LiPo Battery / Charging Information

[Anonymous]

I thought it may be beneficial to start a thread here where those of us who fly electrics can share our tips and experience.

Batteries can often be a touchy subject. There are things that are hard and true facts, and others that are best practices which can sometimes be subjective. I’ll try my best to identify anything below that falls on the best practices side…

New Batteries
Might as well jump in with a topic that is sometimes subjective…
Some people will say that packs should be gently broken in when new. I’ve not see or heard of any real benefit to this, i.e. less than a full flight for the first few charges, etc…

What I personally do as good practice though, is not charge at full charge rates. Meaning, if the battery can accept a 5C charge rate, I’ll generally charge at 1C or 2C for the first few cycles. Again, not sure this is necessary, but it makes me feel better, and its free. 

Charging
Unlike other battery technologies, LiPo’s are not really affected by “memory”. i.e. it is perfectly fine to fly for 2 minutes, and re-charge. There is no preferred “cycle” for them.

Charging C Ratings
Every LiPo should have a published charge rate either printed on the battery, or available in specs online. If you can’t find anything, assume its 1C.

This refers to the amount of amps that you can push into the battery during the charge cycle. As an example, a 2000mah battery with a 5C charge rating, can be charged at up to 10 amps (mah * C rating / 1000). 1C would be 2 amps on the same battery.

Balance Charging
For any batteries that have a balance plug, it is ALWAYS best to properly balance charge. Balance charging ensures that each cell within the pack is charged to the same fully charged ending voltage. It may also help identify a battery with a weak cell.

A good quality charger is really one of the best investments you can make in this hobby in this guys opinion. Treat your packs well, and they’ll continue to treat you well, and for any of us flying larger batteries, we know they’re not cheap.

Battery Storage
Another area where there may be more opinion than fact.
The fact portion, is that storing batteries at full charge, or full discharge is not good. Batteries should be stored at somewhere between 50 and 75% of capacity. Generally speaking, 3.85 volts per cell is ideal.

What is up for more debate, is what is considered “storage”. Personally, I’ll bring my LiPo’s to storage voltage if they will be sitting for more than a few days.

There are several ways to accomplish this… You can fly 1/2 of your normal flight time and ensure you’re in the general ballpark with a battery checker, you can fly a full flight, and charge 1/2 the time of a typical full charge, or ideally, your charger will offer a storage option. Chargers with a storage charge setting will either charge or discharge as needed to bring your battery to storage voltage across all cells.

Battery Checkers
A battery checker is pretty inexpensive, and in my opinion is a must have in everyone’s tool arsenal. I use a Hyperion Sentry EOS which has some handy features such as the ability to see the voltage in each cell, and to display the approximate % of charge. Nice to ensure I’m not coming down with less than 20% left in the pack..

Battery Disposal
Proper battery disposal is absolutely critical. The absolutely best way to dispose of batteries is to simply take them to either Batteries Plus, or Interstate Battery locally. Damaging / destroying batteries at the field is unacceptable, and puts our club at risk.

More to come, and feel free to add your own tips / advice / experiences.

[Author]

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