Lipo batteries

[StayOnTarget]

Just watched a video by BurntWolf top tips and in that he states you should not store your Liops fully charged as this will damage and degrade them WTF? I was told that after a game to charge them up and store in my fire proof bag(7.4s),whats the score here lads?

[Druid799]

I store mine fully charged , half charged , on there last legs about to give up the ghost charged and I’ve never had any problems I can think of that you could attribute to poor battery maintenance .

hes not sponsored by a battery retailer is he ? Sounds a bit suss to me .👍

[Mad Rag]

@Druid799 so charge bats after a game and then leave and charge again before game .. also can they be over charged as im not sure if they are charged fully?

[Prisce]

Personally, I storage charge my batteries after every game day to get to most out of them, and to prevent any issues.

[Druid799]

5 minutes ago, Mad Rag said:

@Druid799 so charge bats after a game and then leave and charge again before game .. also can they be over charged as im not sure if they are charged fully?

Not specifically , I charge and balance a load of batts up the day before for the AEGs I’m taking (always take three or four with me) but some times if I’m really enjoying a particular gatt I may just carry on using it all day so the batteries I charged for the other guns are fully charged but unused and the one in the gun I’ve used all day could be depending on its capacity half empty or literally on its last legs !

if your using a good quality balance charge then I’d say no as the charger should stop when it reaches optimum battery charge . 

[Mad Rag]

@Druid799 Ive no idea if the charger is or not. its go thre lights on it tat go blue once each cell is charged. urgh this is all far to confusing for me lol. 

[Druid799]

8 minutes ago, Mad Rag said:

@Druid799 Ive no idea if the charger is or not. its go thre lights on it tat go blue once each cell is charged. urgh this is all far to confusing for me lol. 

Right then bud , does your chargers out put area looks like this pic ?

if yes it’s a balance charger , the bit with the skinny wires is the balance lead , but if it only has a black and red connector then it’s just a charger and I’d bin it and get a balance one ASAP . 👍

[Mad Rag]

looks similar but no wires come out of it, jst the white connector that goes into the charger is self 

  

[Druid799]

So your charging it via the balance lead then it ‘should’ be balanced and ok .👍

[StayOnTarget]

49 minutes ago, Druid799 said:

I store mine fully charged , half charged , on there last legs about to give up the ghost charged and I’ve never had any problems I can think of that you could attribute to poor battery maintenance .

hes not sponsored by a battery retailer is he ? Sounds a bit suss to me .👍

Thanks Druid thought I'd fucked up there I've got the fancy shmancy Imax charger worth every penny,it all gets shoved inside my fire proof bag when charging and when done all the batteries go in the bag for safe keeping then the night before I give them a top up hopefully this keeps them sweet👍

[Adolf Hamster]

generally i just leave my batteries at the end of the day whatever charge they're at and charge them the night before a game.

 

in theory for long term storage you should charge a lipo to 50% capacity (it's why phones generally come with about that much charge on them brand new) but that only really applies if you're storing them for longer than a few months.

 

as for balancing, always, every single charge, without fail. i use an external balancer as it's handy for peace of mind seeing the cell voltages and knowing how charged it is from a second source but a good lipo charger should be more than adequate.

[Mad Rag]

@Druid799 not sure if you can see from the picture, im not home haha at work soo.

 

 

[Adolf Hamster]

whilst that charger is a balance charger i wouldn't advise keeping it long, i've heard of at least 5 seperate instances of one of the charging lanes dying and taking the battery with it including me own.

[Rogerborg]

2 minutes ago, Adolf Hamster said:

whilst that charger is a balance charger i wouldn't advise keeping it long, i've heard of at least 5 seperate instances of one of the charging lanes dying and taking the battery with it including me own.

 

I have one.

 

It works, pretty much.

 

But it runs very hot, which is usually a sign that it's poorly designed or made.

 

I have no doubt that it will terminate itself, a battery, and maybe my whole postcode, sooner or later.  I place it and the battery on an Explosion Containment Pie Dish while charging and never leave it unattended.

[Adolf Hamster]

1 minute ago, Rogerborg said:

 

I have one.

 

It works, pretty much.

 

But it runs very hot, which is usually a sign that it's poorly designed or made.

 

I have no doubt that it will terminate itself, a battery, and maybe my whole postcode, sooner or later.  I place it and the battery on an Explosion Containment Pie Dish while charging and never leave it unattended.

 

it's not dangerous failures (although my lawyer says i should mention that it is possible for it to be dangerous), what happens is it stops charging one of the cells which if you don't pick up on it will lead to it being over-discharged and a nice dead battery.

[Mad Rag]

1 minute ago, Adolf Hamster said:

 

it's not dangerous failures (although my lawyer says i should mention that it is possible for it to be dangerous), what happens is it stops charging one of the cells which if you don't pick up on it will lead to it being over-discharged and a nice dead battery.

now im scared im gonna goose the battery. its needed for this sunday hah, 

[Adolf Hamster]

4 minutes ago, Mad Rag said:

now im scared im gonna goose the battery. its needed for this sunday hah, 

 

the way to tell is if one of the led's refuses to change, if that happens either the battery or likely the charger is borked

[Mad Rag]

oh dear, the middle one wouldn't change when last on charge i think. @Adolf Hamster

[Druid799]

38 minutes ago, StayOnTarget said:

Thanks Druid thought I'd fucked up there I've got the fancy shmancy Imax charger worth every penny,it all gets shoved inside my fire proof bag when charging and when done all the batteries go in the bag for safe keeping then the night before I give them a top up hopefully this keeps them sweet👍

No sweat mate , it’s like everything else you don’t know until someone tells you what you need to know (with the caveat they ACTUALLY do know what there talking about from personal experience and not they just read it on T’internet ! 🤦‍♂️) . I do store my batts in LiPo bags , I use four small ones that have all the batteries divided up between them so god forbid any did go tits up for what ever reason it won’t take out all my batteries  ! 

I don’t charge them in a bag anymore to be honest I just charge them in the same room that I’m in .👍

[Immortal]

Invest in a good eye pro, invest in a good balance charger.

 

Everything else is less important... and less dangerous if they fail.

[koppel]

Storing at 3.7 to 3.9v per cell is for long term storage, i.e months or years, you are absolutely fine storing them at full charge when using them every week or two weeks. Also they only explode during charge or discharge or if pierced, so storing them in a fireproof bag is a little overkill imho. You don't need to balance charge them every time either, periodically is fine, and non balance charging is usually a lot quicker.

[Rogerborg]

2 hours ago, Mad Rag said:

oh dear, the middle one wouldn't change when last on charge i think.

 

11.1V, with 4 wires to the charging connector?

 

If so, that's not great.  However, I wouldn't panic just yet, as the cells are wired in series and the two edge cells should shove some current into the middle cell via the power circuit even if the charging circuit doesn't do it.  If the battery still produces power then that means all cells are still in continuous series, even if one of the the charging wires has gone kaput.

 

In general though, I would recommend getting two smaller capacity batteries rather than one big one, for several reasons: having a spare; swapping over at lunch to spread the discharge; checking if a problem is in the charger, or one of the batteries.

 

But again: don't fret.  If the battery is usable, use it.  Don't replace anything until you know that it's failed.

[Mad Rag]

14 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

 

11.1V, with 4 wires to the charging connector?

 

If so, that's not great.  However, I wouldn't panic just yet, as the cells are wired in series and the two edge cells should shove some current into the middle cell via the power circuit even if the charging circuit doesn't do it.  If the battery still produces power then that means all cells are still in continuous series, even if one of the the charging wires has gone kaput.

 

In general though, I would recommend getting two smaller capacity batteries rather than one big one, for several reasons: having a spare; swapping over at lunch to spread the discharge; checking if a problem is in the charger, or one of the batteries.

 

But again: don't fret.  If the battery is usable, use it.  Don't replace anything until you know that it's failed.

its a 7.4 Im sure  one set of wires comes out and connects to the charger and one comes out i think it might be a deans connector or something im not sure (2 prongs one vertical and one horizontal) that goes to the gun it self. 

[Immortal]

Sounds like a DEANs connector, the other is the balance cable. You would be better with a charger that accepts both connectors, the deans plugs in the charge cable and the other goes into the balance board. The charger can then read and display the individual cells and charge them evenly. It'll also tell you if you have a bad cell etc.

 

Have a look on youtube as it'll tell you a lot more visually and quicker than words can. It's worth the time of a vid.

 

There's plenty of threads on what are good chargers etc. WIth a basic understanding of how they work the rest is easy.

[Iceni]

I make a point of swapping my batteries half way through the day. 

Doing it like that you end up storing them slightly discharged anyway.

I have all my batteries numbered. And keep track of unused ones for a shoot. The unused ones will get put on a discharge cycle, but the used ones don't.

The best way to keep track is an elastic band. Fully charged the leads are inside the band. I pull the leads out to use and thus can spot a used battery and a fresh one at a glance.