Batteries Partial charging lipos

[bigone5500]

If I'm in a hurry to go fly but don't want to wait 25-30 minutes on the charger, is it bad practice to give the battery a partial charge? Do they have a memory that will prevent them from fully charging in the future?

 

[Smoggie]

No, LiPos dont have any memory.. In fact it's better for them to not quite fully charge. You should get a longer life if you charge them to (say) 4.1V per cell instead of 4.2V (at the expense of slightly less flight time).

Having said that, 25-30 minutes is plenty of time to fully charge a battery if you have a decent charger.

 

[bigone5500]

No, LiPos dont have any memory.. In fact it's better for them to not quite fully charge. You should get a longer life if you charge them to (say) 4.1V per cell instead of 4.2V (at the expense of slightly less flight time).

Having said that, 25-30 minutes is plenty of time to fully charge a battery if you have a decent charger.

I'm using a Keenstone UP100AC Plus. It's a 100w 10A charger that will handle up to 6s packs.

Here is one exactly like mine but with a different name. I got mine from amazon for the same price but this link will help RC-Help.com:

UP100AC Plus

 

[murankar]

10 amps is not a lot of power for 6s charging. My setup does 2 6s 3000mah packs in about 15 minutes while on AC power.

 

[bigone5500]

I'm in no hurry. My wallet doesn't let that happen...

 

[murankar]

I know how that goes. My wallet won't let me crash. Lol. I have scars on my backside from my wallet.

 

[murankar]

The only way to get more flights in with less down time is either more packs or a different system. When I first started the hobby my charger took almost 45 minutes to charge a 2200 mah 3s pack. If you can get your hands on a used icharger 306b then you'll be set.

 

[Smoggie]

Jared,

What size packs are you charging? A 100W / 10A charger is ok for charging single small to medium size packs but will slow you down on large batteries or if charging multiple batteries in parallel. It's the 100W limit that will hold you back on anything higher than 3S . For instance on a 6S pack due to the 100W limits the most current the charger will give is approx 4A.

If you were ever looking for an upgrade the iCharger 306b that Uri suggested is a good choice but you could also consider the Hobbyking Turnigy Reaktor 300W. This is actually a direct copy of the iCharger 306b and works just as well but costs less. You would of course need an external DC power supply of at least 350W to go with it. Hobbyking do one of those too or they do a version of the Reaktor with a built in power supply (personally I'd go for the seperate supply).

 

[bigone5500]

Actually the one I have states that it's good for 10A. See page 4...

UP100AC Plus Manual

 

[Smoggie]

Jared, Yes, it's capable of a maxumnum of 10A OR 100W ... whichever limit it hits first.

A 6S battery charges at 25.2V, so the charger hits it's 100W power limit at 3.96Amps. You can set 10A in the charger but it can never get there because it hits the power limit first. You could only ever charge at 10A if charging a 2S battery... this is all just Ohm's law, no getting away from it I'm afraid.

If you have a 6S battery try it for yourself.

 

[bigone5500]

I have one but it's only 910mAh. I'm good though. Most of what I have is for itty-bitty helis. 150mah to 500mah 1s.

 

[Smoggie]

In that case no problem, your charger has more than enough power for those batteries.

 

[bigone5500]

Yeah but one day I may need more power.

 

[bigone5500]

I guess when I get more serious and am able to fly better (helis that can't fly indoors), then I may get a charger with more power.

 

[murankar]

if all your charging is 1s packs then find out how c your packs can be charged at. I charge all mine at 3C . This will speed up your charge times so you dont have to fly half charged packs all the time. I was under the impression you were charging 6S packs on that charger and thats why you did half charge cycles.