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charging question - 12/10/2012 3:36 AM   
tewitt1949


 

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From: sparta, MI, USA
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Hi Guys

I've been nitro for many years and slowly getting into electric. The question I have is my charger (and all others I've seen) you have to tell the charger what kind of battary you want to charge. That is I have to tell the charger weather I'm charging a nicad, lithum, or lipo. I'm thinking electricity is electricity, so what happens if I charge a nicad with the charger set on lipo? Or some other combination?
What is different between the charge of nicad, lithum, lipo? Thanks.


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RE: charging question - 12/10/2012 6:32 AM   
jdetray



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Status: offline 		You don't want to be charging lithium batteries using the NiCd setting. You could have a dangerous fire on your hands. Different chemistries require different charging regimes.

Go to this "sticky" thread and scroll down to post #10 and read about Battery Basics:
EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ELECTRIC FLIGHT
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7100376/tm.htm

You might also want to check this web site for battery information:
http://batteryuniversity.com/

- Jeff

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RE: charging question - 12/10/2012 2:28 PM   
hugger-4641



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Status: offline 		Ditto what Jdetray said!!!       The charging times, cut off voltages, max charging amperages, etc.  are different for different battery chemistries. Chargers are programed to give the right recipe for each battery.  If you charge a battery on the wrong setting, you are very likely to overheat it and have an explosion or fire, especially when dealing with Lipo's. This is not paranoid hysteria or shop myth, this is a FACT.  

There are many threads just on this forum about Lipo's, Nicad, and Nimh batteries catching fire. Even people who know what they are doing have had malfunctions that burned their house or shops down. Chip Hyde is one who comes to mind. I believe he recently had a charger malfunction that cost him his shop. If you don't know who Chip Hyde is, google him!   And please educate yourself about batteries before you take any chances!!!

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RE: charging question - 12/10/2012 2:37 PM   
tewitt1949


 

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From: sparta, MI, USA
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Thanks guys. I guess the one of the biggest factors, which I didn't know is, I thought all battary cells no matter what type of battary, were 1.2 to 1.5 volts. Not so. That could diffently cause a problem. There could be other dangerious issues also. Post #10 is very informative and easy to understand. Thanks again.

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RE: charging question - 12/10/2012 2:47 PM   
hugger-4641



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Status: offline 		Glad you came here to ask about what you didn't know!!   There's  no telling how many folks have made costly mistakes because they didn't take time to ask, including myself.  Most probably don't come back here and tell us the results of their mistake either!  So there's no telling how many people have actually had battery fires and we never hear about it!  Happy Flying to ya. 

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RE: charging question - 1/4/2013 2:47 PM   
aeajr



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quote:

ORIGINAL: tewitt1949


Hi Guys

I've been nitro for many years and slowly getting into electric. The question I have is my charger (and all others I've seen) you have to tell the charger what kind of battary you want to charge. That is I have to tell the charger weather I'm charging a nicad, lithum, or lipo. I'm thinking electricity is electricity, so what happens if I charge a nicad with the charger set on lipo? Or some other combination?
What is different between the charge of nicad, lithum, lipo? Thanks.



Everything you wanted to know about electric flight
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7100376/tm.htm


Welcome to the world of electric powered flight.  Hopefully when you read the article that was at post 10  you took note of the rest of that on-line book on electric flight. If not, go back to the first post at the link above and read it.  You will find a lot of help in that on-line book.

Feel free to post questions there and we will try to help you.





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RE: charging question - 2/7/2013 11:04 AM   
chuckk2


 

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Status: offline 		Back in the dark ages (Well before the "fancy" chargers we use now.)
A CV/CC power supply was often used, and if necessary, individual cells were charged separately as needed to balance the pack.
Low currents were used for the balance part, since the balance leads are not intended for anywhere near the rated battery current.

The fallacy of the scheme was that you by necessity, had to set the overall voltage to about 3.8 v to no more than 4.0 v per cell, and check the balance however you could. We used to use industrial digital panel meters with isolated inputs, one per cell. 

Later refinements used an HP lab "calculator", actually a somewhat primitive computer, to read the panel meters, and cut the charge when the highest individual cell was charged to 4.2 v. The balancing process was usually done manually.
The lab equipment cost?
You don't want to know!
Lab grade programmable P/S $300-400 (we had them around)
Panel DVMs $99 each (Also used for production testing of electrical components, so we had a few to spare.
The HP "Calculator" , when new, cost in the thousands. We used one that had been a spare for a scrapped obsolete test system.
Programming was stored on a flexible card with a magnetic stripe.

The Li batteries were extremely expensive, and of low storage capacity, not suitable for electric model planes.


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