First time charging LiPo's..

[Dudders]

Arrgghhh this is all abit worrying!.

Ok, so I have LRP 5300 40c and a LRP Quadra Pro 3.

So, I've connected it all up and am charging at 5A... after 33 mins its reading 2260mAh and 8.27v ... does that all sound right????

The instructions lead a lot to be desired

Awaiting the bang.......

How do I know when charged?

[Col]

Assuming the charger has a lipo mode (and you're using lipo mode) then they'll stop charging on their own.
Lipo mode will start charging very slowly and work upto 5a, then work back down again as they reach capacity.

[Dudders]

Watched it till it reached 8.37v and then the amps droped to .5 and fluctuated, assume this is a final top up to the cells and it'll stop after that .

Also, I'm guessing the mAh going from 0000 upwards is the amount of charge put into the cells?. They are 5300 cells so asssume from flat they'd get near the 5300?

[rich67]

It should stop at 8.4 volts and the mah will be the capacity that it has taken, HTH

[Dudders]

Rich, many thanks.

Got it now. Awesome, makes sense when you know how. PRetty clever little box of tricks the the Pro3..... just wsh they'd do an idiots guide to charging from it!!!!!

3 batteries all charged!

[rich67]

Cool, use them, then just recharge, no need to discharge untill flat like in days of old. If your speedo has lipo cutoff make sure its switched on, if not, my daughter runs a 5000mah lipo in her touring car and can easily do 2 5min races including 2min warmup on one charge. Only being using lipos myself for about 8 months and was a bit daunting at first, just make sure you dont charge at to high a rate of amps. Have fun

[Dudders]

Thanks Rich, yes, very confusing, but once you know you know!.

The charger goes to a max of 5 amps so should be sweet. Just charged them all up infront of the my eyes so I now understand how the system works. Very clever to count the mAh capacity though .

The speedo does have this so all should be well. I'll judge the run time on Friday!

[emtee]

Glad to hear you are using lipo... they really are the best thing to happen to RC for a long time..!

[rich67]

When you recharge after your run it will tell you how many mah goes in so you can workout how much you have used.

[Dudders]

Originally Posted by rich67

When you recharge after your run it will tell you how many mah goes in so you can workout how much you have used.

[JonMack]

It's probably worth doing one run on a battery, then popping it on the charger and seeing how much voltage you've lost, then you know that one battery will last you X amount of heats. I tend to do 2 heats then swap the battery for my spare fully charged one, that way it doesn't take hours to charge the first battery, and i've got plenty of juice for the next couple of heats.

[Col]

I only own 1 lipo.
It gets charged on a friday night to race sat night.
Races one (although has easily done 2 before) then gets charged.
I have never used more than 1500mah in a 5min race and a couple of min warm-up. Nearly always fully charged again before the next race.