Charging Lipo AEP via a power bank,and where are my bb's?

[Clanktank]

New player. Just bought a factory CM.126 mosfet edition from PatrolBase to start off with but it came without any BB's, and just a USB charger for charging. so some questions:

1. Instructions say to plug it into any standard USB phone charger plug and it's good to go, so I did this to charge it, but can I also use a phone power bank to charge it on the go as well?

2. Is this USB charger okay to use long-term, or should I get a proper Lipo charger?

3. What type of connector is this?

 

4. Are my bb's missing because perhaps you can't ship ammo and the gun together in the UK, or did they just not put them in? I have some decent ones already to use and wouldn't have used these anyway, but still strange none came with it.

 

[MadMole]

Any USB charger will do as long as it has a sufficiently high Ma rating

 

That's the balance charger port for the lipo's as is for charging and measuring individual cells. the other connector is for discharging and is connected across the full pack

 

Unless it says Nuprol on it anywhere the charger is fine for 1 battery, but you will need more than 1 battery for a days play

 

Packet of 50 bb's in with the gun, always go straight into bin as they are rubbish, so no loss

[Albiscuit]

I’m not sure so not going to comment on the charger to be on the safe side.

but BBs are a separate item. Sometimes you get a little bag of some in the box but these are almost always of terrible quality and it’s agreed not worth using. So unless you specifically bought bbs, you wasn’t supposed to get any.

[Clanktank]

16 minutes ago, MadMole said:

Any USB charger will do as long as it has a sufficiently high Ma rating

 

That's the balance charger port for the lipo's as is for charging and measuring individual cells. the other connector is for discharging and is connected across the full pack

 

Unless it says Nuprol on it anywhere the charger is fine for 1 battery, but you will need more than 1 battery for a days play

Sorry, completely new so still learning.

The gun battery is a 680mAh Lipo at 7.4V, so will this not last a day? Can you not charge them between games if I bring a charger, or are there no power points available at most sites? The power bank I have puts out 4.5A at 5v, regular USB so assuming this will be enough, or  will it be too much? Don't want to break the battery just as I've got it. 🙂

Was after the name of the actual connector type so I can get a suitable adaptor cable if I get a third-party charger.
 

[Monkeywrencher]

It's the standard connection for Lipos, you won't need a seperate cable with any lipo charger

[Rogerborg]

2 hours ago, Clanktank said:

The gun battery is a 680mAh Lipo at 7.4V, so will this not last a day?

 

 

Might be OK, depending on how you're using it.  Semi auto in CQB, probably, spraying it on full auto, maybe not.  I'd expect you to be limited by reloads if you're just running the single mag.

 

You don't want to over-discharge lipos, and I don't know if that mosfet has any under-voltage cutout - I'd doubt it.  So keeping it charged would be useful.

 

 

Quote

 The power bank I have puts out 4.5A at 5v, regular USB so assuming this will be enough, or  will it be too much? Don't want to break the battery just as I've got it. 🙂

 

4.5A is pretty meaty. If you're being gentle you'd want to charge a lipo at a "1 hour" current, i.e. an amperage that matches its rated capacity.  So a 680mAh battery, you'd charge at 680mA, not 4.5A.

That said, I tend to charge higher, I'm sure most of us do.  But the thing is, it looks as though the USB connector that comes with it is just a dumb wire, there's no actual balance circuitry or cut out in that.

 

So either the battery has the circuitry in it to balance and protect itself, or it doesn't, in which case I'd wonder how it's balancing or not over-charging even off a 1A or 2A USB socket.

 

 

 

Quote

Was after the name of the actual connector type so I can get a suitable adaptor cable if I get a third-party charger.
 

 

JST-XH, it's the same connector that you'll find on any decent lipo charger.

 

There's a thread here that starts off a bit spicy but ends up recommending some chargers towards the end of page 1 and onto page 2.

 

 

I guess my tl;dr would be that I'd have to trust that the battery has balance and protection circuitry onboard, and that it would be OK to charge it off a powerbank, but I'd be minded to use one that's limited to maybe 2A in case the assumption about the battery is wrong.

 

Is there any sort of English text in the user manual talking about charging times and currents?

 

Oh, and on the BBs, the first thing you do with any freebies is to bin them.  It's pretty much an unboxing tradition.

 

 

Is there a particular reason that you went with an AEP?  I have one, it works, the lipo will certainly help, but in terms of ergonomics, performance and fun, a gas blowback trounces it for most of the year.

 

[Clanktank]

1 hour ago, Rogerborg said:

4.5A is pretty meaty. If you're being gentle you'd want to charge a lipo at a "1 hour" current, i.e. an amperage that matches its rated capacity.  So a 680mAh battery, you'd charge at 680mA, not 4.5A.

That said, I tend to charge higher, I'm sure most of us do.  But the thing is, it looks as though the USB connector that comes with it is just a dumb wire, there's no actual balance circuitry or cut out in that.

 

So either the battery has the circuitry in it to balance and protect itself, or it doesn't, in which case I'd wonder how it's balancing or not over-charging even off a 1A or 2A USB socket.

 

There's a thread here that starts off a bit spicy but ends up recommending some chargers towards the end of page 1 and onto page 2.

 

 

I guess my tl;dr would be that I'd have to trust that the battery has balance and protection circuitry onboard, and that it would be OK to charge it off a powerbank, but I'd be minded to use one that's limited to maybe 2A in case the assumption about the battery is wrong.

 

Is there any sort of English text in the user manual talking about charging times and currents?

 

Is there a particular reason that you went with an AEP?  I have one, it works, the lipo will certainly help, but in terms of ergonomics, performance and fun, a gas blowback trounces it for most of the year.

 

The USB connector has some LED's in the plug, so it's red and flashing green for charging, and just fully green for fully charged. I guess the thing cuts out when charged.

The documentation advises a charger plug rating of 1-2A, and to use the charging cable until the LED's tell you to stop. Charging time is supposed to be one hour.
I have another charger bank that's rated at 2A, and the phone charger plug I'm using is rated at 1A. I'll try the lower output bank first. Seems a good solution for field charging from a bank.

I may look at the S65 charger, seems a good choice.

I just wanted an intro gun, and because I have no UKARA yet it's a two-tone. I'm still pretty much in isolation as I'm a vulnerable person, so plinking in the garden for a few months until I try some events, have a try on some rental and other players guns, and decide what proper ones to get. 👍
Without any experience at the moment I'm looking at AEP for those as well, or spring sniper for outdoors. Gas is cool, but seems a lot of expense, more failures, and extra maintenance, but I'll keep assessing. The SSP18 does look interesting though. 😎

[Rogerborg]

2 hours ago, Clanktank said:

The USB connector has some LED's in the plug, so it's red and flashing green for charging, and just fully green for fully charged. I guess the thing cuts out when charged.

 

Ah, good stuff.  Lipos are actually easier for chargers to deal with than nimh, as the charger knows what voltage the battery is mean to be charged up to.

 

There's not a lot of space in there for circuitry, but I wouldn't fret too much about it.  If it charges, it charges. If it doesn't, well, welcome to the wacky world of airsoft, soldering irons and a plethora of connectors.

 

 

2 hours ago, Clanktank said:

I may look at the S65 charger, seems a good choice.

 

One note of caution: a typical charger may want to be connected to both the balance plug (the one that you've got exposed) and the main discharge plug.  I know my B6 wants them both. Is the lipo removable, or is it hard-wired in to the gun?

 

 

2 hours ago, Clanktank said:

I just wanted an intro gun, and because I have no UKARA yet it's a two-tone. I'm still pretty much in isolation as I'm a vulnerable person, so plinking in the garden for a few months until I try some events, have a try on some rental and other players guns, and decide what proper ones to get. 👍
Without any experience at the moment I'm looking at AEP for those as well, or spring sniper for outdoors. Gas is cool, but seems a lot of expense, more failures, and extra maintenance, but I'll keep assessing. The SSP18 does look interesting though. 😎

 

Ah, right, perfectly reasonable.  AEPs do work fine for plinking and close range, and the lipo and mosfet really should help - I've converted mine to lipo with a DIY mosfet and the trigger response is greatly improved over the stock nimh - you should get that out of the box.

 

 

[Clanktank]

2 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

One note of caution: a typical charger may want to be connected to both the balance plug (the one that you've got exposed) and the main discharge plug.  I know my B6 wants them both. Is the lipo removable, or is it hard-wired in to the gun?

Hard wired.

[Rogerborg]

1 hour ago, Clanktank said:

Hard wired.

 

Hmm, then you're stuck with the USB charger, or you'll want a generic charger that will use just the balance port.  Sorry, I can't recommend one, I can just say that the B6 wants both connections.

 

Nothing to worry about, really: by the time you're looking at problems with the stock lipo, you'll likely have maxed out the credit card and be onto your third HPA / drum-mag pistol conversion.

 

[MadMole]

Usual rule of thumb is 1 mah for each BB. so a 650 mah cell will shoot around 650 BB's

 

Normal days skirmish is around 3000 BB's at our sites

[Samurai]

15 minutes ago, MadMole said:

Usual rule of thumb is 1 mah for each BB. so a 650 mah cell will shoot around 650 BB's

With lipos and not in the winter I multiply it with 1.5.

[Rogerborg]

2 hours ago, MadMole said:

Usual rule of thumb is 1 mah for each BB. so a 650 mah cell will shoot around 650 BB's

 

Normal days skirmish is around 3000 BB's at our sites

 

Reasonable enough, although with a single 30 round AEP mag, you'd be hard pressed to get close to that during a day, if you're actually shooting at targets that you could conceivably hit.