Broken Blade

My Feedback: (5)

Hi,

I just got a IMAX B6ac and it works good but I want to make sure I'm charging right so I won't mess up my batteries. I'm charging both 7.4 2s batteries and 11.1 3s. All with different mah ratings. Do I charge at 1c for all of them or is that a starting point where you do 1c with some math for each battery. Also do I ever discharge them. I always thought discharging, then charging and balancing refreshed the batteries. Thanks for any input.

evan-RCU

My opinion is to never discharge them with the charger, LiPo do not get a memory like NiMh or NiCd so there's no need. Charge at 1C and the batteries will last longer. There are newer Neu batteries you can charge faster and I'm sure others will be coming out but unles you have a battery designed for fast charging do it at 1C.

Broken Blade

My Feedback: (5)

Great, thanks for the info. That helps allot.

jester4

Just a silly question broken blade, do you know what 1C is or means? From the sound of your questions I'm not certain. Be careful.

Just for clarification:

7.4V lipo with 1300 Mah 1C = 1.3 amps
11.1 lipo with 2200 mah 1C = 2.2 amps

etc...

your mah is your "C" basically, so:

7.4V lipo with 1300 Mah 2C = 2.6 amps
11.1 lipo with 2200 mah 2C = 4.4 amps

7.4V lipo with 1300 Mah 0.5C = .650 amps
11.1 lipo with 2200 mah 0.5C = 1.1 amps

sorry if you already knew this, I'm just clarifying (or making it worse)

BJ64

Uh-oh... now *I'm* getting confused.

I have a 7.4V 2-cell LiPo rated at 1500mAh, 15C - I take it that that means my battery is capable of delivering 1500 x 15 = 22,500mAh, or 22.5 amps.

But what at what rate do I do a Balance Charge at? 1.0 amp, 1.5 amp, or 2.0 amp?

Also, has anyone had any problems getting their iMax B6AC to scroll to the correct menu. I can't seem to get mine to get to the LiPo BAL menu - it keeps trying to charge my LiPo as a NiCd, which actually scares me a bit, considering how dangerous LiPo's can become if they are charged wrongly.

The Batt Type/Stop and Enter/Start buttons are supposed to help you navigate around the menus and between paramaters within a menu, but it all seems to go skitzo.

My biggest worry is that, according to the Manual, the 'Stop' button is supposed to immediately stop whatever the charger is doing - it doesn't seem to want to do this.

I get a heap of sequences of beeps, some with different tones, and I have no idea what this this is trying to do or trying to tell me.

Wonder if I copped a dud unit?

BJ

Druss

If you have a 1500mah battery and want to charge at 1C then you charge at 1.5amps. The discharge rate is to be ignored in figuring out the charge rate.

jerrymac

My Feedback: (2)

The only time that you really need to discharge them is for storage during the non-flying season if you live in a place where the winters might keep you from flying for some time. Most lipo manufacturers recommend that the batteries be stored at about 3.8 volts per cell for long periods of storage. They don't recommend storing at full charge( 4.2 volts per cell ) for long periods as it my cause them to deteriorate over time.