Not flying for a week - leave lipo discharged, storage or fully charged?

[alistair.howie]

A basic lipo question ...

I've just been flying and have discharged my flight packs. I won't be flying until next weekend. From a battery welfare point of view, is it best to leave the packs discharged (about 70-80%), do a storage charge and then top off just before flying, or can I just fully charge them now and leave them for a week with impunity?

Many thanks.

[Planehazza]

Just leave it charged, a week won't matter either way tbh. If it's going to be for a month or so +, then store them at half charge

[stunks]

[alistair.howie]

Thanks, guys. I presume I can also just leave discharged (their present state)? Same difference, right?

[stunks]

yea u can leave them how they are if u want

[del19_82]

I leave mine charged for a maximum of 2 weeks and then i just run them in my 450 or edf jet for a minute to take some charge out of them if they are gonna sit for any longer than that!

[PeteStewardson]

You wont do any harm leaving them for a week or so charged. I do it all the time.

[gazza131]

I always leave mine fully charged, but then i run my heli's up once aweek.
so leaving them charged up for a week or so should be fine

[muscleflex]

what charger do you have that allows you to discharge lipos?

[cjcj1949]

It's a cumulative effect. The higher the temperature and the higher the voltage the more the pack degrades. The lower the storage temperature down to fridge level the better and the lower the volts. The only limit on how low to keep them is that the volts will drop on discharge and if it drops too far (below 3V) then the pack can be damaged. It depends how long you want your packs to last and if you keep them in a hot car. I keep mine between 3.8 and 3.9V when not in use. Mine last a lot longer now. Record is 18 months. If you leave them for a week it could turn into a month. You can keep one fully charged for immediate emergency use and put the others on charge before you start flying. It is a matter of opinion though as it takes a while to get results.

Chris

[alistair.howie]

iCharger 306B - brilliant piece of kit. I'm a complete newbie and still coming to terms with all the functionality, but I really like the fact I get the internal battery temperature as the lipo charges. Probably a standard feature these days on chargers, I don't know, but I like it! Very reassuring to see the internal termperature holding pretty constant around 30-35 degrees while charging my 6s 5Ah lipos.

[p4ddy]

I've left my packs for several months without any issues

[cjcj1949]

You can use an ImaxB5 to discharge (balanced) lipos into a car battery. I discharge mine at 3amps using the Pb (Lead acid program). It works for 3S batteries as you can use them to power the charger. The discharge can't go below 3.67 volts a cell as the input min is 11.0V. I limit the discharge using capacity and or time. 900mah gets me to storage level on a 2300mah 3S.20mins is about right for time. I'd experiment using 300mah and 7mins to see how you go. A flat battery takes less energy to charge than a nearly full one. This is not a balanced discharge, but if you can't get 900mah at 3 amps out of a 2300mah (25C) lipo then you don't need to worry about the battery as it's dead.

Chris

[muscleflex]

thanks. i will check that charger out. i am still on a the original TRITON charger... probably from 2005/2006!

edit: YIKES! £140 from midlands??? haha. way out of my price range!

[cjcj1949]

This is the one. Available for around £30. Most chargers will do the same. They just need a capacity or time limit.

http://www.astecmodels.co.uk/pdfs/Imax-B5%20manual.pdf


http://www.google.co.uk/products/cat...ed=0CD0Q8wIwAg


Chris