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M.E. Super Ninja
Posts: 1545
  
Location: Gods own Country | I wonder if anyone could help, I have an encapsulated battery pack ( 3 parallel Li ion ) I have an Imax B6 charger, but I am unsure about the best settings to charge the battery pack, the battery's are presumed to be ex-laptop ones. So my questions are: What charge current should I select, I can input up to 5 amps Should I set an end capacity, not sure of the actual cell but something typical.. What time limit to set for charging, if any. I am thinking the Auto feature only selects the pack voltage? How will I know when the pack is at it's full capacity....... That's all I can think of for the moment, hope someone can help, with experience of the Imax B6. If I missed have something please feel free to chip in! |
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Rookie
Posts: 57
Location: Newcastle | 5 amps is fine, just make sure its set to the 3.7v mode. auto works fine, use that. |
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M.E. Super Ninja
Posts: 1545
Location: Gods own Country | Thanks for the quick reply Briggsy!
Will the charger terminate the charging automatically at the "full point" in Auto mode?
Or is this set with max charge capacity and time, as you will notice, not messed with li ion's before! |
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Rookie
Posts: 57
Location: Newcastle | YEs it auto senses the drop in Amps and lowers it until it reaches mAh cappacity. |
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Rookie
Posts: 57
Location: Newcastle | dont charge unattended.
it owtn auto know the capacity of the battery or the battery pack. but it will know when its full. as it cant force any more "Juice" inside.
Edited by Briggsy 9/7/2012 22:45
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Rookie
Posts: 57
Location: Newcastle | Forgot to mention, Most B6 chargers stop after 2 hour time limit, if this happens and charge is not compleat jsut start the cycle again. to continue. |
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M.E. Super Ninja
Posts: 1545
Location: Gods own Country | Thanks, charging at 1.2 A,( current dropping ) 4.1 volts at the moment.
From what you said it will terminate the charge when full.
Thanks
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M.E. Professional
Posts: 455
Location: Bury - In The Laboratory | A ex laptop 3 cell battery pack, might be a 6-7Ahr capacity in total. You can charge it a 5A but, that is excessive and will reduce a already reduced life of the pack. The charger you have is designed mainly for hobby battery packs with have high capacities hence high charge currents - does not mean you should use them.
A more conservative charge current would be in the 1A range, will take longer, but things will be cooler and your pack will have a longer life time.
With your pack reaching almost full charge at 4.1V, it should not have 1.2A going into it at that point. As again is forcing things. |
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M.E. Professional
Posts: 499
Location: Stuck in the Chicken | I use a B6 Clone (it's within .01v of an original when compared on a decent Multimeter).
I also use ex-Laptop batteries. I usually stick with a 3s pack, paralleling either 1, 2 or 3 of these packs, depending on the Runtime I want. All cells are balanced before making up the packs. This also depends on your driver's input range, configuration and LED configuration.
I charge at 1A, maybe 1.5A on decent (Panasonic, Sanyo) cells.
Make sure to set it to Li-Ion, rather than Li-Po, or it may overcharge the cells, and Lithium anything cells are nasty when they go up. As stated, never leave them unattended, there are plenty of stories on Lamp and RC forums about the consequences of this.
EDIT:-
Most Cells out of Laptop packs I come across are 2-2.5AH.
Edited by NewStuff 10/7/2012 20:15
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M.E. Super Ninja
Posts: 1545
Location: Gods own Country | Thanks for the helpful advice, I have throttled back to 1.0 A for the charging.
As the cells are likely not to have been used for some time would charging and discharging a few times help them? |
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M.E. Professional
Posts: 455
Location: Bury - In The Laboratory | Not for Li-Ion as far as I know, for NiCD and NiMH yes. |
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M.E. Super Ninja
Posts: 2313
| KH.... - 10/7/2012 20:29
Thanks for the helpful advice, I have throttled back to 1.0 A for the charging.
As the cells are likely not to have been used for some time would charging and discharging a few times help them?
My opinion is that the life of LiIon cells is measurable in charge/discharge cycles rather than age/time, so the answer is "No" |
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M.E. Professional
Posts: 499
Location: Stuck in the Chicken | KH.... - 10/7/2012 20:29
As the cells are likely not to have been used for some time would charging and discharging a few times help them?
As said, Li-Ion's have their life measured by the amount of Cycles they have been through. They tend to keep their levels well, and if you don't plan on using them for a while, store them at about 60% of capacity. The Self-discharge at this level is very small.
Do *not* discharge them fully.
3.0v is a sensible minimum for a 18650 cell, and 2.5v is the absolute minimum. Below this they cannot "reverse" the chemical reaction to recharge again. If you have protected cells, this is unlikely to happen, but most ex-laptop cells are protected by the Electronics present in the battery assembly itself. Should they have been removed to make a pack in a different configuration, they will not be protected. Some drivers can warn about low-voltage, and cut off at a certain point (TaskLED ones do), but most Chinese ones will not. I have rescued cells from 2.6v or thereabouts, but failed dismally at 2.3v, and had to dispose of the cells. |
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M.E. Super Ninja
Posts: 1545
Location: Gods own Country | Newstuff, strange you should mention minimum voltage as that was my next question!
Thanks |
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M.E. Super Ninja
Posts: 2176
Location: I'm hiding..! | Briggsy - 9/7/2012 22:47 Forgot to mention, Most B6 chargers stop after 2 hour time limit, if this happens and charge is not compleat jsut start the cycle again. to continue. Briggsy, you can switch off the 2 hour max setting. |
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Imax B6, Li-ion Battery Charging, Help!
