Anyone
I'm new to lipos. I'm using some surplus 1100 mah cell phone batts, two in series for 8.4v. I read an article about ballancing them to within .1 v per cell. before charging if they are off. One reads 3 volts under a 2 A load and the other reads 3.6 under the same load. I've only charged them in series once and I have already used them once on a speed 280 for about a 20 minuet flight and they worked great. How crittical is ballancing? aaaannddd... how much load do I need to put on them to check each of them? I also read where if they go down to less than 3 v
per cell (checked under load and how much load and not below 2.3v or they are junk?) that they are to be trickle charged for .1c until they reach 3 V then you can charge at 1C on a constant V/C charger or Lab power supply which is the way I did it the first time where the V went to 8.4 @ 35ma. and thats when I terminated the charge. How do I tell when a cell is close to the end of it's life span, as I don't have a clue as to how old these batts are.

Thanks for any replies
EZ

Balancing is critical if you charge LiPos in series. So, I wouldn't charge those cells in series, if I were you. "Surplus" cells should be assumed to be mismatched, and your measurements seem to confirm that. If you charge them individually or in parallel, you can forget about it.

With a discharging mah integrator such as incorporated in the Triton charger, you can measure fairly accurately the actual capacity (C) of each of your cells, from full charge down to 3 volts.

- RD