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Li-Po battery for ELEV-8 v3 — Parallax Forums

Li-Po battery for ELEV-8 v3

Boardlex9Boardlex9 Posts: 2
in Accessories
What would be the correct charger settings for the, Gens Ace 5300 mAh LiPo Battery. I am very cautious, mostly scared to start a fire. I know LiPo has to be selected. I don't understand what amps to select. I understand very little about LiPo batteries.

please, any advice is welcome.

Comments

  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    High current packs can be charged at 1C. So a 5.3Ah pack can be charged at 5.3A.
  • VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,488
    To add to what Duane said, the 5.3A setting should be considered as a safe maximum.

    However, if your charger only goes as high as (for example) 4Amp, that will be good too. You'd just charge the battery a little slower with a lower current setting.
  • Boardlex9Boardlex9 Posts: 2
    thanks, this is great help.
  • ceptimusceptimus Posts: 135
    edited 2017-05-24 12:00
    A LiPo battery with more than one cell will have a balance lead - usually a small white plastic connector with several wires leading to it - there will be one more wire than the number of cells so a three cell (11.1V nominal, 12.6V fully charged) battery will have a four wire balance connector.

    To charge such batteries it's safest (and kindest to the cells) to "balance-charge" them. Most chargers have built-in balance connectors so you plug the balance lead into there and also connect the two main battery leads as you would for a standard charge. Then you select balance charge from the charger menu. As others have said a "one-C" charge or slower is best though some modern batteries can withstand being charged three or four times faster than that if you're in a hurry and if your charger is capable of charging that fast.

    When charging a multi-cell battery in balance mode, the charger will automatically slow down the charge if and when it detects that one of the cells is fully charged before the others are - the charger may be capable of charging at, say, five amps, but the built-in balancer circuits can only usually handle half an amp or less so once one of the cells becomes full (4.2V) the charger has to slow down to what the balance circuits can handle. The charger will slow down the charging rate anyway, even when the cells are perfectly balanced, as the battery approaches full charge.

    With a LiPo "battery" ("cell" would be technically more correct) consisting of just one cell - with a nominal voltage of 3.7V or 4.2V fully charged - then of course there is no requirement to balance charge it. These are the sorts of batteries most commonly found in mobile phones or portable power banks.

    The other thing to remember about LiPo batteries is never to run them till they're totally discharged. If you discharge a LiPo cell much lower than 3V then it is permanently damaged.
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