azouleym

question. i have a Tghunder Power 3 cell 2070mah Lipo and i am flying with a Frio 10 brushless motor. i usually charge my battery to about 12.2 volts and go fly. well, after about 5 minutes i land my plane and check the voltage and it reads about 11.3 or around there and when i check the voltage under load and full throttle the motor it drops down to about 10 volts. i understand that the voltage is saposed to decline.....but is it saposed to decline from 12.2 volots to 10 in just 5 minutes. i mean i get really short flights. the reason i went Lipo was to lengthen my flight time. i am at 4400 feet so i use a 10 x4prop. and eflights apollo 25 esc. i havent flown the battery very manny times, and it was like that the first time i ran it......and yes the first 3 flights i did i ran the battery between 3C and 5C and it has a 20C rating. anny suggestions???

guver

My Feedback: (325)

I don't know about planes, but you have just a slight more capacity at the bottom (empty level) 11.1 resting.

You have some more capacity at the top as well (full level) 12.6 is full.

jdetray

As guver said, a full charge for a 3S-cell lipo is 12.6V. At 12.2V, you are starting out at only about 80% of capacity.

The battery voltage will hold up longer if you give the pack a full (12.6V) charge.

- Jeff

azouleym

ok...cool......one more question. so if i charge the batt to full capasity, then of course the battery NEEDS to be ballanced. right....ok...so i plug in my thunder power ballancer. Does that thing have to be plugged in while it is charging or after the charge (or mabey before) i have been doing it while the battery is not charging.

TedMo

Plug balancer in during the charge. It should tell you this in instructions.

azouleym

...sorry i didn't mention it, but i have the thunder power thp210 lipo ballancer


it is kinda subtle, but there is a part in the instructions that says, and i quote.....

<Auto self Balancing>
1. Plug balancer connector to balancer- do not charge battery
2. Balancer will bleed/balance if balancing is necessary(LEDs flashing)>

so........kinda confusing
and the guy who runs the shop that solt it to me told me to plug it in after i charge it......

azouleym

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...sorry correction it is the THP 205 lipo ballancer.....

Swift427

I have a Blinky balancer and I always check to see if the 3 discharged cells are equal before charging. Usually they are, but sometimes with more aggressive flying and age a 3S1P needs to be balanced before charging. It's always a good idea to balance before charging.

Promotional advertisement says, "A balanced pack charges more quickly and most importantly will give you a longer flight time."

According to the distributor of Apogee LiPos 'the guy that runs the shop that sold it to you' is correct -
http://www.pfmdistribution.com/
"Due to misinformation, more packs have been damaged during balancing than have been helped. If you insist on balancing a pack (If it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and you sleep better at night, have at it), please, please, only balance fully charged packs.

Why only balance fully charged packs? All properly matched cells are mated together so that the high and low voltages will coincide. There may be mid-point voltage variances. Balancing a partially charged pack can cause the high and low voltages to become unbalanced. Again, please, if you insist on the balancing gimmick, please only balance fully charged packs."

As you read through the part on "No Gimmicks!" you will notice that this flies in the face of conventional thinking, but who's to argue with them.

Conventional LiPo thinking says you don't need to cycle new LiPos, but according to Apogee and CommonSenseRC you should cycle LiPos at least 3-5 times with conservative flying before ever taxing a LiPo for its maximum continuous discharge rate or peak discharge bursts. Also, slow charging LiPos at .5C or even trickle charging at .1C actually prolongs the life of a LiPo according to CommonSenseRC
www.commonsenserc.com/most_life_lipos.pdf

azouleym

ok, but both those sites contradict eachother. one says ballance your pack after flights, to keep them from charging improprly, and the other says only ballance a fully charged pack.

if you ask me, that seemskinda strange...???

Red Scholefield

My Feedback: (9)

The cells in a pack can accept charge at slightly different efficiencies. therefore they should be balanced during the end of the charge process. Discharging cells to the same voltage level does not assure they will be balanced at the end of the charge cycle since they will have finite differences in capacity.

patnchris

Be careful with the TP 2070 packs.....It seems that they have had issues with them. I know more people that have had them replaced, than I do guys flying them. I had 4 of mine replaced after less than 20 cycles..... ThunderPower replaced them with 2200 ma packs and these are, definately living up the their potential......My batteries never see a charger without a balancer connected. That''s why I have 3 balancers.....Pat