ToyFigure

Guys...

If I shut off the power of the charger DURING charging the li-po (XRB stock battery) will it kill my battery? Do I have to wait until the light turns green before pulling the plug?

Thanks for any info provided.

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

Its probably not good for it, but I have to say Ive done it with no ill effects so far.
Its best to let it fully charge though. Or at the very least run it down, so when you plug it back in its getting a full charge. LiPos dont have a memory like NiCds so honestly....I dont know if it would affect it or not.

tnd2000

You should not leave the battery connected to the charger and unplug the charger from the wall. If you got a cheap charger, the battery will discharge thru the charger. LiPo must not be completly discharged. LiPo chemistry is un-reversible at this state. With LiPos, you should let the battery cool down after you use it and then immediately charge it back to full capacity before placing it in storage.

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

Good point.

And dont leave it plugged into the heli either....unless you want to be buying a new battery. It will run it smack down into oblivion in one day.

ToyFigure

Thanks guys!

warren52nz

I'm certain that disconnecting it before it's finished charging won't hurt it in the slightest (I'm an electronics engineer). It just won't have as much energy as if you charge it fully.

And I have to disagree with bdavison (sorry) because you SHOULDN'T discharge the battery unnecessarily.

tnd2000 is right, over discharging them (below 3 volts/cell) kills them permanently! And since they don't have "memory" why would you discharge them unnecessarily?

And I can't imagine a charger that would assume it's charging a fully discharged battery so you you can plug it in to the charger at any state, half charged or even fully charged. The chargers measure the voltage while they charge and won't go beyond the fully charged state.

But I agree about not leaving it connected to anything that has the slightest current drain. It could kill the battery overnight.

Sorry to those whose posts are contradicted by this but I thought I'd better set the record straight.... these batteries need special care.

Cheers
Warren

emosolo

Morning,

I agree with Warren.

Regards
Solo.

pgitta

My Feedback: (3)

Warren is right on. When you cut your throttle, you're doing the exact same thing in reverse, no? Stopping the discharge suddenly. Batteries don't care if you start and stop charges or discharges.

Right about unneccessary discharging too. Think of Lithium batteries as gas tanks in cars. This is where they're a little different from nickle batteries.

Imagine your tank is a lithium battery. It's a 10 gallon tank and the first time you fill it you get exactly 10 gallons in. Well, the second time you fill it you only get around 9.95 gallons in, then 9.92 on the third fill and so on. It goes on like that until after a year or so you can only pump 5 gallons into the damn tank!

I left a Lipo connected to a receiver over the winter and lost one that way. Well, I did nurse it back slowly to normal voltage, but it had maybe 50% capacity, and even with that after 3 or 4 flights it started puffing slightly so I'm saving it for warmer weather when I'll get a nice long cord and a big parking lot and pump a nice 5 amp nicad charge into the sucker and see just how "bad" they are!