LiPo Ballance Charge Lead.

[HopIt]

I'm not sure if there's much call for LiPo batteries for your average Savage user (definatetly no disrespect), but I thought this might be of interest to some. I've be thinking of going LiPo for a while now, so I decided to take the plunge and ordered the pack that Losi makes for the M11 radio. Just a small step I know, but I can look into RX packs and such once I'm happy with this.Then after placing the order I started looking into a charger for it. My carger is LiPo compatible, but it is not a ballance charger. Apparentley ballancing the individual cells is important, so after lots of searching and wondering how the heck I was going to afford a decent ballance charger, I found this. Basically it's just a clever bit of circuit board that plugs into your LiPo compatable charger and turns it into a ballance charger. It comes without an input plug, so you can fit one to suit your charger, and different leads to cover 2,3 & 4 cells.The real beauty of it is the small cost compared to a proper ballance charger. I can't say if it works or not yet, because I'm still waiting for the pack to arrive, but I'll post an update soon.
I'm also interested to know if anyone has seen or used anything like this before ? Let me know your views.

 

[BIGDAN89]

well you have to worry about the ballnace connector on the battery as there is no standard for for it. i dunno about that thing i would just get a new charger to be on the safe side also it would be as a pre caution get a LiPo sack or battery bunker and do you have a link to the battery

 

[HopIt]

Hmm ...... I never thought of that ! That's the trouble with this industry, everyone making their own standards ! Hopefully the plug on THIS battery will be compatable, but I'm sure adapter leads will be available. I did look at the charge sacks, but I got put off by the price of them. I guess I'll do a bit more research first.

 

[BIGDAN89]

you know losi makes a LiPo charger andbalancer should check that out

 

[Larsenracing]

You don't have to worrie about balancing so much on the smaller lipos where balancing is huge is when you get the big 5000mAH and more than 3 cells. Now I'm not saying that its not a good thing to do. I run a secondary balancer on my batterys everyonce in a while. I also run Lipos on everything other than the hump in my basher truck. I love the LiPo in my Racer which is made by Losi and is for an RX pack which has a low voltage shut down and a peak voltage regulator built in. It is a good thing to ballance the small batterys everyonce in a while but I have yet to see one of mine that are vary different. Maybe my Hobbieco Accu-Cycle Elite does a wonderful job I guess.

 

[ShiftPoint]

I use one of those, it isn't the same brand but it looks very much like it. it works great, in fact it out lasted my charger I had that had balancing in it.

Jason is right about the smaller packs, the small ones like 720mah and under don't even come with the balancing lead out of it.

check out united hobbies (the name might of changed but if you goole united you will find them, they have small adapter cables to mate just about any of the balancing connectors to other ones.

Jason, do you have a link to that part you use in the rx box? does it regulate the voltage? I have been wondering if a 7.4 volt one would be too much for my rx (and servos). I have seen om servos that will take 7.4 volts now.

 

[Larsenracing]

Here is a link to the one I use in my Racer Savage. http://www.losi.com/Products/Features.aspx?ProdId=LOSB9820

By the looks of it it doesnt have a voltage regulator built in to it and I don't run one but If I'm right the recievers will only allow 6V threw it.

 

[HopIt]

By the looks of it it doesnt have a voltage regulator built in to it and I don't run one but If I'm right the recievers will only allow 6V threw it.

I've never heard of one having a built in reg, I've only seen the separate ones. That's interesting about the RX only letting out 6V though, I have a Spektrum, so maybe I'll contact them about it.

 

[Larsenracing]

Ya I would check on that as I'm not 100% sure thats the case but a reliable Hobby shop had mentioned that or thats how I understood it one time.

 

[HopIt]

I've been doing a bit more research on the LiPo thing, and after I watched a few vids on youtube of the effects of overcharging them, I bought a charging bag right away. I can't imagine what would happen if one exploded when it was fitted in the RX box on my truck !.......... actualy, I can ......... not pretty ! The only safe way is to remove the battery from the truck to charge it, which for me is going to be too much of a pain. I guess I'll be content with a NmHi hump pack for the foreseeable future, or until I'm very confident with LiPo handling.

 

[HopIt]

This is the latest on the use of a 7.4V LiPo with a Spektrum RX. I asked them (GH) if I could run my pro RX with a LiPo, but without a voltage regulator, and they said it was ok. Unfortunately they didn't give any more details than that, so I'm not sure if it would work for other makes/types of RX.

 

[HopIt]

I did sent them a reply just to confirm it was correct, but then I got another email saying I should use a regulator. I guess I'll have to call them direct to clear things up.