Understanding Lipos and chargers. Help!
Discussion
Hi guys,
Last couple of weeks Ive been sorting out stuff in the attic and shed and dug out my rc helicopter and rc cars. Its reignited things a bit and i want to get them all going again.
Only real problem is the batteries. Theyre all knackered being old nimh, and wont take any charge. I thouht about taking then opportunity to upgrade to lipos. I just dont know what im looking at, especially with the chargers.
My car is a tamiya TT01 and had a 7.2v nimh batty in it, there seems to be loads of choice out there to replace it, tne heli has a 8.4v AA sized battery and the standard replacement is a 2s lipo.
Would I be able to get a charger that will do either, or will I need a different charger for each? There seems ro be a massive choice of different connecter both power and balance leads.
I'm not looking to spend too much on a charger, and I won't need super fast charge rates, I'll probably get a couple of batteries of each type and won't be planning on 'playing' for long, just a bit of messing about so don't mind waiting for batteries to charge.
Any advice or recommendations would be great.
Cheers
Gareth
Last couple of weeks Ive been sorting out stuff in the attic and shed and dug out my rc helicopter and rc cars. Its reignited things a bit and i want to get them all going again.
Only real problem is the batteries. Theyre all knackered being old nimh, and wont take any charge. I thouht about taking then opportunity to upgrade to lipos. I just dont know what im looking at, especially with the chargers.
My car is a tamiya TT01 and had a 7.2v nimh batty in it, there seems to be loads of choice out there to replace it, tne heli has a 8.4v AA sized battery and the standard replacement is a 2s lipo.
Would I be able to get a charger that will do either, or will I need a different charger for each? There seems ro be a massive choice of different connecter both power and balance leads.
I'm not looking to spend too much on a charger, and I won't need super fast charge rates, I'll probably get a couple of batteries of each type and won't be planning on 'playing' for long, just a bit of messing about so don't mind waiting for batteries to charge.
Any advice or recommendations would be great.
Cheers
Gareth
There are loads of decent quality but affordable balance chargers out there with different modes to safely charge different cell chemistries.
A balance charger is well worth getting. Cells in series (i.e. your 2S LiPo) wont necessarily discharge both cells by the same amount. The voltages in each cell can get quite out of kilter. All decent LiPos come with balancer plugs with dinky little wires to individual cells. The charger will then measure cell voltages individually and apply small charges to even them out.
A balance charger is well worth getting. Cells in series (i.e. your 2S LiPo) wont necessarily discharge both cells by the same amount. The voltages in each cell can get quite out of kilter. All decent LiPos come with balancer plugs with dinky little wires to individual cells. The charger will then measure cell voltages individually and apply small charges to even them out.
HobbyKing is your friend and if you get stuff that they have stock of in their UK warehouse then you won't have to worry about customs charges etc.
I bought something similar to this: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/58457Turnigy_Accucell_6_50W_6A_Balancer_Charger_LiHV_Capable.html
They also sell many different adapter cables for different battery types etc.
Will charge pretty much any battery out there. I use single cell LiPo in my micro helis and drones, also have a few multi cell batteries for an RC car although that suffered a bit of a meltdown when I started using LiPo in it instead of NiMh. Need to try to repair it. LiPo can supply quite a bit more current than NiMh so I'm not sure if that caused it problems.
Key thing with LiPo (and LiIon) is to never over charge or over discharge them. This will wreck them and in occasional cases cause them to catch fire in a bad way. A good balance charger will prevent over charging. It's also worth buying a fireproof charge bag just in case. Also never store them flat, always charge them up when you've finished ready for next time or put a storage charge in them. The balance charger will have settings to do this.
I bought something similar to this: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/58457Turnigy_Accucell_6_50W_6A_Balancer_Charger_LiHV_Capable.html
They also sell many different adapter cables for different battery types etc.
Will charge pretty much any battery out there. I use single cell LiPo in my micro helis and drones, also have a few multi cell batteries for an RC car although that suffered a bit of a meltdown when I started using LiPo in it instead of NiMh. Need to try to repair it. LiPo can supply quite a bit more current than NiMh so I'm not sure if that caused it problems.
Key thing with LiPo (and LiIon) is to never over charge or over discharge them. This will wreck them and in occasional cases cause them to catch fire in a bad way. A good balance charger will prevent over charging. It's also worth buying a fireproof charge bag just in case. Also never store them flat, always charge them up when you've finished ready for next time or put a storage charge in them. The balance charger will have settings to do this.
Gassing Station | Scale Models | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff