Nuprol power smart charger?

[Song56]

New player here. I just bought my first AEG and was advised to pick up a Nuprol power np60w smart charger for my lipo. Unfortunately upon reading the instructions I've found that they are not well written and assume a level of knowledge I do not have. I've heard lipos can be a bit sensitive so I don't want to get this wrong.

 

Are there any guides or videos on how to use this or can someone explain. I'm probably being stupid but I'm not even sure which parts get plugged in to charge it (looks like the black and red deans connector and the white part can both be plugged in) let alone the altering of parameters that the instructions dive straight into.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Speedbird_666]

Welcome to the forums.

 

Nuprol do not make anything themselves, just throw their stickers on and add £15-20 for the privilege - that particular charger looks like it comes from the SkyRC stable and is the same as the Overlander VSR Charger.

 

I don't know how good the Nuprol Manual is, but the Overlander version here might have some more info for you.

 

I would suggest watching this to give you the background of LiPos, their use and charging. Ignore the fact it's for RC, airsoft LiPos work exactly the same:

 

This covers the very basics of charging with an Overlander VSR:

 

 

[Song56]

Thanks. The explanation of LIPO batteries is very useful.

 

That does seem to be the same charger. Unfortunately the numbers on the display don't seem to correspond to anything on the video or manuals. It's probably not something that can be diagnosed online. 

[Guest KiloGr]

Still having issues?  If you could provide some pics of the charger we should be able to help...

 

Most are programmable so have to adjust on the charger themselves to suit the batteries you are charging.

 

- Kilo

[Rogerborg]

18 hours ago, Song56 said:

Nuprol 

 

Are there any guides or videos on how to use this or can someone explain

 

 

 

18 hours ago, Speedbird_666 said:

that particular charger looks like it comes from the SkyRC stable

 

That was my first thought, but it's not quite either an S60 or S65, and is notably missing some vents.  Good shout on it being a marked up Overlander.  I assume that's a SkyRC clone to begin with.

 

[Song56]

7 hours ago, KiloGr said:

Still having issues?  If you could provide some pics of the charger we should be able to help...

 

Most are programmable so have to adjust on the charger themselves to suit the batteries you are charging.

 

- Kilo

I think I've worked it out.

 

It's stopped at 12.4v for a 3 cell lipo which comes to about 3.8 each which is the storage voltage i was going for. At least I think that's what I think it's saying.

[Lozart]

4 hours ago, Song56 said:

I think I've worked it out.

 

It's stopped at 12.4v for a 3 cell lipo which comes to about 3.8 each which is the storage voltage i was going for. At least I think that's what I think it's saying.

 

 

Why are you storage charging it? Are you planning on putting it away for a while? 

[Speedbird_666]

9 hours ago, Lozart said:

 

 

Why are you storage charging it? Are you planning on putting it away for a while? 

 

You shouldn't keep a LiPo fully charged for more than a few days if you want to avoid puffing and capacity degradation in the longer term. (Source: My experience - last I checked, I own around 70 LiPo packs, 1S to 4S, for various forms of RC and Airsoft shenanigans).

 

I only fully charge my packs the day (or even the morning) before I need them. As soon as I get them home, I storage charge them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lozart]

33 minutes ago, Speedbird_666 said:

 

You shouldn't keep a LiPo fully charged for more than a few days if you want to avoid puffing and capacity degradation in the longer term. (Source: My experience - last I checked, I own around 70 LiPo packs, 1S to 4S, for various forms of RC and Airsoft shenanigans).

 

I only fully charge my packs the day (or even the morning) before I need them. As soon as I get them home, I storage charge them.

 

Not a bad habit by any means and certainly for the big RC packs it's a VERY good idea but equally it's by no means a necessity to storage charge every time you use a LiPo.

 

Is it likely to improve the lifespan of the battery? Sure. Will it stop your house burning down? Only if you actually treat the batteries properly over and above the storage charging and don't use them once they inevitably start to degrade. I personally don't bother and have had more issues with batteries puffing up due to to being shit batteries than anything else. Since making sure I only get decent quality batteries, I don't have as much of an issue. Plus if one does start to puff up, I fuck it off and buy a new one because they're just not that expensive.

[Rogerborg]

8 minutes ago, Lozart said:

batteries puffing up due to to being shit batteries than anything else. Since making sure I only get decent quality batteries, I don't have as much of an issue

 

Do you check the cell resistances?

 

I ask because one of the very few really interesting things that I've seen on Facebook was a chap comparing airsoft batteries to RC batteries.  He found that the airsoft cells were trash, fresh out of the box, with far higher internal resistance than the RC cells.

 

The speculation is that decent cells go into RC branded packs, and the near-rejects into airsoft packs.

 

My older B6 doesn't do cell resistances so I can neither confirm nor deny it with my personal collection.

 

I do agree though that for the cost of airsoft batteries compared to just about everything else in the hobby, and how hard and often we really use them compared to our RC chums, longevity isn't such a big issue.  I've only had one battery actually fail, and already have more spares than I need, as I can use smaller form factor batteries in larger capacity guns if necessary.

[Lozart]

1 hour ago, Rogerborg said:

 

Do you check the cell resistances?

 

I ask because one of the very few really interesting things that I've seen on Facebook was a chap comparing airsoft batteries to RC batteries.  He found that the airsoft cells were trash, fresh out of the box, with far higher internal resistance than the RC cells.

 

The speculation is that decent cells go into RC branded packs, and the near-rejects into airsoft packs.

 

My older B6 doesn't do cell resistances so I can neither confirm nor deny it with my personal collection.

 

I do agree though that for the cost of airsoft batteries compared to just about everything else in the hobby, and how hard and often we really use them compared to our RC chums, longevity isn't such a big issue.  I've only had one battery actually fail, and already have more spares than I need, as I can use smaller form factor batteries in larger capacity guns if necessary.

 

I literally charge them the day before a game and leave them in a LiPo bag until the next time I want to use them. I'm the poster boy for total lack of maintenance! I've never had a battery actually fail on me though, but I have binned a few due to having had them for years and them getting a bit puffy (abundance of caution and all that).

 

Wouldn't surprise me at all if airsoft packs are made of B Grade cells though, the market is nowhere near the size of RC.

[Speedbird_666]

3 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

I ask because one of the very few really interesting things that I've seen on Facebook was a chap comparing airsoft batteries to RC batteries.  He found that the airsoft cells were trash, fresh out of the box, with far higher internal resistance than the RC cells.

 

The speculation is that decent cells go into RC branded packs, and the near-rejects into airsoft packs.

 

I'm not sure about that - the form-factor of Airsoft LiPos is different to most RC stuff - especially Buffer tube LiPos

 - their shape is generally different to anything I would stick in an RC Plane or Car, so for them to be rejects means that there is another use for them somewhere in the RC world, which I've not seen in my experience.

 

I would not be surprised if they are simply produced on a line with lower quality/purity materials and QC measures though - most airsofters would never know what Internal resistance is when it comes to batteries, let alone try and measure it. 

 

Think my chargers have an IR function - Next time I charge my Airsoft LiPos, I'll have a look.