

I hope this helps if you want to ask a question just message me or ask on this thread
PLAY SAFE GUYS
 
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Hi guys any lipo that is a single cell 3.7v cant be balanced as there is only one cell you need min of 2 cells , you cant store charge off a charger as the standard charger that comes with these quads will not do it , what I would say is that if you have fully charged 1 cell batteries and are not going to fly for a few weeks try and run them down by flying the quad just short of its normal flight time , once you get into bigger batteries then you really need to look after them as the info above and store them in a safe place normally in an old ammo tin or lipo sacks , try not to put outside where they will get cold and remember to check voltage once a month to keep them at 3.7v per cell store charge , if you buy batteries over the winter dont charge them till your ready to use them as once charged they will need to be kept at a store charge
 
I bought a better charger even though I have mostly 1 cell lipos I found that the chargers that came with my quads were either over of under charging. The aftermarket charger allows me to charge up to 5 batteries at one time using a parallel cable. It will also balance charge 2-6 cell lipos.

My charger is a Imax B6 Mini but watch out for fakes. Expect to pay $40-$50 for a genuine one.
 
Hi mate you may find the charger will store charge the single cell try it if it does then your on a winner , Imax are good chargers up to 6 cell 3000 mah , your need 80+ watt charger for bigger batteries , it will charge then but not very fast , always charge at 1C , fast charge is not used to boost a battery what it does is charge at 1C but the last 10 mins of charge that would normally balance a battery it leaves this so its faster your get a good flight out of the battery it will just not be balanced
 
Is there any negative side effect on stopping the charge on your lipos? Meaning I'll have my batteries charging while I'm at home after a few flights and when I leave for work I unplug them so they are not charging unattended. Then when I'm back home I'll plug em back in. Is stopping the charging process mid way through doing anything bad to my batteries?
 
Hi no you can do that I do all the time but I will unplug them from the charger and any charger boards so I know they are safe
 
Hi mate a lipo sack is the safe way to charge lipo batteries and for storage when not in use ,you need to respect the lipo they can catch on fire normally if damaged or puffed ,if it is puffed its better to dispose of the battery and get a new one
As you get more lipos store them in an old ammo tin
Never leave them to charge if your not with them
https://m.youtube.com/?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#/watch?v=fF9fhlr9S5s
 
holtneil said:
Hi mate a lipo sack is the safe way to charge lipo batteries and for storage when not in use ,you need to respect the lipo they can catch on fire normally if damaged or puffed ,if it is puffed its better to dispose of the battery and get a new one
As you get more lipos store them in an old ammo tin
Never leave them to charge if your not with them
https://m.youtube.com/?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#/watch?v=fF9fhlr9S5s
Click to expand...

Thanks. I just ordered an eachine 250 rtf. As i wait for it to arrive ive been reading and watching videos on everything i can. It seems many people are critical of the charger that comes with it. Can you recommend a few good chargers that I should look at for a replacement? The charger that comes with it is B3AC balance charger.
 
Hi mate what you need to look at in a charger is for under a 6 cell you want a 50 to 80w charger , or 6 cells 120w and above the small charger will do them but its slower , you want one that will store charge too as your need to keep the at a store charge when not flying , the charger I have linked you to will do every thing you need plus you can take out to the field and charge off the car battery so you can fly more , it will charger at a higher rate so will do bigger batteries ( 1 amp charge rate is very low this is max for the ones linked above my big charger will run at 20 amps )Now why I say this is as you get more batteries you want to charger ore than one battery at a time so 1 amp will not do this, this one you can just plug a parallel charger board ( so say you have 4 batteries at 2200 ah each to charge 4 at once you need to charge at 8.8 amps ) so this is why you need to get a good charger first time watch out for clones and knock offs get the real thing as this one is I kinked you to the max rate is 6 amps it will still charge 4 batteries will not be as fast as the 80 w and above
http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbykin..._Professional_Balance_Charger_Discharger.html
This charger here is a megga charger but carries the price to match but max charge is 20 amps
http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbykin...nous_Balance_Charger_Discharger_US_Plug_.html
 
Thanks. I have read about both the imax and reaktor but being that I'm new to quads (and lipo batteries) my first instinct was to ease into it and maybe save money towards upgrades or more quads. I've been watching some of those lipo fire videos and it's obvious that i dont want to mess around with cheap chargers. I will have four, 1500mah batteries for my E 250, I suspect that I will want to get more batteries because more batteries means more flying. I just ordered a big lipo sack and was wondering about gettting a balance board. Will the Imax charger work well with a balance board? Or is it better suited for one battery at a time? I noticed the reaktor has a fan on it. That seems like a good feature to keep the charger cool under load. I eventually want to use a balance board and streamline the process to get out flying with as many charged and ready to fly batteries as I can.
 
Spending money on a quality charger is the best way to spend money getting into this hobby. A quality charger and a quality soldering iron are, in my opinion, the two things to spend a little more money on when getting into the hobby.
 
Hi yes the Imax will work well ,if you charge 4 at the same time at C1 that will come to 6amps ,this is max for the charger ,if you find it gets hot this is normal and it will not harm the Imax
As for charging put the parallel board and batteries in the sack charger on the out side to keep it cool ,I started with this charger and then later upgraded to a megga charger as the battery size came to big for the 50 watt so I run both off a 550 watt power pack the Imax and the 400watt megga charger
 
holtneil said:
Thats a nice charger your love it
Click to expand...

Thanks. :)

This may be a dumb question, but why would a lipo be used to power a monitor? As a new guy it appears that lipo care, storage, charging, discharging seems kind of a lot of work.

I bought this off of Banggood.com: http://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Rac...nch-32CH-Monitor-HD-Camera-RTF-p-1008942.html

Its taking awhile to show up but it's giving me time to learn as much as I can about it. It comes with two 1500mah batteries and I just noticed that it appears I'll need one for the monitor and one for the quad.

I ordered two more from banggood and just got a message from them that they are out of stock. So I went on amazon.com and bought the same 2 batteries for double the price. It seem the battery I need is harder to find then I thought. I checked on hobby king and they were out of stock too.

Is there anyway around using something other than the lipo for the monitor?

Thanks again for all your help and putting up with a noob quad flyer. :)
 
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