iCharger howto? I need to charge 12S...

[majornelson]

I'm new to RC Lipo. I've read the Wiki (it's really informative) and am cautiously venturing into Lipo land.

I have an iCharger 306B. I am (attempting) to charge two 6S 5 Ah Zippy Lipo batteries in series by using a wiring harness and a splitter for the balance leads. My charger keeps timing out when I balance charge. I must be doing something wrong here.

I don't mind balance charging each time if that is the safest route (I charge them in my garage, on the cement floor, in a Lipo fire bag from HK). I'm not overly paranoid but I like predictability...

If I charge them (6S Zippy) individually they pass with flying colors. I think my balance setting is a 2 Amp charging rate.

As always, any advice or thoughts are appreciated.

 

[majornelson]

I think I have this partially solved...

I read on an RC forum that you can charge up to 1C. Makes sense. So I should be charging one battery at 5 amps (I think). My confusion is when I have the 2 batteries in series and have a balance led that breaks out the one connection for the two. Do I charge at 5 amps or ten? Or do I have this totally confused... :?

 

[DAND214]

The 306 is a 6s charger.

You need to parrallel them and charge them.

If you connected the balance leads to them while in series, the y harness is burnt or a balance lead to a battery is..

Dan

 

[dogman dan]

I'm assuming you are charging them in a 6s arrangement, by paralleling them. Series couldn't be working, series the mains and parallel the balance plugs and you get Kentucky fried fingers.

Look in your charger menu, for adjustments for time out length, and other stuff. You will need to increase time to shutoff to charge a big parallel bundle of packs.

You should be also able to adjust amps for various charge types, such as balancing or non balancing charges. I found it best to do balance charges by individual packs, or just two packs paired. Then run non balancing charges most of the time, WITH manual checking for out of balance. In other words, if they are still balanced, why balance them? BUT no ignoring them and just assuming they are balanced. Check often enough to know how often you need to balance each pack. Pack one may need balancing every week, pack 6 ever month, etc. Part of why I found balancing easier doing it by smaller batches. Some packs literally never needed balancing for months.

As for the rate, if you have one pack and the charger is set to 5 amps, you are charging the pack at 5 amps. Two packs parallel, and each pack is charging at 2.5 amps, and so on.

 

[majornelson]

Thanks for all of the replies!

Luck is with me... I had ordered my wiring harness from iceman. His charging harness is configured so that all the batteries are in parallel for charging. Whew!

My issue was that I was trying to charge a 2 batteries in parallel at 2 amps. So basically 1 amp for each and the timeout was set to 120 minutes. Timeout would trigger every charge.

The batteries are Zippy 25C, 6S 5 AH so I think that I'm safe moving the charger up to at least 10 amps, maybe 20?