Lipo charging newbie

[deano261]

i was wondering how long a fast charge should take and a slow charge. I have a turnigy 5200 7.2v 2s lipo with a turnigy accucel 6 charger

[coolcars782]

5.2amp

[deano261]

but how long i am used to my old nicad which had a trusty countdown timer

[Chris56]

Hi Deano,
For LIPO charging you don't use a timer, you let the charger do it for you. When charging NICADS you might charge at a constant current (say 5A) until the battery is fully charged (and a 5000mAH battery will take 1 hr at this current, a 2500 mAH will take 30 mins).
With LIPOs you need to use a LIPO charger (or a charger with a LIPO setting). You are best charging at 1C. This means that a 5200 mAH LIPO will be charged at 5.2A (a 4200 at 4.2A etc), which in theory takes 1 hour. However, when the LIPO reaches capacity the charger gradually reduces the current in order to protect the LIPO. You can always tell when the battery is nearly charged as the carge current displayed on the charger starts to drop exponentially.

Hope this helps

[JCJC]

Charging at 5amps (approx the recomended 1C) then to put 5200 into the battery should take approx an hour, but you will never charge from flat, so always less than an hour at 5amps depending how much is in the battery when you start.

On a 'slow' charge - say 1amp a lot longer, but why bother ?

Balance charge seems to take longer

Something to play with http://www.csgnetwork.com/batterychgcalc.html

[teamorsum96]

you will find that you have a timer cut off, i took mine up to 200minutes