james94

hey,
I have a 4s 5000mah lipo. what charge current should I use? is it better to use lower charge currents for the battery?advantages/disadvantages?
sorry, 1st lipo, im a electric newb []

PulseXT40

With a 5000mah battery you should charge it at about 5 amps or a little less. It is better to charge it slow verses charging it fast. It will last longer over the long run if charged at or below 5 amps. Make sure you use a balancer to keep the cells balanced.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

Josh,

john01374

Like Pulse said. You can charge up to 5 amp but all batteries will last longer if charged slower. I personally never charge over 2.5A on any of my batteries. I have two chargers and Lipos run so long that charging really isn't a problem for me.


Also you can never balance too much. I balance my packs before they go on the charger, during charging and I leave it on for a few minutes after I'm done charging. I also balance right after the pack comes out of the car. Just don't forget and leave the balancer hooked up. It will eventually kill the battery

james94

thanks for the reply. My batt say to not charge above 1C? whats a "c"?[&:]

Access

C = capacity, ie. if the battery has 5000mAH, 1C = 5A, 2C = 10A, and 20C = 100A.

PulseXT40

You take the mah of the battery and divide it by 1000 to get the C rating.

Ex. 2500mah divided by 1000 = 2.5

So you would charge it at 2.5 amps.

Josh,

james94

whats a good battery "fullness" to store it with?charged or discharged?

PulseXT40

When storing li-po batteries I like to keep them at about 3.6-3.7 volts per cell. This will slow down the deteriation rate of the battery but is not too low that it damages it. So with a 4-cell li-po it would be about 14.4 to 14.8 volts.

Josh,

james94

thanks josh!

james94

one more question josh, can you run a voltage monitor on your lipo, while running the lipo itsself?will it cause any damage?

Access

I've heard it like this store them fully charged and they lose roughly 20% capacity (permanent) every year. Store them 40% charged and they lose around 4% (permanent) every year. Seems to work, I'm running batteries from 4 years ago and the capacity loss from when the cell was new is less than 10%.

What I do is, when charging a fully discharged cell, I set the charger (intellipeak ICE) to stop after 40% charge. Then I store it, and before running I take them out and charge them the rest of the way.