RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

tomhugill wrote:Where lipos are concerned it pays to get a decent charger.

I agree... this one is the best IMO

I probably wouldn't have gone lipo if it wasn't for this charger...it is actually a very smart charger ...it'll even tell you if your lipo is no good
The fancy ones are fire starters... don't trust them at all

ALPHA

That's a load of rubbish, a smart charger won't let you start charging if there's an issue or you've hooked it up wrong. You can also set more fail safes, temperature sensors and you can balance, cycle and put a storage charge on your packs.

If your going to give bad advice please don't give it on lipos....

tomhugill wrote:That's a load of rubbish, a smart charger won't let you start charging if there's an issue or you've hooked it up wrong. You can also set more fail safes, temperature sensors and you can balance, cycle and put a storage charge on your packs.

If your going to give bad advice please don't give it on lipos....

What ever you say Tom... but I've seen too many fancy Lipo chargers burn down homes... over inflate the Lipo packs.. I've had my little Imex for over ten years...and she's still going strong.....It's the only charger I trust...but hey...to each his own....

I might add... I've recommended these chargers to a lot of friends...there is actually one guy who bought six ...so he could charge more than one ... than purchase the stand alone unit that does the same thing... but then again... we both own our houses . and really don't care to see them catch of fire

You might have luck with the fancy Speed multi circuit lipo charger.... but really it's just a matter of time...those things are notorious in the airsoft world... nobody really touches them ...they SUCK BIG TIME

ALPHA

PS ...there was a fire here about four months ago... the source was a lipo charger...yup one of the fancy ones...the guy left it unattended..it burned down his garage his car... and the front portion of his house ....so take a dose of that snide remark about advise..and apply it to yourself

Micheal.... Contrary to what tom says about my advice....this is the reason I always recommend that charger... it's because it cuts out completely after the LIpo is charged... it is also very simple to use...there are only two ports on the front.. one three pin ...one four...the three pin is for 7.4 and down..the four 8.4 and up...when charging the battery in the three pin port...initially all three lights will go green when plugged in... once the charger detects the battery two will go red...meaning the charging process has begun...the third light remains green as there is no third cell detected... that one only works when you are charging 8.4 and up batteries (the four pin plug )...after 2 to 4 hours of charge...the lights will go green...the process is done...if you forget to unplug it ... after 5 mins the lights will go red..meaning the charger has completely shut off


The fancy digital ones do not...they do have surge protection ...even a discharger built in ( not good to discharge a Lipo) ...but what they also have is a trickle circuit... so will continuously put a trickle charge into the battery at an unbalanced rate.... this is the reason why fires are started... as if you forget for a couple of days...the compound the Lipo will start to release a gas...this gas causes the plastic safety coating to puff like a balloon... soon after that the polymer will ignite

But it's really up to you... it's not going to hurt me if you choose to go in the other direction

Good Luck

ALPHA

Tankbear wrote:This was also posted on another forum

http://www.rctankregiment.com/rctankfor ... =55&t=7727

This is very good advice MichaelC.

ALPHA wrote:Micheal.... Contrary to what tom says about my advice....this is the reason I always recommend that charger... it's because it cuts out completely after the LIpo is charged... it is also very simple to use...there are only two ports on the front.. one three pin ...one four...the three pin is for 7.4 and down..the four 8.4 and up...when charging the battery in the three pin port...initially all three lights will go green when plugged in... once the charger detects the battery two will go red...meaning the charging process has begun...the third light remains green as there is no third cell detected... that one only works when you are charging 8.4 and up batteries (the four pin plug )...after 2 to 4 hours of charge...the lights will go green...the process is done...if you forget to unplug it ... after 5 mins the lights will go red..meaning the charger has completely shut off


The fancy digital ones do not...they do have surge protection ...even a discharger built in ( not good to discharge a Lipo) ...but what they also have is a trickle circuit... so will continuously put a trickle charge into the battery at an unbalanced rate.... this is the reason why fires are started... as if you forget for a couple of days...the compound the Lipo will start to release a gas...this gas causes the plastic safety coating to puff like a balloon... soon after that the polymer will ignite

But it's really up to you... it's not going to hurt me if you choose to go in the other direction

Good Luck

ALPHA

I think your getting confused with cheap nimh chargers. Smart chargers stop when the packs full, no more charge. Lipos don't tend to get overcharged, unless like on those you tube clips you remove all safety features and try and wreck them. The main danger is over discharge, that's when you usually see puffing. Or a duff pack with high internal resistance will puff up much sooner than one with little internal resistance.

Now the example you cite broke the first rule of lipos, don't charge unattended. I'll be honest I've never seen anyone else say dont splash up for a decent charger because it'll eventually burn your house down, and in the model boat world lipos are very widely used to.

Hi All Can I just put my penny of info in. due to work ,wife and time constraints its very rare if I have time to monitor my batteries during charging. So I use a simple brought of the shelf power timer (you know the sort that you set what time to come on and when to go off).I always run my batteries down between charging and so depending on what battery pack I'm using, I know the recharge time and set the power timer to the same plus a bit. ie. if battery needs 3.5 hours to fully charge I set timer to 3.75 hours and then it does not matter if I'm not around when the battery is charged because the battery charger power is turned off anyway.
I have been modelling for about 35 years now first in boats and now in tanks and have seen many differant battery types over the years first wet lead acid then nicad's then gel cells and now nihm and lipo's and as already stated if you trick them with respect they don't give you any problems right up till they die of old age. The only thing that over the years I have noticed over the years is lack of use and the cold is the biggest killer of all batteries my garage / workshop is not heated and so in winter I bring the batteries into the house/spare bedroom. then no problems
hope this of any help
Regards Denzil

I'm with Tom on this one. Smart charger all the way has features like timer to stop after determined time or when fully charged and constantly monitors the battery and shuts down if anything is wrong.

I know been in attendance during charging sounds pain in ass but I simply charge them when I'm working on my tanks so actually do two tasks at once. And a smart charger will charge a totally discharged 5000mah LiPo to 80% in 1 hour or fully in under 2 hours, so nothing like the 3-5 hours for others.

Ian

Im allso with Tom on this and after racing RC buggys rite from the 80s ive used every kind of charger .
But for lipos i spent a wopping £70 on a charger as if im putying my money into expencive batterys i like to have a charger that will look after them. You can watch the volts on the battery going in on the lcd screen it beeps when charged and cuts off. If a lipo has been damage it beeps a warning and wont charge the battery stopping you from blowing up the battery allso charges every other type of battery.
A cheep lipo charger wont have the balance facility on it and Lipos need to be balanced charged every so often. The extra lead on lipos is the balance lead.
Allso saying that expencive charger dont have an auto cut off is just showing Alphas has no idea about Lipos or chargers as hes only ever had cheap slow chargers! And never made the move up to a more expencive charger.allso having a lipo low current warning buzzer is a good idea if your tanks dont have the volt cut off.as a lipo will seem to be running fine but once run down two low will then not charge back up and if you try to charge it will over heat and set on fire somthing a more expensive charger wont let happen.
Im sure he will come up with more dribble on this thread.

hawkeye3guns wrote:Hi All Can I just put my penny of info in. due to work ,wife and time constraints its very rare if I have time to monitor my batteries during charging. So I use a simple brought of the shelf power timer (you know the sort that you set what time to come on and when to go off).I always run my batteries down between charging and so depending on what battery pack I'm using, I know the recharge time and set the power timer to the same plus a bit. ie. if battery needs 3.5 hours to fully charge I set timer to 3.75 hours and then it does not matter if I'm not around when the battery is charged because the battery charger power is turned off anyway.

Yup I use those as well....can't beat the safety...

I have been modelling for about 35 years now first in boats and now in tanks and have seen many differant battery types over the years first wet lead acid then nicad's then gel cells and now nihm and lipo's and as already stated if you trick them with respect they don't give you any problems right up till they die of old age. The only thing that over the years I have noticed over the years is lack of use and the cold is the biggest killer of all batteries my garage / workshop is not heated and so in winter I bring the batteries into the house/spare bedroom. then no problems
hope this of any help
Regards Denzil

You are correct here too Hawkeye....Lipos must be stored with a charge left in them...unlike Nicds an NiHi...which is better stored without (but they drain themselves over time)

ALPHA