ORIGINAL: N1EDM
Someone brought up a good point about two cells not being equal to each other. I've got two identical cells connected in parallel. But I can see that, as they age, one might retain more capacity than the other, and consequently the good cell might try to 'charge' the bad cell.
This may seem like over-simplification, but a diode (of the correct size) would solve this problem. Has this been tried? Are there any off-the-shelf gadgets that already do this?
Thanks,
Bob
Attaching cells in parallel is a standard procedure to balance out cells before creating a pack.
Putting a diode in to eliminate the discharge would require 2 diodes since you don't know which cell would be weaker.
Now the diodes would either impede charging or discharging the pack.
The cool thing about lipos is that they do not internally loose charge like ni-xx.
If this were a problem then they would not make parallel packs. And the do.
So there really is no problem to solve and no diodes necessary. But you did have me thinking for a moment.