Skyrc e680 charger

[oldo556]

Hi, it's a charger according to the title, and when I charge lipo batteries (3s), most of the charging goes quite smoothly, but then when the battery is mostly charged, the charging starts to slow down so that it takes hours for the battery to be full. Why's that?

 

[bill_delong]

I suspect your batteries have aged, does your charger have an IR meter?

As batteries age the IR becomes unbalanced between the cells where they charge at different rates and higher quality chargers provide high balance charge rates to account for imbalanced IR.

If you want to reduce your charge times you can invest in a higher quality charger or replace the battery, more info here:

• Which charger is the best?

***UPDATE
I found the manual for your charger here:
https://www.skyrc.com/download/e680_Instruction_Manual_EN_V1.30.pdf

It states that is has an IR meter so you can verify the condition of your battery

It also limits the balance current to 0.3A which is pretty weak and contributing factor to undesirable charge times

 

[tntpoof]

Id make a single cell charger from a balance plug that can be plugged into main charging pot and put charger at 1 amp no balance 1 cell make charging time less.just make sure you know what polarity is on your balance plug from battery
similar to this but use a balance plug male end..

 

[oldo556]

should charging always be done with balancing?

 

[DavidB1126]

should charging always be done with balancing?

Yes.

 

[RustyUs]

Your situation is just like mine, years ago, and is why I went searching why it happens. CC/CV parts of a balance charge; balance current, and cell health... that's your homework.

 

[bill_delong]

should charging always be done with balancing?

Not necessarily, if you charge in basic LiPo mode bypassing the "BAL" mode then you can charge a lipo without balancing the cells which bypasses the CCCV algorithm which will drastically reduce your charge times.

The risk you will run into is one of the cells will be slightly overcharged which I have found to be negligible when I have done this in the past.

If you want to play it safe to get faster charge times you can use an external balancer to get faster charge times where I've used this one here:
https://www.skyrc.com/Accessory/SKYRC_LiPoPal

I have since bought a higher quality charger so can get faster charge times with a high balance current rate

Regardless, you need to be checking the IR of your cells and discard them when you see the IR has faded.

 

[RustyUs]

TJin Tech had the best explanation on CC/CV, but the site is gone.
https://www.mpoweruk.com/chargers.htm