deli_conker

Didn't get a chance to fly all summer. Or spring, for that matter. Now I've got a little spare time and was wondering about the health of my lipo. I gave it a full charge around January of this year as I did a lot of flying during the winter and usually charged it in anticipation for the next day's flight.

Anyways, it sat with that charge for most of this year. Last night I debated whether I should charge it up and see what happens or just get a new one. I ended up charging it. It took about 15 minutes for the charger to report a full charge.

It's a thunder power pro-lite 3s 1320 mAh battery.
The charger is a Li-Poly Smart Charger 2500.
I have the Thunder Power Balancer on order, it has yet to arrive.

I'd like to go flying this weekend during one or both of the mornings. Anybody have some input about this situation?

Deadeye

Go fly! Run the battery as low as it can go, charge it, and see what kind of mah it puts back in. I've left fully charged lipos in a temp controlled enviornment with no ill effects.

deli_conker

Didn't have a chance to fly this weekend due to bad weather. I'm going to have to wait until next I suppose.

Do I need to use a multimeter to measure how many mAh goes back into it or can I just eyeball it by flying in a similar manner and timing it?

richrd

Be careful on first few flights not at full current just go easy also do not discharge below 3.5V “ voltage at rest” then slow charge back up at 50% C. Do this couple of times then you can start pushing pack harder. Treat it like a new pack. Never below 3.0V per cell.
PS yes as soon as you can check balance and use a balancer.
Rich

deli_conker

I never fly at full throttle. I have a Hacker 4900kv brushless in my E-Starter. Half throttle is the norm for it unless I want to pretend that my airplane is actually a rocket and do a speedy verticle ascent.

About charging at .5C, my charger has a jumper for number of cells, and mAh capacity of battery. Do I put the capacity jumper at half of actual battery capacity?

richrd

Not sure what that would do. Try it can not hurt it may change charge current and work correctly or just stop at 1/2 charge. But charging at 1C will not hurt anything just better to balance and bring up an old pack softly so I sugested that.
have fun go try it.
Rich

deli_conker

Well, I hooked it up to my brand new balancer and let it do it's thing. Then I finally got a chance to go flying this Monday. Put it (thunder power 3s 1320 mAh) in my E-Starter (no landing gear, hacker 4900kv brushless motor) and hit the park. It was actually it's maiden flight and my first time using ailerons. It seemed to fly just fine to me. I don't think I ran it down all the way though. I had my 6 year old with me, and she had to use the restroom. But, I did fly it for almost 30 minutes before I brought it down.

I put the battery on the balancer and it had nothing ill to say about the battery. I haven't charged it back up again yet though, too busy with other things. Is there anything I should look out for when I do so?

richrd

Best is to let it rest after flying for more than a couple minute then measure voltage if is around 3.3V and above per cell all is good. (note time you flew and stop with timer set) unless you have a programmable LVC. For long life stop with more than 20% capacity left and you are on the safe side. Then if not going to fly in a week or more do nothing put in bag in refrigerator or coolest place you have. Then charge at .75% to 100% C with balancer and go fly. Pack will get over 100 cycles this way.
Rich