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Old 04-17-2012 | 10:36 AM
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Portlandflyer
 
Joined: Dec 2011
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From: Portland, OR
Default RE: Parallel Charging

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I parallel charge almost all the time. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I am charging with a Meanwell 1000 watt supply and Icharger 306B. I can charge six 5,000 packs at 1c all at one time or two packs at 3c, etc. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">The thing with parallel charging is you can not mix cell counts, but you can mix size capacity of batteries. In other words, let&rsquo;s say you have a five cell 4,000 ma and a five cell 5,000 pack. Just add them together, which is 9,000 ma or 9 amps. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I use both Paraboard and Progressive&rsquo;s. Both are excellent. The big pain is unless you standardize your batteries, you could wind up with a ton of boards. I stick to Deans and Thunder Power for the balance taps. I have Dean&rsquo;s on all my main leads and just use balance lead convertors from my packs that don&rsquo;t take Thunder Power balance leads. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">In fact, one thing I have found is, it can be a real pain to plug in six balance taps into the one board when I am charging 5&rsquo;s. It really get&rsquo;s tight. It actually works better to have a lead extension from the battery balance connector to the board. I just leave the balance extenders (convertors) on the board and plug the batteries into them. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">One of the down sides is you can not tell how much you are putting into each battery. As far as your charger is concerned, it&rsquo;s just charging one big battery. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">Yes, they will be balanced if you charge with a balance lead. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I would assume if one battery is out of whack, your charger is going to sense that and shut down. I have charged dozens and dozens of cycles and never had that happen. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">The way Cellpro charges (2 sides), I understand it can be an issue. I read that Cellpro was coming out with their own parallel system.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div>