How to balance charge more than one 3s battery?

[Bhujang]

So I have several 3s batteries all at different mah, from 450 to 1000.

is it possible to balance charge 5 or 6 of these batteries at the same time? If so what's the best way to do it?

I only have an iMax B6 charger at the moment and I'm balance charging a single 3 s battery at a time. This works great and the batteries are fine and the cells equal and they are lasting. But it takes ages to charge 6 batteries and so is limiting my flights per day. If I could charge 6 the same time as I charge 1 now that would be great.

Cheers for any advice

Bhu

[waveydavey]

As long as same voltage IE 3S then yes, just add mah together and charge at that rate, so for your 450 and 1000 set charger to 1.45A for 1C

[Grumpy]

Yeah, as above. Usually these days the batteries can be charged at higher than 1C which saves a lot of time. If the battery doesnt say what it's maximum charge rate is i take the discharge C rate and divide by 15... So a 30C battery would charge at maximum 2C by my rule of thumb.

With the B6 it's a moot point because you will run out of charge power before you max out the charge rate. The charger is limited to 50W so that's only 4A when charging a 3S battery

[kenny d]

I've been doing it for years & never noticed any problems , technically I didn't know if it was a accepted way to charge SO I'm glad to hear it's ok lol

[Bhujang]

Thanks for the replies.

What's the best cable for the balance leads? Can anyone recommend an affordable charger with higher watt capacity?

[Mike Sanders]

You will undoubtedly receive other recommendations but I use an i charger 3010b. You may not need one as expensive as that because it will charge up to 10 cells. I usually use it to charge 2 6s packs in parallel.

[Grumpy]

The Turnigy Reaktor 300W is a great charger for not a lot of money. You would need a suitable DC power supply of 350W or more to use it's full power.

[Bhujang]

The Turnigy Reaktor 300W is a great charger for not a lot of money. You would need a suitable DC power supply of 350W or more to use it's full power.

Thanks for that. It oooks pretty good. They make the 350w psu as well

[muscleflex]

As long as same voltage IE 3S then yes, just add mah together and charge at that rate, so for your 450 and 1000 set charger to 1.45A for 1C

Oh is that right? I thought they have to be the same MAH as well?
That's good to know. I did panic last week when I was charging my Trex 450L 6s lipos and one was 1400 and the other was 1450 and I totally forgot until it finished but when I checked, they all balanced charged to 4.20

[Grumpy]

Yeah, mAh capacity doesn't matter at all. Even extreme differences are ok, you could connect a 500mAh with a 5000mAh and all would be fine providing they were the same cell count and close to same charge state.