adding lipos for more capacity

[rmasu]

Hi,
Thank you first for all the great advice.
My current battery setup is 4 6s1p 5000mah wired in series then parallel.
10amps 48v
Can I add 2 more lipo packs in parallel if the voltage is the same BUT the mah is lower? IE 3000mah for each new pack.
I have some room in my battery box and would like a little more range.
Thanks

 

[teslanv]

To clarify:

It sounds like you have a 12S 10Ah bank of batteries, and you want to parallel another 12S 3Ah bank into that for a total of 12S 13 Ah.

That would work fine assuming similar battery chemistries.

For the record, a 12S LiPo would have a nominal voltage of 44.4V (12 x 3.7). Fully charged would be 12 x 4.2 or 50.4V

 

[dogman dan]

As long as you are making parallel connections of the same voltage batteries, they can be any size.

I'd prefer to parallel first, taking all your 6s packs and dividing into two groups. So adding batteries you'd have 6s + 6s+ 6s all paralelled for a total of 13 ah 6s. Make two identical packs like that. Once paralleled, you have a 13ah pack. It's now just one 13ah battery and it makes no difference how you got to 13 ah. You could even have different c rates in each bunch of paralleled packs, but better if all the same.

Then make the series connection.

This works best for me, because my chargers won't do 12s.

 

[mark5]

The Ah are the same between the two packs placed in series so that's good. Overall it's three 12S batteries placed in parallel so it's ok.

 

[rmasu]

Thanks guys,
Luckily my charger does 12s so I'll just keep the original 4 together and add another 12s in parallel.
Thanks again and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[dogman dan]

Figured you had a 12s charger. If you do, it's less connectors and wire to series first in some cases.