Lipo charging

[NitroArgi]

Hello from sunny Greece,

I have read somewhere that really top charger like LRP Pulsar 3 and Team Orion Advantage 2 can charge Lipo batteries witout the need for exterior balancing. Is it true that these charges balance the Lipo batteries automaticaly?

Kind Regards
Argiris

[NitroArgi]

Noone knows???

[super__dan]

No, neither balance. However both are good quality chargers. I personally use the Orion Carbon as after testing the true voltage output of quite a few chargers I found the Orion one to have the best accuracy at the connectors.

I then chose to in line balance charge through a Trakpower balancer almost every charge, I think mainly because I've got so many years of nursing nicad and nimh cells it kind of feels right to balance all the time even though you probably need to do it once in a while. What I have found is there is a slight voltage drop through the balance (I have) of about 0.03V, but I'm not in the slightest bit concerned by this because I neither struggle for voltage or capacity on the Team Vampire cells I run so the 1% (?) lower performance I might get is a price I'm happy to pay for knowing the cells are charged right every time.

Another reason I use the balancer is that I have a cheap supposed balance charger off ebay which when used by itself overcharges the lipo. The balancer has a 8.40V cutoff all of its own so when used in line, though the cheap charger is happy to keep going the balancer cuts off, it's like extra protection.

[Marvin]

Originally Posted by NitroArgi

Hello from sunny Greece,

I have read somewhere that really top charger like LRP Pulsar 3 and Team Orion Advantage 2 can charge Lipo batteries witout the need for exterior balancing. Is it true that these charges balance the Lipo batteries automaticaly?

Kind Regards
Argiris

No, they still need an exterior balancer. This is because they only read the pack voltage and stop charging at 8.4V (theoretically 4.2V per cell) (for a 2S Lipo). However, without a balancer to ensure every cells' voltage is the same, this 8.4V could be reached with one cell at, say, 4.1V and the other at 4.3V, and it would still register Ok with the charger, whilst in fact, one cell has been slightly overcharged.

It is true that a superior quality charger, when coupled (at least occasionally) with a balancer, and good quality cells should keep a pack in better balance than a poor quality charger.

I do think, however, that far better chargers than either the LRP or the Orion are available. The Hyperion chargers, or the Bantam chargers are particularly good, and I think are better than the 'car' chargers. Let's not forget that planes/helicopters have been using Lipo far longer than cars, so plane/heli chargers are likely to be a little better too.