Originally Posted by flyin C

So I charged my battery at 1C. It started charging at 32% and withing 4min it was at 76%. I came back to check on it and it was charging at over 2C!! At 2.4 amps on my little 2s 900mah battery. I guess I will just charge it at .75amps...

They say that the Cellpro 4s is basically impossible to damage your batts. But if its charging at over 2C then its IS damaging my battery, is it not??

Sell your Cellpro in the for sale section of this board. There's quite a few people here looking to pick one up a used one.

Originally Posted by Rampman

Buy a true balancing charger and be safer.

Interesting choice of words. Safer != safe. Also there are a lot of true balancing chargers out there, smarter ones too. Very few PARALLEL CHARGERS which is what the DN charger is.

Seriously though,
FlyinC - Just use the Cellpro in manual charge mode. You already own it and you're just having an issue with the AUTO mode. The DN charger you have to manually set the charge rate also. At least with the cellpro you'll get % capacity remaining in the pack and mAH into it.

I very much doubt the Cellpro would have maintained a 2C charge rate. How long into the charge process did it hit 2C?



Dave

Well, these past few days I've been looking into getting into the lipo world, and then i stumble across this thread and I'm terrified. I have a feeling I'll end up setting up some sort of charging station with a chimney out of brick while using the liposack...or, use the fireplace and rig up a shield that uses oven glass and brick to seal up the fireplace opening while charging.

I read about A123 and that they are more expensive but safer... I'd be willing to spend more to be safer but can't find any good reading material on them...like pricing or where to get them, or what the downside is to using these types over lipo.

I also need to invest in a charger...seems people here favor the cellpro... is that all i would need to get to be as safe as possible or are there accessories? I'm a little uninformed when it comes to chargers and what to look for. I have no problem trusting the members of these forums to guide me with a purchase...and don't worry...I definitely rtfm before using a product such as this.


*edit* Okay...found some info on the a123's on this forum...i was using a different window to view multiple forums and was searching the wrong one...oops. But, feel free to advise anyway.

Li-Pos are like all other things we use in everyday life. If improperly used they'll bite you and bite you bad.

I have been using them since they first were available stateside; when chargers for them were few, setting chargers up was nightmarish, and their reliability was questionable at best.

With the exception of a few early Li-Pos that ballooned on me (some did so before I even removed them from their pouches while sitting on a shelf), I have had no problems. There have been many a Li-Po fire reported here and elsewhere; I have a tendency to believe these were caused by improperly set chargers (operator's fault, not the charger).

I personally recommend the FMA Cellpro 4S charger and FMA Cellpro Revolution Li-Pos. It is hard to go wrong with such great combination, nothing to set, just plug the pack into it and it will do its thing on its own. I also like Polyquest Li-Pos very much.

one thing is to NOT just let the FMA Cellpro 4s start charging by itself. I have done that on a few of my charges and it would charge my 2s batts at about 1.2C witch is not good at all for that lipo. So The last time I charged it by just plugging it in, charged my 2s 900mah battery at 2.4amps!!! It went from 30% to 75% in like 4 minutes!! I am so lucky I came back and checked on it. The battery was much warmer than normal and it was a little soft.

I do not trust the Cellpro 4s anymore-
Know I have to set it using the manual settings witch is slow, becuase my 900mah batts have to be charged at .75 amps, and it takes a while...

So I might sell or trade my Cellpro for a DN Digital balancing charger

I don't want to start a flame war here -- no pun intended -- but still...

The FMA is widely regarded as the safest charger out there. It charges each cell individually, and that's the main reason it's so safe. There are plenty of others: It won't charge if you hook a pack up with the polarity reversed (and I know for a fact that it won't charge that way) plus many other built-in features.

The Cellpro packs are great, by the way. I really like them, and they're safe packs, too. They can be charged at up to 3C (which I don't do, though I did charge them yesterday at 2C for the first time without a problem). They're VERY affordable, too.

Flyin C: The Cellpro has done that to me before, and it has been explained here before, too. What it does is start charging until it senses what capacity the pack has. No charger (as far as I'm concerned) can automatically tell capacity; they can only tell voltage. So, it might start up high for the first three or four minutes, and then level down. My 200mAh (indoor flier) LiPos have charged at 3C+ for a minute or so, and then the charge rate tapers down gradually. Within a couple of minutes, they're charging at between .19A and .21A. Now that's accurate.

Back to the original question, again...

Accessories: You'll need Cellpro adapters to whatever packs you use (unless you use Cellpro packs).

Safety charging area: I do it out in the driveway (concrete, that's safe enough). I have a small firesafe from Lowe's ($20) and a LipoSack. Even if something were to go off, the fire would be contained and the smoke would be outside of the house.

Someone said that LiPos are, for the most part, as safe as its users want them to be. That person was pretty much dead-on with that comment.

Someone else also mentioned that most LiPo-fire stories begin with something such as "I walked back into the garage from getting a sandwich and..." or "When we got back from the movies..." Again, dead-on: Just be responsible and don't leave your batteries unattended.

Simple rules make for simple safety.

Originally Posted by Spackles94

Flyin C: The Cellpro has done that to me before, and it has been explained here before, too. What it does is start charging until it senses what capacity the pack has. No charger (as far as I'm concerned) can automatically tell capacity; they can only tell voltage. So, it might start up high for the first three or four minutes, and then level down. My 200mAh (indoor flier) LiPos have charged at 3C+ for a minute or so, and then the charge rate tapers down gradually. Within a couple of minutes, they're charging at between .19A and .21A. Now that's accurate.

I understand, so your saying that in that few minutes of charging at 2C+, it is not damaging the battery at all? Because I have noticed that it levels out after a few minutes, but I thought that if it ever charged at about 1C, it was not good.

And nice review on the Mud bug, The pictures were excellent and you did a great job explaining everything.

Originally Posted by flyin C

I understand, so your saying that in that few minutes of charging at 2C+, it is not damaging the battery at all? Because I have noticed that it levels out after a few minutes, but I thought that if it ever charged at about 1C, it was not good.

And nice review on the Mud bug, The pictures were excellent and you did a great job explaining everything.

Thanks for the props on the review -- it sure was fun to produce! I'm glad folks are reading it -- more indoor-flier reviews are on the way, too!

Yes, as far as I'm concerned, with the Cellpro you should be OK charging at that rate AT FIRST AND WITH HEALTHY BATTERIES. You shouldn't charge puffed-up/damaged batteries in the first place anyway.

And another thing I usually do is just stick around for a few minutes and make sure all the settings are correct and everything's charging fine. Once it all looks cool, I go back inside or get back to whatever I was doing.

So yeah, you should be OK. If it charges at 3C for the whole time and you had it set up to 1C, now that's a different story, and definitely worth calling FMA!

I burn't a car down with a thunder power lipo as well!
I am only just being alowd to use car again so i havn't flown for a while.

Any sugesstions on this problem?

Problems with discharging tx battery with the swallow advanced.

My Futaba 6ex is saying for example 9.4v and the charger is saying 11.2v. Which one is right?

What are the settings to discharge a 9.6v 600mah tx battery?

I am currently discharging at 0.1A and to a voltage of 8.8v on the charger but it only gets down to above 10v on the charger what is going on?

Have there been any cases of spontaneous explosions? I just got my first two lipo's in the mail today and I haven't had a chance to get something to contain them in to store outside, so I have them in my garage sitting in a pot with a larger pot on top of it. Heck, I don't even have my charger yet. I'm too scared to have the batteries in my house and I'm trying to convince myself i'm just being paranoid.

I have been using them since late 2002 or early 2003, lost track now; I have yet to hear of a Li-Po self ignition incident though. I have always stored mine in plastic containers, in the basement.

Some of my original packs are still performing as they did when new and they are not equipped with balancing connectors. Only problem I have ever had with Li-Pos was with some packs from a specific manufacturer; those "puffed" while still in their factory stapled pouches.

I separate mine by capacity and size, that way I don't have to search through the 40 plus packs I own before I head for the field with four or five of them, the planes and chargers. I have been using first generation FMA CellPro 4S chargers since they first came out last year.

And when they are damaged, make something like this to discharge them down to zero volts before soaking them in salt water.

I drained mine, cut open the cells with a razor and dropped them in saltwater for a week before disposing them.

Frank

Excellent tip murocflyer. I like your discharge set up very much.

Originally Posted by qban_flyer

Excellent tip murocflyer. I like your discharge set up very much.

Thank you. Cost me about $6 for the light socket and bulb, the rest I had laying around the house. Works quite well I might add.

Frank

On my way to the local RS to check and see if they have the components to assemble one for myself. It is a very clever, inexpensive and functional device.

Thanks for posting details and pixs of yours Frank.

Bert

Originally Posted by qban_flyer

On my way to the local RS to check and see if they have the components to assemble one for myself. It is a very clever, inexpensive and functional device.

Thanks for posting details and pixs of yours Frank.

Bert

Bert,

You're welcome. How did yours turn out?

Frank