Charging LiPo

[NorthernBoater]

Has anyone ever charged LiPo packs on the Triton. How long should it take for it to get up to the correct current. My Triton was at .1 A for 30 seconds before I shut it off. This did not seem right so I shut the charger off.

[Darin Jordan]

Lipo charge modes in the Triton and other similiar chargers charge in what is called CC/CV mode... Stands for "Constant Current/Constant Voltage"...

What happens is that for the first part of the charge, as long as the packs are below their set peak voltage, the charger continues as a constant current, cramming juice into the cell...

Once packs are at the maximum voltage (8.4V for 2S, 14.8 for 4S, etc...), the charger switches to a constant 8.4Volts and let's the current adjust to whatever the cell is willing to accept, so you will see it drop down from say 5A (1C for a 5000mah pack...) to under 1 Amp, and eventually to nothing, when the charger stops. It does this until maximum mah is reached...

USUALLY, when what you describe happens, assuming everything on your charger is set correctly, it means you pack is already charged...

My ICE chargers, and my Hyperion charger, all ramp up to the maximum current, and it can take a bit for this to happen... There certainly isn't any harm being done at .1A to worry too much, so I'd let it go and see what happens... if the pack is already charged within 90 or 95%, it may just trickle like this...

[JimClark]

make sure you triton has the green sticker on the back or it will not have the right firmware

[NorthernBoater]

Once packs are at the maximum voltage (8.4V for 2S, 14.8 for 4S, etc...), the charger switches to a constant 8.4Volts and let's the current adjust to whatever the cell is willing to accept, so you will see it drop down from say 5A (1C for a 5000mah pack...) to under 1 Amp, and eventually to nothing, when the charger stops. It does this until maximum mah is reached...
...

Does that assume the packs where first fully discharged to the minimum per cell recommendation first.

[SweetZ28]

If it's like my ICE charger..It beeps when it reaches 8.4 Volts for 2 cell BUT the full charge is not reached until you hear the normal ring tone that you set like when you hear when you charge a nImh battery....I always though that the lipos where done charging when i heard that first little beep but there not.

[Darin Jordan]

Does that assume the packs where first fully discharged to the minimum per cell recommendation first.

It doesn't matter... Once the cells reach or are at their max voltage, the charger cuts the current down and applies that voltage, letting the cells take what they will until they are at max capacity... in other words, until they won't take anymore current...

Now, if your cells were fully discharged... I'm not sure what the issue would be... The chargers do "ramp up", so you might want to give it a minute or so to see where it goes... Or just dump that Triton and get an ICE... They work EXCELLENT for up to 4S packs...

[NorthernBoater]

Since the Triton will not charge LiPos at the current that I want I decided to just purchase the Hyperion and sell the Triton. It worked great for Nimh but the LiPo mode can not meet the higher current rates for higher capacity LiPos

[Darin Jordan]

The big Hyperion charger has an EXCELLENT automatic NiCd and NiMh mode as well... I've found that it works MUCH better at charging my NiMh packs for both my Tx/Rx and for my boats than the programs I set on my ICE... Not that the ICE didn't work well, just that the programming of these automodes in the Hyperion just seem to get a better charge on the cells... I've especially noticed this with the Tx/Rx packs... the ICE seems to kick off too soon, while the Hyperion charges them to FULL capacity and seems to peak right where it's suppose to...

I think it's worth the money... I'd love to see, however, an ICE style interface and control, with the Hyperion capability and capacity... I'd be willing the pay the $$$ for something like that!

[SweetZ28]

Looks like you don't know how to program your ice... it will peak a battery to what you want you just have to know what MV setting to use.... another thing about the ICE if your battery is lets say for example 1200Mah set your ice higher to like 1300mah i hear from people if you put the Mah to the exact setting as the battery states you will not get a full charge sometimes .

[Rex R]

just to check my understanding. is it ok to charge lipos at less than 1c? ex 2.5a to charge a 4000mah pack. thanks
rex

[Darin Jordan]

Looks like you don't know how to program your ice... it will peak a battery to what you want you just have to know what MV setting to use.... another thing about the ICE if your battery is lets say for example 1200Mah set your ice higher to like 1300mah i hear from people if you put the Mah to the exact setting as the battery states you will not get a full charge sometimes .

I'm not sure what you are talking about... My ICE works perfectly and exactly like it's suppose to... and I program it just fine... Perhaps you are responding to someone else??

With Lipos... I'm not going to be setting the percentage charge to anything higher than 100%... Overcharging them is one of the major sources of "puffs"...

[Rex R]

sorry didn't feel like starting a new thread. my charger will only charge lipos at a max of 2.5amps, and I have 4000mah packs. 1c in this instance would be 4amps.

[Darin Jordan]

Yes... It's always OK to charge at a lower than maximum current... It will just take longer...

[Rex R]

ok thanks for the info. now to 'build' a power distribution box so I can pug both chargers into one power supply :).