Lipo charging?

[hulkmaxx]

Ok guys maybe a dumb question here but I'm still learning this lipo stuff. Anyhow I just bought a new 8000mah 2s lipo. My question is my charger only goes to 5000 mah charge setting. Even though I am seeing the full 7.4volt charge am I getting my mah capacity or is there something else I should do to charge it? When I charge my 5000mah it always says at capacity. But not on the 8000mah.

 

[hamz9561]

It sounds like you're confusing charge rate on the charger with the capacity. Most LiPo capable chargers don't overcharge the batteries, so you should be fine letting the battery charge through the full cycle.

 

[Greywolf74]

Hamz is right but you could have a mAh charging cap on your charger set to 5000mAh too. Is it actually stopping the charge cycle when it gets to 5000mAh or is the counter just stopping but the charge cycle is still running?

 

[hulkmaxx]

I have my Mah setting as far as it goes which is 5000mah or 5.0. My other lipo is only a 5000mah near end of charge cycle it always says at capacity on the 5000mah battery then full charge and alarms letting me know battery is full charged. With the 8000mah battery it goes through the charging cycle and alarms full charge but never flash's at capacity before alarming full charge. They both register a full voltage charge per cell though. Man this lipo stuff is kinda confusing some times and they say nitro is hard LOL! Anyhow thanks for the help guys. It does take longer for the bigger Mah battery to charge so it is probably getting a full charge.

 

[Greywolf74]

I think your confusing the charge rate with the capacity thats being put into the lipo. The setting you set to tell it how fast you want to charge, for most lower end chargers maxs out at 5A or 5000mA. This doesn't have anything to do with how much capacity the charger is going to put into the battery but rather how fast the rate at which the lipo will charge. For example if you charge a 5000mAh lipo at 5000mA then it should theoretically take 1 hour to charge. if you charged a 5000mAh lipo at 2500mA then it would still get charged up to its full 5000mAh capacity it would just take 2 hours instead of 1 cuz you're charging at 1/2C instead of 1C. Likewise if you had a charger that could charge a 5000mAh lipo at 10,000mA then it would only take 30 minutes because you're charging at 2C. that why your 8000mAh lipo is getting fully charged and why it takes longer than your 5000mAh lipo. The charger isnt powerful enough to charge a 8000mAh at 8000mA or 1C. Does that clear up anything for you? maybe at least as clear as mud? lol

While you're charging the lipo either on the main charging screen thats displayed or one of the sub menus you can flip to while charging you should actually see a counter that shows you how much mAh has actually been put into the pack but this is separate from the amperage amount that the charger is charging at and its also not usually very accurate either especially on cheaper models. I generally dont pay any attention to this. as long as the lipo is being charged to 4.2V/C then the lipo is getting a full charge.

In the general settings somewhere there should also be a setting where you can set a capacity charging limit where once the charger reads that your lipo has charged to XXXXmAh youve set it at the charger will stop regardless of what the voltage of the lipo is at. Again this setting isnt really important as long as its not set so low that it interferes with charging your lipos to full. I say its not really important because like I mentioned above the mAh counter on the charger isnt very accurate.

 

[hulkmaxx]

Thanks greywolf this info definitely helped me out. I'm still learning all this techno lipo stuff LOL.

 

[Greywolf74]

NP man. I'm better with the electric side of things than I am with the nitro side of this hobby lol