James George
Member
How do you tell on proprietary batteries with no balance lead what the storage voltage is? Charging is no problem,but I need to put them in storage,,,just want to be sure they have proper storage voltage....thanks...tazzzz
Storage charge for proprietary batteries
- Thread starter James George
- Start date
wafflejock
Well-Known Member
Got a picture of the batteries? In general LiPo you'll want around 3.8V per cell so can just take cell count and multiply by 3.8V to get total pack voltage for storage but would be curious why a lipo wouldn't have balance leads not sure how it could possibly keep the cells balanced without it over the long term.
James George
Member
It’s the batteries that have connecting contact,,,so when you shove the battery in it automatically turns the quad on . It’s the ones that come from the bugs series or the visuo quads and others. To charge you need to use the wall charger they give you. With the usb hookup,,there are no power ends or balance leads.once you shove the battery in it powers up...very proprietary. Thankyou for the comeback...tazzzz
wafflejock
Well-Known Member
Hrm yah would guess it's got to be 1S if it doesn't have a balance lead but would just use a multi-meter/voltmeter and check the actual voltage on the main charge cable, the LiPo batteries will be at bare minimum 3.0V and fully charged at 4.2V so once you know the voltage on the main lead can divide that by 3.0 then take off any remainder and should be the number of cells in there (example 6.9V/3 = 2.3 take off the 0.3 remainder and it's 2 cells in the pack).
Typical values (3.0V is dangerously empty not likely to recharge/hold a charge after too depleted):
1S = 3.3V empty 4.2V full
2S = 6.6V empty 8.4V full
3S = 9.9V empty 12.6V full
4S = 13.2V empty 16.8V full
Generally speaking I fly my 4S batteries down to 14V and my 3S down to about 11.1V (just easy for me to look for these numbers and pretty close to empty at that point anyway)
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Also 3.3V as "empty" means you never want to get down to that point and when under load (motors/throttle on) the voltage will dip so most people in RC I've seen on forums only actually drain batteries to 3.6V per cell or so. It depends on who you ask and how long you want your batteries to last and what the exact chemistry and quality of production was in the first place, but better safe than sorry.
Typical values (3.0V is dangerously empty not likely to recharge/hold a charge after too depleted):
1S = 3.3V empty 4.2V full
2S = 6.6V empty 8.4V full
3S = 9.9V empty 12.6V full
4S = 13.2V empty 16.8V full
Generally speaking I fly my 4S batteries down to 14V and my 3S down to about 11.1V (just easy for me to look for these numbers and pretty close to empty at that point anyway)
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Also 3.3V as "empty" means you never want to get down to that point and when under load (motors/throttle on) the voltage will dip so most people in RC I've seen on forums only actually drain batteries to 3.6V per cell or so. It depends on who you ask and how long you want your batteries to last and what the exact chemistry and quality of production was in the first place, but better safe than sorry.
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wafflejock
Well-Known Member
Follow up.... :face-palm:
Just realized what you're saying about it having the charge circuit built in so you're just hooking up a USB connection and it's basically a black box otherwise.... I guess my answer above still applies but would just have to measure the voltage on the main discharge connections (must be some metal tabs somewhere on that black box) to see what it charges up to when fully charged then divide by 4.2 and round to nearest whole number and that should be number of cells in there. Then take number of cells in there and multiply by 3.8V (or 3.85V) to get storage voltage.
Also my gut tells me since it's using USB and that's only 5V it's likely only a 1S battery in there, but they could be using a boost converter to charge a 2S or even higher it just seems very inefficient.
Just realized what you're saying about it having the charge circuit built in so you're just hooking up a USB connection and it's basically a black box otherwise.... I guess my answer above still applies but would just have to measure the voltage on the main discharge connections (must be some metal tabs somewhere on that black box) to see what it charges up to when fully charged then divide by 4.2 and round to nearest whole number and that should be number of cells in there. Then take number of cells in there and multiply by 3.8V (or 3.85V) to get storage voltage.
Also my gut tells me since it's using USB and that's only 5V it's likely only a 1S battery in there, but they could be using a boost converter to charge a 2S or even higher it just seems very inefficient.