jmir

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I just got back from the flying field where one of the new flyers commented that he uses a regular charger for charging NiMH and NICad batteries to charge his li-po battery. He does this by connecting a li-po balancer made by DualSky to the charger and then connecting the balancing tap of the battery to the DualSky balancer. Can this be done safely?

I do have a DualSky balancer, but I still use my li-po charger with it. I also have a regular charger that I could use by just purchasing another DualSky balancer if this works OK.

Comments anyone?

mrasmm

not sure on that specific one, but yes there are some products out there like that that will do the trick.

I say if you have a lipo charger, then use that. The diff between them is the CC/CV charge on a lipo. NiCD's and NiMH's use CC and peak detection, so when the pack is almost full it's still pumping at full rate into the pack. Lipo's are senative to that, and it will probably cause a smaller cycle life, and may also puff the pack after a bit. I personally wouldn't do that, especially if I had a lipo charger on hand =)

My personal opinion is it wouldn't be worth it to use both chargers like that. You might look at something like the cellpro from fmadirect.com for about 60 or 70 bucks as a second charger. That would be about double of that balancer from what I googled, but it would be well worth it, and there would be no questions asked

Ryan CSRC

I would not recomend this at all. There may be some balancers that will cut off the charge if any cell reaches 4.2 volts, but this only prevents over charging. They would still not be being charged in the proper method. You might get away with it, but in my opinion this is asking for trouble.

Ryan Lefevre
www.CommonSenseRC.com
The Go To Guys For Electric Power

timothy thompson

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buy a lipo charger before you burn you house down

jmir

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Thanks for all the advice on this matter.

I do have a Li-po charger which I will continue to use. I also checked instructions that came with the DualSky balancer which clearly states you must use a li-po charger.

soarhead-RCU

Someone makes a littlle module device call the Dapter that will allow you to use a nicad-nimh type charge to charge lipos, they also have a module for the A123 type Li-Ions also. Dont remember who it is though.....Maybe thats hat he was useing??????

Bob