Charge a lip battery at higher amp?

[Malawi]

Hi ppl!

So my question is can i charge lets say a 800 mah battery on 1a ?

Problem is that i use the traxxas id charger with a adapter cable so its fits xc60 battery and i can only choose from 1a to 5a for charging batterys.

I have been doing that for awhile but 1 of my batterys doesnt work anymore, im just guessing it coult be for higher amp charges.

 

[Slow Runner]

a charge difference of 200mah won't matter much. Some of those little lipos even allow for charges up to 5C, but you have to read what each lipo claims it can handle.

(1C is a charge rate equal to the Mah of the lipo. Charging a 1,000mah lipo at 1 amp is 1C)

That said, I always charge at 1C...I'd get a decent charger that allows for various charge rates. Amazon has many great chargers for under 450, and some great high amp dual chargers for just over $100.

It's also important to store your lipos at 3.8-3.85 volts per cell. If you stored the lipo for a while at full charge, that might have killed it.

 

[Kingmeow]

Yes you can. Modern day lipos can easily handle 2C all day long. So your 1000 mA charge rate for a 800 mAh pack is only at 1.25C. One of your pack dying is not because you are using 1A.

 

[nathanotis]

It's also important to store your lipos at 3.8-3.85 volts per cell. If you stored the lipo for a while at full charge, that might have killed it.

I've always been curious how long "a while" is. If I don't run my rig for a week or a month, should I be using storage charge?

 

[Panther6834]

I'm just wondering what a 'lip' battery is. And whether there's any "relationship" to a 'tongue' battery...lol


~ More peace, love, and kindness would make the world a much better place

 

[Slow Runner]

I've always been curious how long "a while" is. If I don't run my rig for a week or a month, should I be using storage charge?

My personal rule is to run anything I charge that day.

Conservatively a fully charged lipo can sit OK for a few days.

There are many who fully charge their lipos and let them sit for weeks on end until they use them. I don't recommend that, but I'm not here to argue anyone else's personal methods....arguing online is pointless.

I can only say what I do based on research. There are many charts you can look up that show how much faster a lipo degrades sitting fully charged, not to mention more violatile.

 

[Panther6834]

My personal rule is to run anything I charge that day.



Conservatively a fully charged lipo can sit OK for a few days.



There are many who fully charge their lipos and let them sit for weeks on end until they use them. I don't recommend that, but I'm not here to argue anyone else's personal methods....arguing online is pointless.



I can only say what I do based on research. There are many charts you can look up that show how much faster a lipo degrades sitting fully charged, not to mention more violatile.

The standard "Rule of Thumb" is, if you can't run the battery by the end of the day following the day you charged it, return it to 'storage' level.


~ More peace, love, and kindness would make the world a much better place

 

[Phoenixfabworx]

I try to keep all mine storage charges and not leave them full charged for more than a day... it doesn’t always work that way but so far the batteries have treated me well


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[QuesoDelDiablo]

I've always been curious how long "a while" is. If I don't run my rig for a week or a month, should I be using storage charge?

Everyone has their own version of it. Technically speaking thought, if we want to discuss absolute best practice, anytime a battery isn't being charged or being used it should be at storage voltage.

Many people leave them sit charged for 3-7 days.

Myself, I routinely leave batteries fully charged for weeks and weeks, months even and I've never noticed any significant negative impacts; I should add that I expect to replace batteries after 3-4 seasons anyways and I buy don't off-brand/cheap/Amazon/Ebay batts, I only buy higher end/higher quality (Generally just GensAce, occasionally Turnigy Nano-tech) batteries.

 

[Slow Runner]

GensAce is really a generic middle of the road brand...not bad, but not great. Ironically the absolute worst tested brand is the one that Rc Car Action Mag fawns all over....The MaxAmps brand. They failed testing so badly the tester refused to continue testing.

Here is the master chart of lipos tested very rigorously. They are tested to hold up in high amp EDF's. They are stressed tested and rated on how long they lasted until they sagged to 3.7v/cell, 3.6, 3.5. The Max Amps didn't last 3 seconds before sagging to Low Voltage baseline..lol.
https://static.rcgroups.net/forums/attachments/3/0/3/0/6/1/a14365461-252-All Sorted by 25C LPB.jpg

If you want to follow a great thread on how lipos test...Oddly enough, Hobby King is the leader in the highest quality lipos!
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1767093-Battery-Load-Test-Comparisons

 

[Voodoobrew]

The batteries might not charge if the cell voltage is too low. Many chargers have safety mechanisms to prevent fire. When the cell voltage drops below 3.2v for too long dendrites form inside the battery that can raise the internal resistance of the battery which can cause a short of sorts or heat buildup inside the battery during charging.

If one or more cell is low you can bring them back up by various means, usually with a low amperage source that's around 3-4 volts.
once all the cells are above 3.2v then it will probably charge again.

This will happen if your charger doesn't use a balance plug or you dont balance charge often enough.
Each cell in the battery has a different discharge rate so they drop in voltage differently. The car doesn't see this difference so it doesn't know to shut off when only one cell is at 3.2v.
Also if you ran the lipo in a car that's set to nicad the voltage of a lipo cell can easily drop too low to charge it by standard means.

 

[Voodoobrew]

GensAce is really a generic middle of the road brand...not bad, but not great. Ironically the absolute worst tested brand is the one that Rc Car Action Mag fawns all over....The MaxAmps brand. They failed testing so badly the tester refused to continue testing.

Here is the master chart of lipos tested very rigorously. They are tested to hold up in high amp EDF's. They are stressed tested and rated on how long they lasted until they sagged to 3.7v/cell, 3.6, 3.5. The Max Amps didn't last 3 seconds before sagging to Low Voltage baseline..lol.
https://static.rcgroups.net/forums/attachments/3/0/3/0/6/1/a14365461-252-All Sorted by 25C LPB.jpg

If you want to follow a great thread on how lipos test...Oddly enough, Hobby King is the leader in the highest quality lipos!
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1767093-Battery-Load-Test-Comparisons

https://postimg.cc/YvSs2cM6

While its annoying that manufactures are so terrible at C-rating their batteries, I feel it it also not a big deal for crawlers. Crawlers really dont push the limits of Lipo batteries above around 1500mAh (just a number I picked, but size does matter). I just buy whatever cheap batteries I find on amazon and they work pretty good. I used to use the SMC batteries which are highly rated on that chart, but they puffed up too much for my liking. The cheap ones dont puff up as much for me.

C-rating are much more important in quadcopters where the power to weight ratio is more important. Quadcopters also tend to have a higher amp draw seeing as they only get around 15min of run time and I get over an hour or two in my crawlers.

 

[Slow Runner]

Voodoo: Agree 100%. You can run the worst ...most tired lipo for an hour in a crawler ....and never know the difference.

Still it's good to know who makes better lipos than others in case any here have higher demands. many here fly helis it seems.

 

[ovidiugm]

If the battery allows for 1C charging, you can charge a 800mAh pack at 1A.
I don't think your bad battery failed due to too fast charging. Is it not charging at all now? What's the voltage on each cell?