Balancer or Not when charging???

[LiPo Power]

Here is my question:
Do I need to charge my LiPo batteries with balancer every time?
This is what I do all the time but recently I noticed that charging time with balancing is way longer than just straight charging. Check the picture. Way too long!
I need them for tomorrow morning and still have few to go. Should I just charge them straight and balance them when I have more time?
Thanks
Robert

[Steven Vaccaro]

165 minutes? Thats a long time. You could probably cut it short. The last 5-10% of my charge always takes the longest.

[LiPo Power]

Yeah, that is long.... I will wait to see when it will stop this time. That is strange is it not?
Robert

[LiPo Power]

Do you allways charge with balancing no matter what?


165 minutes? Thats a long time. You could probably cut it short. The last 5-10% of my charge always takes the longest.

[LiPo Power]

No Steve it is over 200 minutes untill full...

[line6]

No you don't have to balance every time. what kind of pack is that it looks to be a 2s but what Mah and are you charging it at 1C.

[Doby]

Balancing EVERY time is not rerquired,,,it is preferred though. Remember, there is no balancer working when we discharge them while running our boats (at a substantially higher current rate as well)

[Hydromaniac]

I always use my balncers while charging and have yet to puff any lipos , Just my choice but I'd rather be safe, my Charger / balancers give an indication if something is going wrong with the cells ahead of time before a problem happens if used while charging.

[BakedMopar]

A lot of times the charger is not charging (or trickle charging) and the balancer is trying to balance out the cells. I've only had experience with Turnigy and Zippy batteries. When their new they balance out fairly quick. After a few runs they take a long time to balance. With the exception of my last Zippy packs. They were way out of balance for the first dozen cycles. Now they seem to be closer but still not quite there yet. What I do now is charge them to 90% (with balancer). Then throw them on a external balancer to balance out. When they are balanced I finish them off. I know it sound complicated but it frees up the charger to get other packs charged up so they don't sit at too low of a voltage.

Hope that made sense cause I feel confused.

[line6]

A lot of times the charger is not charging (or trickle charging) and the balancer is trying to balance out the cells. I've only had experience with Turnigy and Zippy batteries. When their new they balance out fairly quick. After a few runs they take a long time to balance. With the exception of my last Zippy packs. They were way out of balance for the first dozen cycles. Now they seem to be closer but still not quite there yet. What I do now is charge them to 90% (with balancer). Then throw them on a external balancer to balance out. When they are balanced I finish them off. I know it sound complicated but it frees up the charger to get other packs charged up so they don't sit at too low of a voltage.

Hope that made sense cause I feel confused.

I know what u are saying. I have one or two older more abused packs that just take forever to finish.

[LiPo Power]

7.4, 5000mAh, 20-25C, charging at 5 at amps.....



No you don't have to balance every time. what kind of pack is that it looks to be a 2s but what Mah and are you charging it at 1C.

[line6]

Might be something with the pack? Do you have more of that same kind of pack do they take that long. That is realy taking a long time to charge just a 2s pack. Like i said a have some that take much longer than others. They work fine on a low amp draw like a stock SV.

[Rumdog]

Your charger is set to balance mode and not lipo charge correct? If so, it will charge at much less amps than in lipo charge mode.

[LiPo Power]

...so it should be better to use equinox external balancer in interface mode and charger in normal lipo charging to get it right fast, normal time....
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMGS7&P=ML

[egneg]

I always use a balancer when charging. What charger are you using - I had a Triton that took a long time but since I started using a Hyperion Duo it is 30 minutes or less.

[LiPo Power]

Picture of it at post # 1



I always use a balancer when charging. What charger are you using - I had a Triton that took a long time but since I started using a Hyperion Duo it is 30 minutes or less.

[egneg]

At .1 amps it will take a long time. The HD ramps up to 5 amps.

[line6]

I think he said he is charging at 5amps

[AndyKunz]

My chargers (FMA Cellpro 4S) only charge my lipo's in balance mode. It could be that you had a low cell, and it did a safety charge to bring it up to the others. Balancing chargers will only tolerate so much of an out-of-balance condition during charge. The .1A rate is typical for an early balancing stage. It could be that your high-current charge rate is set too low, making it take too long to get to balancing.

I would discharge the pack and try again. Watch it and make sure you're getting a 1C charge rate near the beginning (mine starts slow, increases to max current, and then goes into max voltage then balance).

Andy

[Jeff Wohlt]

I do not balance and certainly not 2S all the time. I charge them and then use my blinky to bring them back to balance. When I balance with my blinky it takes longer. It cut charge to the higher cell.

[LiPo Power]

That is great info folks, thanks. Charging using my Equinox balancer in interface mode with charger set up to normal LiPo charge, they get the juice way faster than straight from charger using LiPo balance mode. Did this testing while back today and that is what I got.

[LiPo Power]

Hi Jeff
What blinky are you reffering to please?
Robert



I do not balance and certainly not 2S all the time. I charge them and then use my blinky to bring them back to balance. When I balance with my blinky it takes longer. It cut charge to the higher cell.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Sorry, Astro Blinky...it is a great thing to have.

[CornelP]

At 5 amps, you should have the charge ready a lot faster... I chrge with equalizer on every time, and the only pack that gives me grief is one that my son managed to short... takes ages to equalize, just like yours. The other identical pack charges in 20% of the time. Check the voltages on the individual cells before charging, you might have a surprise...

[ozzie-crawl]

well here is my input, i used to always balance charge until i was talking to a guy who repairs batteries for a living,he goes to different battery conventions and what not, he told me that lipo manufacturers told him worse thing to do is balance charge lipo cells all the time. now i dont know if that was true or why they would say such a thing but since then i have just charged my packs not balance charged them. they only time i balance them is if i have had them stored at 60% for a period or if the cells show more than .02 of a volt difference.
i only use 2s packs and cant remember the last time i balance charged them as there always with in .01 of a volt,also i never run my batteries to lvc

[LiPo Power]

This is cool...., thanks
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0095P?FVSEARCH=Astro+Blinky&search=Go




Sorry, Astro Blinky...it is a great thing to have.

[785boats]

LiPo Power
I have one pack that does that. The Charger doesn't sense that it is full, even though the current is down to 0.1A & the voltages of each cell are up to 4.2V & if you watch the Mah readout, no more Mah's are being put into the pack. The charger will stay running until the timer cuts out. I've watched it & the pack was fully charged after about one hour.
I now use the Fast Charge cycle & the charger cuts out when the pack is charged & balanced.
The Fast charge mode just cuts out when the charge current drops to about 0.5A instead of 0.1A. This is where the time is saved (under normal circumstances) as its not taking 15 or so minutes to put that last 50-100 milliamps into the pack. With a pack that won't trigger the cutout in the normal balance mode, however, it senses that the pack is full & cuts out. At least it does with mine.
I often use the Fast Charge mode on all my good packs too. Lets face it the extra 100ma or so aren't used anyway.
I'm sure your charger has a Fast Charge mode. All you can do is try.
Cheers.
Paul.

[line6]

LiPo Power
I have one pack that does that. The Charger doesn't sense that it is full, even though the current is down to 0.1A & the voltages of each cell are up to 4.2V & if you watch the Mah readout, no more Mah's are being put into the pack. The charger will stay running until the timer cuts out. I've watched it & the pack was fully charged after about one hour.
I now use the Fast Charge cycle & the charger cuts out when the pack is charged & balanced.
The Fast charge mode just cuts out when the charge current drops to about 0.5A instead of 0.1A. This is where the time is saved (under normal circumstances) as its not taking 15 or so minutes to put that last 50-100 milliamps into the pack. With a pack that won't trigger the cutout in the normal balance mode, however, it senses that the pack is full & cuts out. At least it does with mine.
I often use the Fast Charge mode on all my good packs too. Lets face it the extra 100ma or so aren't used anyway.
I'm sure your charger has a Fast Charge mode. All you can do is try.
Cheers.
Paul.

Very well put makes perfect sense to me.

[LiPo Power]

Thanks Paul.
I will try this out next time.
Robert




LiPo Power
I have one pack that does that. The Charger doesn't sense that it is full, even though the current is down to 0.1A & the voltages of each cell are up to 4.2V & if you watch the Mah readout, no more Mah's are being put into the pack. The charger will stay running until the timer cuts out. I've watched it & the pack was fully charged after about one hour.
I now use the Fast Charge cycle & the charger cuts out when the pack is charged & balanced.
The Fast charge mode just cuts out when the charge current drops to about 0.5A instead of 0.1A. This is where the time is saved (under normal circumstances) as its not taking 15 or so minutes to put that last 50-100 milliamps into the pack. With a pack that won't trigger the cutout in the normal balance mode, however, it senses that the pack is full & cuts out. At least it does with mine.
I often use the Fast Charge mode on all my good packs too. Lets face it the extra 100ma or so aren't used anyway.
I'm sure your charger has a Fast Charge mode. All you can do is try.
Cheers.
Paul.