Darth Will

Hi,

Brand new Belt CP.
Esky 11.1v 1800mAH lipo battery and charger that came with it,
plugged into AC outlet.

My question, how long does it take to charge the battery?
The instructions warn not to let it charge for over 120 minutes but I'm over that
and the lights on the charger indicate that it's still charging.

Thanks!


*update*
Took around 3 1/2 hours to charge.
Thanks for the comments.

DumbDawg

My Feedback: (3)

Let it ride... The Esky chargers are very slow chargers. It won't hurt it to let it finish.

This is why you need about 3 or more batteries. So you can fly out you batteries and charge at the same time. With more batteries you get better fly'n times and don't work your batteries as hard

happy charging.

Disney1

DumbDawg is correct it can take what seems like forever to charge a battery on the stock charger.
The first thing I changed on my Belt CP was the charger.
Here is a link to what I use:
http://www.ushobbysupply.com/product...ecd967b20ee91a
There are a lot of chargers available from $10 to $200+, I have had no complaints with the Align charger that I am using it will usually charge the 1800/11.1 3 cell li-po in less than 1 1/2 hours. It has a switching power supply built in so no wall wart is needed. And for $43 is is very affordable.
R[8D]N Sr

warpnine

That's the same charger I have! Michael said the slightly more ($53 instead of $43) expensive one wouldn't charge my 1800mah batteries any faster. It usually takes just over an hour for me too!

funflier

your stock Esky charger is 800ma and will take about 2.5 hours to charge that big battery, if the charger doesnt die trying..
1800/800= 2.25 hours at least.
Buy more batteries and a better charger/balancer. Your wimpy Esky charger will probably ruin that one battery you have while trying to balance the cells.

kianhon

When I first got my Belt-Cp, took me 4-6 hours to fully charge a 2200mah Lipo. My first expensive upgrade was a TP-610c balance charger too, cost me $130. I regret for it cuz I recently bought a $40 Turnigy balance charger from hobbycity and it work much more cooler and more functions then my TP..Should have save that $130 to get 3 of the turnigy

46u

My Feedback: (3)

This is the one I am going to get after I build my King II as if I read the directions correctly you can charge 2 battery packs at once.

http://www.ushobbysupply.com/product...17a3bb86d3436a

Disney1

46u:
I have the 2/3 cell modle of that chgarge, and it works great, I read the instructions on the US Hobby site and it dose appear that you can charge 2 7.4v lipos at one time or 2 11.1v if you charge in paralell. But is also implies that it will take twice as long as it will be charging 6 cells not 3. The only advantage I could find for the 2/3/4/ cell unit is that it will charge 14.4v Li-Po's.
You might want to email Michael at US Hobby Supply for clairification
[email protected]

R[8D]N Sr

46u

My Feedback: (3)

I talked to Michael on the phone today not about the charger but about the bare bone King II. He seems to be a very cool person.

Disney1

46u
See my reply to you on your other thread about the Belt CP vs HBKII.
Simple answer Get the Belt CP ARF. Better deal better heli and it likes the wind.
And get the 2/3 cell charger. Better value and charges just as fast. Unless you are going to 14.4v Li-Po's you do not really need the 2/3/4 cell charger.
There you go my 2 cents worth in blunt format.
R[8D]N Sr

funflier

disney your correct about that charger taking twice as long. That is the norm for chargers that can charge more then one pack at a time. The manufactures very rarely tell you this but you can often see it by the specs on the charger. Being able to charge more then one pack at a time is for convience not speed.
Also you cannot mix battery packs if you have say a 1350 pack and a 1000 pack they cannot be charged at the same time and also it helps of the battery packs are not mixed from diff mfg. Sometimes they have to be balanced one at a time before even hooked up to the charger. Some charger balancers that claim to be able to balance and charge 2 packs actually attempt to balance between the packs as it would need two totally sep balance circuits to balance two packs and that costs money. Often they take longer to balance the packs and don't do a very good job of it (a good balance can balance to .01 volt and do it in about 15 min max on a 3s pack up to about 2400mh
If you see a charger that both balances and charges through the balancing plug only beware that it needs a totally separate charging circuit for EACH battery cell to operate correctly as it has to first balance the cells then switch to charge cycle and when it is in charge cycle they usually are charging each cell indiviually and not checking the balance. Many balance and then switch to charge and do not monitor the cells and if you have a bad cell they simply increase the current and continue to increse it until?? Align had that problem with a few of their chargers, I don't know if they ever corrected it but I am sure they have by now. There are several threads on them in the battery forum. Exact same chargers that are under the Align name are sold on ebay for about half the price. Some higher or more refined chargers such as some models of the Thunderpower for example actually have a data cable that plugs into the balance plug and balances the cells before and during the charge cycle which is done through the heavy battery deans connector, the are a fail safe as if you have a cell that will not take a charge or a cell fails it will know this and shut off the charger and also turn off the balance feature (to prevent that cell from pulling down the other cells and possibly having a short and resulting fire) and alert you of the problem.
Generaly a good charger/balancer combo will set you back close to 100$ street price and a top of the line like if you have a lot of 4s and 6s packs etc and need huge battery packs the charger/balance will run over 150$
I have had about 7diff lipo chargers and most of them had one or more drawbacks to them. Usually it was inablity to properly balance the pack or did not have a feature that monitored the balance while charging (major reason packs fail during charging is they were not balanced before the charging cycle (or incorrectly balanced) or the charge rate was too high for the condition of the pack).

kianhon

I don't understand why would you want to spend $50 on a 1amp charger instead of adding $10 or less for a balance charger that has digital screen, discharge function, balance charge function, multiple chemistry, and max 5 amp charge current?

Most charger can do 2 Lipo at once, is just depends on those requirement funfiller said and a $2 dollar parallel JST/Dean cord.

funflier

Kianhon, Your killing the mfg sales for chargers that can charge two batteries at once when you let out about the paralle connector cable. Thats supposed to be a little secret of theirs. .

That charger rated output is 1000 ma PER CELL that related to it being able to charge a 4s pack as its peak output is 4 amps.
that automaticly tells me its a balance plug charger and must have a seperate balance and charge circuit for each cell to be able to sense the charge effect on the indiviual cell.
Most chargers just list peak output rather then output per cell and then telling you the max number of cells it can charge. However that charger only charges through the balance plug which means it is limited on its output conn to the number of cells can charge (I can see it has a 5 conn plug therefore it can balance charge up to 4 cells at once).
I would bet that it balances and then switchs to series charge after and never goes back as its much too expensive to build 4 seperate chargers and sensing circuits for that price along with a balancer.
Go with Kianhon and spend a little more for a decent one you will never regret it.

gpach

Take a look at the celpro 4s from FMA. They only sell via their website and they work very well. I charge all my cells a 1C, everything from 2s 800 mah to 3s 3500 mah. All the batteries complete in about 40 mins.
http://www.fmadirect.com/products.htm?cat=45&nid=4

The best feature about the charger is the %remaining display. To keep battery life up you are suppose to only discharge the batteries to 20%, its an easy check when you put the battery on, it tells you the cell voltages and the corresponding amount left in the battery.

As a note, it does require a DC source such as a power supply or a 12V battery. I used a battery charger on mine for a while untill I broke down and bought a proper power supply.

funflier

Better watch it with that charger they have been telling people that they can charge a battery that is over 12c rating at up to 3 times the cell capacity. That is NOT what the battry mfg say. Even there own batteries carry a warning not to charge over 1C
A 3C charge rate is for example charging a 2000ma pack at 6 amps! Talk about doing a demo for a battery fire.
Next battery I have one of my 1350ma batteries that fails I think just for fun I will put it in my lipo bag and video tape it at my max amp out which is about 5 amps, cost me a bag and a cable but it might be entertaining. Actually bet my LHS would probably like to tape it for a demo on selling lipo bags [8D] (and give me a new bag and cable of course).
Yes at 20% discharge they usually charge in about 45 min or so, no matter what the size after balancing. I usually don't take mine down less then 15%. At 10.5v it is usually landing time as it requires too much power to maintain, the gyro doesnt hold as well and thats when the battery really begins to heat up. I have more then 6 batteries so its not a problem to switch them. I average well over an hour of flying time total. By then my fingers are numb.
Using a battery charger to run a charger is a big bad no no your very very lucky you did not damage the Lipo charger or have a accident. Most chargers have a warning against using a battery charger to power them.
I found in the field that using your car battery to charge say 3 2400ma battery packs can run down your car battery to nothing the hard way years ago. No one told me that but then not to many people used lipo packs.

gpach

Funflier, you are correct on the warnings that come with their own batts. Its kinda funny that they sell the 3c aspect then warn against it. Mind you this is on their cheaper batts, I have not purchased any of their better line.

Regardless, per my post, I always charge at 1C.

Not sure on what the problem is with using a battery charger, its a DC source. I ran mine for 6 months with four of the cellpro chargers running off it at the same time. It wasnt until I started trying to charge 4 of the 3500 mah batteries at the same time that the voltage sagged too low and the chargers went out on low voltage.

The other nice feature it has is lippo repair mode. If you make a mistake and overdischarge a lippo there is a chance it will help restore it. Havent had it happen yet as I am pretty religious with my flight times to protect the batteries.

funflier

repair mode is usually when the imbalance is over .2 volt per cell and average cell voltage is below 3.2 volt per cell. Most of the battery mfg seem to think that anything below 3.6v per cell is call to balance the pack first then charge at .3 to .5v till the cells are all at least 3.6 volt then switch to the reg charge rate that you set it at. If that were true a lot of our cells would be in a state of repair much the time. I kind of think they overdo it in the interests of liability. I noticed that my Thunder Power batteries and the instructions for the the chargers state this, same with the instructions for my Excel batteries. Somehow I think it is more likely you will run airplane batteries down to the min more likely then helis as they in a helis they just lose so much power ther you notice it more then you would a plane unless your doing some extreme flying.