Originally Posted by everydayflyer

Best thing to do is to stop worrying about LiPolys that are only charged to 4.17 or 4.18volts per cell. You will notice no difference in performance or flight times and charging time will be faster and the Lipolys may just klast longer.

Somechargers have a Long or Longer Life Lipoly setting which only charges to 4.1V per cell and yes it does add a lot to their cycle life all thing else being equal.

More than a few set their chargers to charge Lipolys to 4.15V per cell as a compromise between full,longer life and faster charging / balancing..

Thanks, Charles. For some reason, I thought I had to get to 4.20v or my cell wasn't "fully charged".

I guess I'm able to charge to 4.18 and "storage" discharge to 3.87, so I'm all good.

Thank to you all for the help.

Or you can set it to 4.25 or 4.3 if it suits you better.

Originally Posted by MarkEHansen

Okay, but my Triton Electrify charger is able to charge these batteries to the full 4.20v. Why is the iCharger 3010B not able to do the same?

Are you saying that with the iCharger, if I want to get the full 4.20v charge, I need to charge at less than 3C? One of the reasons I purchased this charger was so that I could charge my packs at the 3C charge rate. In fact, the Celectra 4-port 1S charger I have also charges these little batteries to the full 4.20v and does it in what I estimated was a 3C rate.

I'll try charging at a 1C rate anyway, just to see what happens.

Thanks,

In my experience I don,t think the 1C charge rate will make much difference. However when storage charging the final result depends on if the charger needs to charge or discharge the cells to get to 3.85 volts. Discharging at high amp rates seems to pull the battery voltage down and that is why I think your outcome is higher. My comments in my previous post stem from what I have been experiencing and a bit of best guess as to what is going on with this charger and these little batteries. It is hard enough to monitor the goings on between the charger and the battery and is further complicated when charging multiple cells in parallel.

At this point I think I would try to monitor the time, voltage and amperage of the other chargers that charge these batteries to 4.2 volts and compare it to what the ICharger does.

Originally Posted by MarkEHansen

Thanks, Charles. For some reason, I thought I had to get to 4.20v or my cell wasn't "fully charged".

I guess I'm able to charge to 4.18 and "storage" discharge to 3.87, so I'm all good.

Thank to you all for the help.

Those are the voltage values I get on my 1S UM batteries, its all good.

Not that I have not posted this less than 500 times but once more.

Charged to 4.15 to 4.2V per cell is fine, most chargers and LiPolys settle to around 4.17 to 4.18 afer a few hours anyway.

Storage is 3.85 Nonimal. I am the one who came up with that boltage many tears ago. Lipoys use to ship at 3.7 per cell now for the past 4 years or so most ship at around 3.8 to 3.85.

Storage at between 3.7 and 4.0 per cell is fine. Packs I fly frequently I used to store at around 4.0 per cell so they would charge faster. Past several years I rarely charge at less than 3C so time difference between starting at 3.7 or 4.0 per cell is no big deal. I vcan have multi LiPolys charged and ready to fly in under 20 minutes.

Originally Posted by everydayflyer

Not that I have not posted this less than 500 times but once more.

I think I need more caffeine before I'll be able to understand that sentence

Seriously, though, Thanks. I've been reading about LiPo battery care and feeding for weeks and I think I'm finally getting it. Thanks for your patience.

Originally Posted by everydayflyer

Not that I have not posted this less than 500 times but once more.

Charged to 4.15 to 4.2V per cell is fine, most chargers and LiPolys settle to around 4.17 to 4.18 afer a few hours anyway.

Storage is 3.85 Nonimal. I am the one who came up with that boltage many tears ago. Lipoys use to ship at 3.7 per cell now for the past 4 years or so most ship at around 3.8 to 3.85.

Storage at between 3.7 and 4.0 per cell is fine. Packs I fly frequently I used to store at around 4.0 per cell so they would charge faster. Past several years I rarely charge at less than 3C so time difference between starting at 3.7 or 4.0 per cell is no big deal. I vcan have multi LiPolys charged and ready to fly in under 20 minutes.

everydayflyer

I respect your opinion and I am fully aware that you posses much more knowledge on this subject than I do. However while you post does bear repeating from time to time it misses the point in this particular case. Both Mark and I have similar experiences with the ICharger and these little cells. It shows that the ICharger is not always able to meet its final voltage set point and according to Mark his other chargers do. While I agree that .02 volts is insignificant and do understand that no charger is perfect, the behavior during storage charging is far from what one would expect to see. So to me the subject matter is about what is happening here rather than whether the results are within tolerable limits.

The conclusions that I posted in response to this subject come from my own experience with this charger and these little batteries. I have mentioned this behavior before but stirred little interest. But now I had confirmation that this is not isolated to my charger or my batteries. I had hoped that this subject would generate more interest now.

It's not the fault of the iCharger that the battery is 'not meeting its the set point', it's the voltage drop in the leads and batteries that is responsible. Charge the same cells with another charger at the same charge rate and with the same length and gauge charge lead and the termination voltage will likely be identical, provided voltage calibration is the same.

One cannot expect the same termination voltage when charging at 3X charge rate. For this to be the case requires charge leads and cells with zero resistance, which is impossible.

If you want higher termination voltage, lower your charge rate or increase the termination voltage within the user setting in the charger. However, as has been clearly stated by many others, a few millivolts amounts to a few seconds of flight time at the expense of fewer useful cycles.

Mark

Or if it bothers you so much, use a different charger.

Originally Posted by everydayflyer

Post # 1 of this Thread New FAQ item #18

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showa...4&d=1303460549


IMO one of the major flaws in the Firware upgrades for the iChargers. They should have a routine to check the charger's model against the firmware not let let such a thing happen. In the mean time it is best to put each iCharger's Dtat such as owner's manual, firware updates etc. in its' own seperate folder and then excercise extreme care to select the correct folder.

Charles

The problem is that on the 206b the q22 and q24 solder points are under the LCD which is also soldered. (the photo in the FAQ is not the same charger i have. Are there any points n 206b I can break to get it to work?

Thanks in very large part to those who have contributed, here, I've just ordered the 206B/P350 combo "the ticket" from ProgressiveRC. This, and a parallel board, seems way good for handling a set of (4) 14.8V 4S 2200mAh 30C Li-Po batteries. This will be my first adventure into both R/C and electric. So thanks for the great help.

Originally Posted by loNslo

Thanks in very large part to those who have contributed, here, I've just ordered the 206B/P350 combo "the ticket" from ProgressiveRC. This, and a parallel board, seems way good for handling a set of (4) 14.8V 4S 2200mAh 30C Li-Po batteries. This will be my first adventure into both R/C and electric. So thanks for the great help.

You'll be amazed at how quickly you can charge your packs and wonder "why didn't I do this sooner"....

I'm already amazed and I've never even owned a LiPo battery!

Hi all - a bit of advise please, my 106b+ Start/Enter button is working intermittently and I was just wondering if it is easy to replace/where to source a new button, any other advise on changing the button would be welcome.
Many thanks

Originally Posted by loNslo

I'm already amazed and I've never even owned a LiPo battery!

Great that you got a good charger and power supply to start so you don't have to buy a second time (unlike some of us )