Lion A+ 1500mAh LiPo - Charge Rate

[Hands0n]

I just picked up a couple of these Lion Power 1500mAh batteries to try out. They';re ideal for the mini H quads that I';m messing around with lately.

Physically they are much shorter than the 1500mAh Zippy Compact that I';ve used to date. See the picture below. They are the same area as the 1300mAh Zippy, just 3mm thicker.

Question; the label says these can charge at up to 10C. That';s insane! As a rule I only ever charge at 1C. It takes an hour. So what? What do you think? What rates do you typically charge at?

Oh, and has anyone else used these yet?






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[flybywire]

Danny, like u i used to use 1x, but recently have been doing 2x on my 1800 mAh zippy compacts.
Life';s too short!

No probs yet, 30 min charge.

[Hands0n]

Thanks Andy, its good to know that exceeding 1C is viable - I just haven';t trusted these higher rates of charge. Maybe okay for the ground based vehicles, but a multi-rotor up in the sky is a different proposition for me, mentally!

I might just mark one of these up and try them at 2C for a while, see how it gets along.  These were really cheap compared to what I';ve seen elsewhere for the same make. So not an expensive loss if one puffs up ...

[guest325]

It';s down to how much you have paid for them, if they are cheap then charging at higher rates sometimes makes sense - what value do you put on your time waiting for them to charge?

[Hands0n]

Thats the thing I suppose. I';m never actually "waiting" for them to charge. I';m always doing something else. Typically these days I charge up when I get back and leave them fully charged in anticipation of my next day';s flying. 

I used to set them to storage charge after each session and then have a big charge up the night before or in the morning before going out.  Chat on here changed my mind about that and so far its worked okay using that regime with modern day LiPo.

[flybywire]

Well, I don';t have one of those charge em all up at once chargers, so this makes it more viable for me, as I fly most evenings in the Summer/autumn (when time permits!)  Being a belt and braces sort of guy, I always avoided more than 1c charge rates, but I just thought, what the hell, they';re only a fiver each?  So far, like I say, I still get 12 mins flight time, so I';ll let you know if they start going down to 2 mins all of a sudden!

N.B As I only fly my bigger stuff at weekends, there is always plenty of time to charge at 1c.   

[powerlord]

Anything over 1000, I just leave it on max (6a). Never had any issues in 3 years

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[dp106]

I have a 4 way charger now all my batteries are charged in no time at 1c :-)

[XH558]

I use one of these... best thing I ever bought ...


Just plug the power leads into the output of your balancing charger - connect the balancing lead to the charger and then set up to six batteries into the Para Board with each one having it';s balance lead plugged in and charge at 1C of the lowest battery connected ...

I find that, roughly, it will effectively charge all six batteries in the same time it took to charge one ...

I have connected  1 x 4000mah 1 x 3300mah 2 x 2200mah & 2 x 1800mah and charged at the rate of 1.8 for the lowest and they all charge and balance perfectly. I have been astonished at the balance accuracy - nearly every cell is at exactly 4.2 at the end - just as it should be. I don';t know how it does it - but it does ... it even knows that one battery is more drained and keeps the others ticking over whilst it keeps charging the low one 

The battery charger doesn';t overheat or complain - just occasionally the fan might click in for a few seconds but nothing untoward.
I only have one of these (or another manufacturers version of it - identical ) - with a mains 12 v supply adapter ...


I only ever charge in the workshop when I am in there working - never ever leave them unattended - and find that whilst I am beavering away at something or other in no time the battery charger is beeping at me that all 6 are done and I don';t even notice the time 

[xxpitt]

maybe they power the most drained cells first as the offer the path of least resistance and is actually nothing to do with the charger. i hae no idea just a guess.

i charge my lipos 1c at home but when i the field i 6amp fast charge them, even though it is set to 6amp, chargers max,  it only ever charges at around 4amp. takes me about 55mins at home and 27ish at the field

[dp106]

I thought you had to be careful with those boards to make sure each battery was the same size and approximately the same level of discharge..

What I found was if I tried to charge two 3300 batteries at 3.3 amps it would take twice as long.  You are effectively only charging at 0.5c so it saved me no time over charging them individually. I could double the charge rate but with a max of 6amps on the charger I would rapidly run out of power. This and being a bit concerned about the safety of charging multiple batteries from one charger I didn';t use the board for long.

[Hands0n]

I use those boards also.  They are very good. I';ve not tried to charge mixed capacity batteries, and try to have all voltages close to within a few 0.0x of each other.

[flybywire]

well, I guess as we';re only dealing with one cell voltage, so forget individual cell capacities, as the charger will calculate the required capacity from the internal resistance, I guess, the closer it gets to 0 resistance the less it adds, or the more load it places on that cell, so the others catch up.  Least that';s my limited understanding of these things?   

[XH558]

well, I guess as we';re only dealing with one cell voltage, so forget individual cell capacities, as the charger will calculate the required capacity from the internal resistance, I guess, the closer it gets to 0 resistance the less it adds, or the more load it places on that cell, so the others catch up.  Least that';s my limited understanding of these things?   

I know absolutely nothing about electrickery and wouldn';t know what an amp was if it bit me on the leg ...

However, how you explain it is how I understood it too - on a balance charger it just sees the individual cells  - they just happen to be wrapped in threes and have different capacities ... I have to keep thinking of it like water ... 6 batteries connected is 18 individual buckets - and some buckets are bigger than others - you set the speed at which the water flows in and when the smaller buckets are full a ball valve shuts off the flow but it keeps filling the other buckets - till all 18 are full ...

I could be wrong but that';s my understanding  :huh

[Roland Sausage]

How have the Lion cells been? Would you recommend them? I';m looking at picking up a few packs for a 250 build.  These are a bit cheaper than Zippys from hobbyking after shipping.

Jon

[bazzerh]

with the majority of lipo fires i';ve heard about happening at the charging stage i really don';t think its a great idea to be suggesting the parallel charging of different sized packs at different voltages to newcomers to the hobby 

lets keep it real, identical packs within 0.5v. if youre up against time then the lower packs do increase in voltage very quickly so u can quickly stop the charge when they';re level with the rest, add the others to the board and continue

[Friskle]

with the majority of lipo fires i';ve heard about happening at the charging stage i really don';t think its a great idea to be suggesting the parallel charging of different sized packs at different voltages to newcomers to the hobby 

lets keep it real, identical packs within 0.5v. if youre up against time then the lower packs do increase in voltage very quickly so u can quickly stop the charge when they';re level with the rest, add the others to the board and continue

I agree, parallel charging should be all the same battery really, for the safety aspect, , but as for going up while charging normally, that is pretty rare.

some will be going up in a min though, just about to go wiggle a knife in three out back :)