Is there any general guidelines I should follow with charging or use of Lipo batteries?

I hear stories about them catching on fire (I know someone who had one almost start his house on fire), and I'm not sure why this happens. Aren't they the same thing that's in laptops and cell phones?

Over charging and over discharging is your worst enemy with Lipo's. Get yourself a good quality balance charger so that all cells are charged equaly, Never charge/discharge at an amperage rating bigger than the batteries capacity, EG: 1800Mah 10C =18Amp maximum discharge, 1C charging input means no more than the batteries maximum capacity into the battery when charging (1800Mah in above example). The number and letter capacity codes on your Lipo give you important information about what power it will supply without any risk of fire. There is a thread on Lipo use somewhere on this site, have a look around and you should be able to find it.

Hope this helps.

guru

Laptops and cellphones are full of protective devices designed to keep you from ever damaging the batteries them selves. Even then, it still happens once in awhile where they'll go off. Just fairly recently I believe it was sony(?) who recalled all kinds of laptops due to problems with the lithium cells igniting.

In our case, not only do we not use protective circuits, but we also use the batteries way out of their intended specification range. Most cells simply aren't designed for the 20C+ discharge rates we subject them to. This is why in lab results, lithium batteries can produce up to 500+ cycles with less than 20% capacity loss, whereas with the way we use them, you're lucky to see over 100 cycles before the pack starts to die on you.

Over-discharge / over-charge (and more specifically, the heat that is generated from this) is what is most damaging to a lithium battery in use aside from physically damaging it or shorting it. Heat is your packs number one enemy. If the pack is getting to hot (greater than 120F) you're pushing it too hard. 140F is about max. Once you start to exceed 140 cell life goes down considerably. I think they become a fire hazard at around 180F (Don't quote me on that, though!).

Cell life is also affected quite considerably if voltage is allowed to dip below 2.75 volts / cell, or higher than 4.2 volts / cell. With the latter being more likely to cause the pack to ignite (during a charge).

[link=http://www.hjnet2000.com/index.php?CategoryID=2]Check this guide about battery safety and charging[/link]

Alright thanks.

The site above says when the light turns green you have to hurry and disconnect the charger. This kind of scares me. I assume the Honeybee King 2 will have an auto shutoff charger included? Just bothers me if I was to forget.

My $0.02 cents on the subject based on my personal experience only. I have 2 LiPo, one is 8,000 mAh and the other is 5,000. I use an expensive Orbit Microloader charger but I was warned that I should if I wanted to avoid problems. Considering that between both batteries I have over $500 invested I thought it was worth it. In my case, I never charge them about 1C in other words the 5,000 mAh I charge it at 6.0 Amps and the other at 5.0 Amps the maximum Amps my charger is capable of is 6.0 Amps. anyway.
After a year of great abuse because I am a total newbie and for several reasons I have crashed more then I would like to count, I have had no problems and the batteries perform incredible well. In addition, even the 8,000 mAh battery weight is considerably less then my NiCd 2,400. One time I lost the crystal on my receiver at about 100 feet, the heli went obviusly out of control, hit a nearby sign and crashed straight down. Total loss, the frame was broken in 2 pieces, the motor was ripped off the motor plate, broken boom, broken servos, bent main shaft, and of course blades and flybar. The battery however was a little bent out of shape but luckily still in one piece. I Straigthened it best I could and left it outside my house inside a metal container overnight and nothing happened (I have read sometimes they ignite hours later)...so 2 days later, I tried recharging, everything seemed normal and I just continue using it as usual. That was over 3 months ago and I have used it more then 20 times since. The only thing you notice with this one is that is a bit out of shape due to the impact the shrink cover "gave" a little.
What I have reas so far that has work for me, make sure don't charge it at more then the rated capacity, and make sure you don't discharge it below the rated capacity as well. The first instance make cause you a fire, the second will ruin your battery.