Lipo batery charging

[StevenMax]

What’s up everyone, I have a question when it comes to charging my Lipo battery. My charger automatically sets the charging amperage for the battery based on its automatic check. So if I set it for a 5000mah battery it auto charges it at 5.0a. So my question is can I still charge that same battery but set it at 1000mah, instead of the 5000mah it actually is, so it charges at 1.0a instead? I have read the slower the charge the better for the battery.

 

[AClegg]

That depends on what charger you have. most charges will allow you to adjust the charging amps.

 

[tntpoof]

you can charge it at 1 amp but why?. whatever you read the slower the charge the better is incorrect. if you set it at auto then the charger might shut off after 1000mah are put back in battery. set the charger manually to 1 amp if you need to.. have a nice long 3+ hour charge.

 

[AClegg]

you can charge it at 1 amp but why?. whatever you read the slower the charge the better is incorrect. if you set it at auto then the charger might shut off after 1000mah are put back in battery. set the charger manually to 1 amp if you need to.. have a nice long 3+ hour charge.

Tune is right about the three+. You'll be close to five hours. However, most of the chargers, that I have seen, have time charging limits. They usually don't go past 2 hours. 1amp is not going to make a difference. Are you sure your reading about LiPos and not NiMHs? I wouldn't go less than 3amps.

 

[olds97_lss]

From what I've read, charging at less than 1C (5000mah/1000 = 5A) doesn't help much. Changing the cutoff voltage to be a bit lower than 4.2V and setting your LVC to 3.6V and always storing at 50% (3.85v) would help more, but it's still marginal for the life of the packs. I do always put mine at storage at the end of a day, even if I intend on going out the next day. But I charge to 4.2V and have my LVC's set to 3.4-3.5.

 

[tntpoof]

can op post a link to this 1 amp charge info?

 

[StevenMax]

I have a Teiton EQ from 2009. Lol I can only adjust the voltage it charges at by raising and lowering the mah, otherwise the barber selects the voltage based on the battery. I can manually set the voltage with NiMh Pb batteries, same with discharging. I guess the charger just doesn’t have the feature to charge a 5000mah lipo up at 1a it has to charge it at 5a for example. Oh well, I’m new to lipos, I’m used to NiMh and Nitro.

 

[StevenMax]

So basically, I charged a 4600 nah battery for about one hour at 1 amp @ 1000 mah lol so does that mean I only charged it a quarter of the way? The car still drove for a good while and didn’t seem to lack power. However it was also my first time driving the car

 

[olds97_lss]

What charger specifically do you have? This one?
https://www.amainhobbies.com/great-planes-triton-eq-ac-dc-charger-balancer-gpmm3155/p33967

As for charging at 1A/1000mah for an hour, it depends on where your battery started. If hte cells were at 3.84-3.86 (storage voltage/50%), then your more than likely around 3300mah.

If you have the Triton EQ AC/DC, it should have a lipo mode you can use. It is a lipo balance charger:
http://manuals.hobbico.com/gpm/gpmm3155-manual.pdf

I see what you mean now about the mah driving the amps. The lipo section starting on page 10 is kind of anemic and they don't allow you to adjust anything too relevant really. I'd still set it to 4600mah and let it run until it finishes. Just make sure to plug the balance plug in as well and that the charger is in the lipo mode.

 

[StevenMax]

What charger specifically do you have? This one?
https://www.amainhobbies.com/great-planes-triton-eq-ac-dc-charger-balancer-gpmm3155/p33967

As for charging at 1A/1000mah for an hour, it depends on where your battery started. If hte cells were at 3.84-3.86 (storage voltage/50%), then your more than likely around 3300mah.

If you have the Triton EQ AC/DC, it should have a lipo mode you can use. It is a lipo balance charger:
http://manuals.hobbico.com/gpm/gpmm3155-manual.pdf

I see what you mean now about the mah driving the amps. The lipo section starting on page 10 is kind of anemic and they don't allow you to adjust anything too relevant really. I'd still set it to 4600mah and let it run until it finishes. Just make sure to plug the balance plug in as well and that the charger is in the lipo mode.

Yup that’s the exact one I have, I got it in 2009 before bed brushless took over nitro and lipo was new to my group so maybe that’s a why it lacked being able to change the amps. So yeah Idk I charge it at 1a at 1000mah I have do that’s 4.6 to reach 4600mah, abs long as it’s the timer allows, ill just let it do it’s thing. The old school leave me plugged in over night Nickel batteries were so much easier lol. Lipos always seem to blow up and catch fore eventually from what’s I see and read. I have to charge it in a fire lol. These are my first so this is all new to me.

Who wants to tell me discharge rate and amps now? I’m told thats just as important, not to leave them charged for more than a few days, so basically I’m discharging them after every day I drive down to half the capacity. So i am discharging it down to 3.6v but at what rate? Is there a ballpark whebbit comes to this area?

 

[olds97_lss]

To be honest... I'd get a different charger. That one is so limited, it won't let you really care for your lipo's that well. I didn't see a storage charge function in the manual.

In my trucks, I set the LVC to 3.4-3.5V. I charge them to 4.2V and storage charge them to 3.84-3.86V. I charge at 1-1.5C and discharge as fast as my chargers allow, which is only 50W (4A for 3S, 5A for 2S I believe).

You can get a decent AC/DC dual charger for around $140:
https://www.smc-racing.com/Chargers?product_id=541

Might help save you money in the long run and will charge your current packs easily at 1C.

 

[StevenMax]

I ah

To be honest... I'd get a different charger. That one is so limited, it won't let you really care for your lipo's that well. I didn't see a storage charge function in the manual.

In my trucks, I set the LVC to 3.4-3.5V. I charge them to 4.2V and storage charge them to 3.84-3.86V. I charge at 1-1.5C and discharge as fast as my chargers allow, which is only 50W (4A for 3S, 5A for 2S I believe).

You can get a decent AC/DC dual charger for around $140:
https://www.smc-racing.com/Chargers?product_id=541

Might help save you money in the long run and will charge your current packs easily at 1C.

I def agree a new charger is a good idea but I did find out to discharge I just have to watch it. I discharged both of my batteries down to 7.67v, so 3.835 per cell. It will keep going as the discharge values rev lee set to 3v 6v 9v etc but other than that I got it figured out to work with this charger haha.

 

[tntpoof]

its a 1 amp discharge charger. Its not that limited of a charger really..it is a 50 watt charger aka.4 button...

 

[StevenMax]

I discharged my lipos at 0.5a yesterday, I set it at 6.0v and when it gets to 7.67 I just have to stop the charger from discharging passed a certain point, which is easy as it takes a few hrs to discharge anyway. I just can’t set a specific voltage for a lipo discharge. I can discharge it as NiMh or NiCad with this charger and set a specific voltage but then the balance plug doesn’t work. I see ppl say it’s ifje to do this but I’m weary of it.
I charged the batteries today and a shorty lipo 120c 4900mah discharges to 7.6 for storage went from the 7.67 to 8.4 in 34 mins charging at 4.9 amps. I guess that’s good for an old charger.

So it appears I at least did everything correctly given my limited ability lol. It seems my charger shows a total voltage of the two cells combined, that’s where I was confused. If I charged down to 3.8 on my screen I’d really be 1.9 per cell and wreck the battery lol

 

[tntpoof]

you can discharge a battery as whatever you like you can add a battery buzzer to balance plug and set it to whatever voltage you desire...Id just build a bulb discharger to discharge faster(A 1157 bulb is 5 amp draw when you have both elements light)...anyway

 

[olds97_lss]

you can discharge a battery as whatever you like you can add a battery buzzer to balance plug and set it to whatever voltage you desire...Id just build a bulb discharger to discharge faster(A 1157 bulb is 5 amp draw when you have both elements light)...anyway

Yeah, you can, but a proper lipo charger has a "storage" setting that balance the packs cells all to the same storage voltage. Draining the pack using just the main power leads will likely end up with cells on different voltages. Even if the pack is run to LVC (average of 3.2-3.5V) in the vehicle, using the "charge" or "balance charge" of a charger to push it up to half charge and manually stopping will still end up with different voltages as most (if not all) balance chargers just do a high amp charge via the main leads until the pack gets to 90% or so, then it charges via the balance plug. At least that's how the 5 chargers I've used so far seem to work.

 

[StevenMax]

Yeah, you can, but a proper lipo charger has a "storage" setting that balance the packs cells all to the same storage voltage. Draining the pack using just the main power leads will likely end up with cells on different voltages. Even if the pack is run to LVC (average of 3.2-3.5V) in the vehicle, using the "charge" or "balance charge" of a charger to push it up to half charge and manually stopping will still end up with different voltages as most (if not all) balance chargers just do a high amp charge via the main leads until the pack gets to 90% or so, then it charges via the balance plug. At least that's how the 5 chargers I've used so far seem to work.

I do use the balancer when discharging, the total voltage should be even according to that I would imagine. A newer charger would be best I think this one was still kinda new maybe when electric and lipo started growing. It’s a good charger for Back in the day lol