Parellel (LIPO) Charging. Why would you? How to do it Safely?

Parellel Charging.. Usefull? And how to do it Safely?
Important addition: it's important to have the lipo's be at the same Base Voltage when starting the charge-cycle! (thanks Rob)
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[@DutchRC]

Parellel Charging.. Usefull? And how to do it Safely? Link to the ISDT PC-4860: goo.gl/MToFUq

[@raybro56]

Good info! Glad I watched. I just got the D2 with the parallel board the other day. Very nice quality. Thanks again!

[@DutchRC]

Thank you very much Ray! Ah yes.. That D2 I might want to check out as well :) Cheers man!

[@spacecowboy1056]

Excellent man! Very informative. Thank you for sharing!

[@DutchRC]

Thanks brother! Glad it was informative to you :)

[@4thGloryMonday]

As always great job Mr Dutch thumbs up man

[@DutchRC]

Thank you very much brother :)

[@satorrotas]

Very good info , nice material , great video !!

[@DutchRC]

Thank you very much buddy! Glad you liked the video :)

[@scottfirman]

Always charge using a Lipo bag or set up a charging station using fire proof materials. I keep a bucket of sand handy to smother a fire. A Lipo fire cannot be put out with water or a chemical extinguisher. An aluminum pan from the dollar store works great. You can put a Lipo charging bag over the top if you need to. Always charge at 1 amp to start,never push a battery to charge it in series. NEVER parallel charge a puffed or unbalanced battery, never,never,never!

[@aarem01]

Duidelijk zo!

[@DutchRC]

Dank u :)

[@user-ox4qj7ue9x]

if is poossible to use without the t6 lite what is the maximum voltage is possible to give in the input of the pararallel charger'

[@nickgreenemail]

Thanks for this. What are the voltage figures therefore showing with 4 lipos plugged in? The average per order of cell? I ask because it would be especially useful for quickly checking voltage for each lipo is the same (or close) before charging

[@DutchRC]

Howdy Nick :) you guess right.. when 2 lipo's are hoocked up to a board like this, the charger will indeed end up showing the Avarage cell voltages.. DO be a bit carefull in experimenting with this ofcourse :)

[@rusack7174]

You're more cautious than I am but that can't hurt. If I have a dodgy pack I will not parallel charge it with others. But all healthy packs of the same cell count I will parallel charge. Doesn't seem to matter whether they are the same brand, or have different capacities or discharge ratings. In my experience it's all good. I have a question for you, do you pay attention to internal cell resistance? Do you log that when a pack's new and then keep an eye on it? I do from time to time and pull a battery out of rotation when a cell shows it's going off compared to others. What do you think? Thanks again.

[@DutchRC]

I do indeed check all new packs to see their internal resistance.. If that turns out of the norm, I want my $$ back (that is Very easy at HK by the way).. And yep.. in this video I showed a best practice as people that don't know what the h*ll they are doing are allso going to watch it :)

[@user-cy6rp7wn7r]

hello. i have quenstion to you. about saving bettery. if two bettery charging of 3s 75c 1800Am. one of bettery charging 50%. another bettery charging 100% so than, when does 100% bettery charging stop it? just continous overcharging?

[@DutchRC]

Hi there :) that would indeed Not be a good scenario.. You want to start the charging with all batteries more less at the same level.. If there is a big difference such as in your example you would indeed be overcharging one of the lipo's..

[@rusack7174]

Thanks Dutch on the informative video, as always! I have taken parallel charging to something of an extreme myself. I start with a 30A power supply at 15V output. From there I have several output leads available, one of them going into a power distribution board which in turn has two iSDT SC-608 chargers drawing from it and which have at least 1-6 port parallel board attached.. Powered directly from the power supply is a 20A charger which has 4 6-port parallel boards connected in parallel. This all allows me the ability to at once charge a number of packs of 2S, 3S and 4S all at the same time. I can have 30+ battery packs balance charged within a couple of hours, sometimes less. One thing to keep in mind is to only parallel charge packs of roughly equal discharge. I simply add up all their capacities and charge at that value and so each battery pack charges at 1C. Been doing this for several years, always stay close by just in case and allows me to hit the flying field quickly with many charged packs of various voltages. Just take your time connecting all the cables as there is considerable amperage in those lines!

[@DutchRC]

That IS pretty extreme ;) I have 1 question though: how can you get away with that on a 30A power supply?

[@rusack7174]

In my testing of it all, each charger draws somewhat less current from the supply than their charge output. It's close and it does push my supply to its rated output. I've also see where my supply can deliver about 34A, at least short term. I also use the supply when running motors up on the bench. For discharge I use four 12-volt incandescent bulbs in parallel. Each can be brought into the circuit as wanted. Each bulb presents a 4A load. In this manner I can have ~ a 16A load which I hook up to my parallel boards. I also attach one of the voltage tester/alarms to the balance cable off the board(s) to alarm me when the packs get down to 3.8V on any grouped cells. The packs usually come up a little from there after resting a bit and that's where I store them until I next charge them.

[@matthewbrothers2823]

Just thought I'd ask what if you do say a 3s 1500 and a 3s 1800, would this system know this and balance them out until the 1800 is completely charged or will the 1800 be less charged. I've heard of people doing this and they say it's ok. Just wondering your take.

[@DutchRC]

Well.. here is the thing: in this video I showed people the SAFE way, cause if you don't know what you're doing with Lipo's you can be in a world of hurt :) SO: if you know everything to know about lipo's, and you think that can be done safely.. go! Until you don't: keep it safe & run lipo's with the same capacity only..

[@xtremefps_]

I just did an emergency parallel charge in an 18650 lithium using aluminum foil. I know it's not safe but I just needed the voltage back in the battery so I didn't do it long. Parallel charging definitely brings back to life dead batteries.

[@DutchRC]

wait what?? With alu foil you say?? please explain! :)

[@ukmitch86]

@@DutchRC sounds like the guy made a primitive fuse!!! That's the sort of s"#! you would do outdoors...

[@DutchRC]

@@ukmitch86 a Fuse or a Resister? :) Spark eleminator? Damn... so manny uses to this :)

[@scottfirman]

I need something for all my single cell batterys.Any recommendations? I have lots of those single cell Lipo but hate charging them one at a time.

[@DutchRC]

There are indeed parallel charging boards for 1S lipo's as well.. This one for instance: www.banggood.com/1-to-6-1S-Lipo-Battery-Parallel-Charger-Board-XT60-Input-with-Dual-BEC-for-Eachine-E010-Tiny-Whoop-p-1179003.html

[@tacticalbelyash]

If I usually charge my lipos with 1.3A, Can I set my charger to 5.2A to charge 4?

[@DutchRC]

Correct :)

[@rzijl68]

You can absolutely mix different capaceties, as long as the cell count is the same, and the total voltage doesn't differ more dan ~ 10%.

[@DutchRC]

if you know that you didn't need this video ;) my point is: for people that Don't it's best to keep things as simple as possible so it's at least safe

[@7in1]

Can I connect 4psc 1S4P to this board?

[@DutchRC]

yes that would be no problem at all. what do you use those lipo's for by the way?

[@arthurvanaalst]

Werkt de iSDT FD 200 smart discharcher ook samen met de iSDT PC 4860 parallel board? Graag enige uitleg i.d.m,

[@DutchRC]

Dat KAN inderdaad op die manier wel ja.. maar ik zou het persoonlijk niet snel doen.. Het gebruik van zo'n parallel-board geeft al wat extra risico (valt wel mee als je weet wat je doet / oplet).. Maar dan ook nog dischargen... Ik zou er niet aan beginnen...

[@arthurvanaalst]

@@DutchRC Bedankt voor uw advies.

[@mathieusan]

Can you charge a 2S using only the balancing port?

[@DutchRC]

Only if your chager supports that kind of charging Mat.. Some chargers have a "port charge" option... But most chargers seem to lack that option these days...

[@ghostrot]

At how many c do you charge parallel ?

[@DutchRC]

Hardly ever more then 1C.. Every now and then 2C when I'm in a hurry.

[@dylanwatkins4249]

Where do you get your lipos from?

[@DutchRC]

Several places really.. Those Hyperion lipo's I order from: www.lindinger.at/en/batteries/lipo-battery-packs/

[@scottfirman]

As long as both battery are rated the same, and are equally balanced,brand shouldn't matter.

[@DutchRC]

It definately Does matter what age (internal resistance) the lipo's aer Scott.. At some point the older lipo's voltage will be lower (so they won't be in balance with eachother anymore)

[@rzijl68]

Not needed. You can mix up different brands, capaceties as long as the cell count is the same, and as long as the total pack voltage doesn't differ too much (10 % difference is no problem)