newbie to lipo help
12-19-2005, 06:14 PM
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newbie to lipo help
New to lipos. I have a few questions to ask , first I bought a Hobbico quick field charger MK2 and an 11.1v 1320mah 3cell Thunder Power pack. This is for a car but I feel like you airplane guys know more about this than anyone else. For the charger what type of attachments do I need? As for the battery, what are the small wires for? What do I need to attach to the small wires? On the charger, it has a pos/neg slots for meters, what type of meter? What is a good discharger if I need one? All your help will be highly appreciated.
12-20-2005, 07:45 PM
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RE: newbie to lipo help
There should be instructions with both the battery and charger that describe the various wires and functions. If not, I know for a fact that at least the charger instructions are available online at www.hobbico.com.
The small wires on the battery are the balancing taps. Each individual cell is "tapped" so it can be monitored by a cell balancing device so they all have equal voltage, and no cell gets overcharged (causes fires). Thunder Power markets a charger/balancer that's designed to work with that particular pack. Your Hobbico charger does not have balancing capability, so you won't use the small wires. This is slightly risky, especially if you plan on using the battery pack hard.
Okay, to connect it to the charger:
1. Solder your connector of choice on to the battery pack's main leads (same as the ones on your NiMH packs).
2. Create a set of "pigtails" using the mate to the connector you soldered on to the battery (same as the one on your car's speed control).
3. Add banana plugs (available at radio shack) to the pigtails. Watch polarity (red to red, black to black, use your old packs and the car's speed control for guidance as to what connects where).
4. Plug your newly-created charge lead into the Hobbico charger.
5. Following the instructions that come with the charger, plug the battery in and set the charger (or vice versa).
The best discharger is whatever you plan on powering with the pack. In other words, drive/fly/sail it. There are very few reasons to discharge the pack any other way.
What type of meter? A voltmeter of course. This is so you can watch the voltage of the pack as it charges. You can get inexpensive multi-function meters (multimeters, with voltmeter functionality) at Radio Shack, Wal Mart, or Harbor Freight.
The small wires on the battery are the balancing taps. Each individual cell is "tapped" so it can be monitored by a cell balancing device so they all have equal voltage, and no cell gets overcharged (causes fires). Thunder Power markets a charger/balancer that's designed to work with that particular pack. Your Hobbico charger does not have balancing capability, so you won't use the small wires. This is slightly risky, especially if you plan on using the battery pack hard.
Okay, to connect it to the charger:
1. Solder your connector of choice on to the battery pack's main leads (same as the ones on your NiMH packs).
2. Create a set of "pigtails" using the mate to the connector you soldered on to the battery (same as the one on your car's speed control).
3. Add banana plugs (available at radio shack) to the pigtails. Watch polarity (red to red, black to black, use your old packs and the car's speed control for guidance as to what connects where).
4. Plug your newly-created charge lead into the Hobbico charger.
5. Following the instructions that come with the charger, plug the battery in and set the charger (or vice versa).
The best discharger is whatever you plan on powering with the pack. In other words, drive/fly/sail it. There are very few reasons to discharge the pack any other way.
What type of meter? A voltmeter of course. This is so you can watch the voltage of the pack as it charges. You can get inexpensive multi-function meters (multimeters, with voltmeter functionality) at Radio Shack, Wal Mart, or Harbor Freight.
