ISDT Q6 Plus Balance Charging Example & Explanation

THUMBS UP FOR VOODOO QUADS!!
The small size and high power of the ISDT Q6 makes it a good choice for field charging. It has to have a balance board to charge more than one battery at a time. It fits easily in my suitcase along with all my other tools and parts.
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You can get your own here:
ISDT Q6 Plus: www.banggood.com/ISDT-Q6-Plus...
ISDT Lipo Checker: www.banggood.com/ISDT-BC-8S-B...
Balance Board (used in the video): www.banggood.com/XT60-B6-UN-A...
SkyRC Q200 Charger: www.banggood.com/SkyRC-Q200-Q...
ISDT Balance Board: www.banggood.com/XT60-Plug-Pa...
12v 10A Power Supply: www.banggood.com/12V-250W-10A...
12v 15A Power Supply: www.banggood.com/12V-180W-15A...
12v 3A Power Supply XT60 (Not as powerful, but will work): amzn.to/2wpW7gu

[@JohanvanderWerff]

Looking through the comments I thought to add how I use my parallel board. 1. Battery check each battery and put them in order from low to high - not yet connected 2. Group them together if the cellV are within 0.2V 3. Connect the battery(s) that are the lowest first to the parallel board leave for 2-3 min 4. Set the charger at the correct C rating for the amount of batteries connected and start the charge 5. Monitor the charging batteries until they come within 0.2V of the next battery(s) in your group as per no.2 6. Add the additional battery(s) and leave 2-3min so they can sort each other out then adjust charger again with new C rating 7. Start the charge until you get to the next group of batteries within 0.2V per cell Now keep going until you have filled up your parallel board. Never mix cell count batteries - lots of white smoke if you charge at 1C you can mix lets say 1300mAh and 1500mAh - I've never had heating issues of puffiness but not a bigger difference in mAh. I have seen 1500 and 2200 been charged at the same time with no issues for months - but I love my batteries too much Never leave your charging process alone for more than 3min (pee break if needed only). Remember that if something goes wrong - 3min at 1C is probably the time your setup will take before you have a small flame thrower From what I've heard - if your parallel charge process does go wrong - all the batteries are normally wrecked (so I've heard) I have never in 6 years have had any issues with parallel charging because I charge where I sit and touch the batteries, charger, leads and parallel board about every 2-3min Once, I was charging a 6s 5000mAh battery on its own at 1C when all of a sudden the famous white smoke came out from my charger. Charger did not get to beep more than 3 times before I pulled the power cord from it. Although the problem was with the charger I lost the battery too. One cell started to puff within seconds Keep an eye on your goodies - it can go bad before 2 beeps Thx Travis for the vid

[@TweakRacer]

Your chart is whack. The charger is capped at 14A output. So you cannot charge 4S at 17.85A even if you wanted to. Also, like ZeroFPV said, you really need to learn about parallel charging before giving advice to the masses. You only need to match cell count and voltage, NOT capacity. Since they are all connected in parallel, the charger just sees one huge 4S lipo.

[@1989inception]

TweakRacer thanx man! You should have made the video!!!

[@HaveFaithInGod]

Same cell count and/or voltage would be the muti battery requirement rule, right? I mean if it's a 3 cell battery then it must be 11.1 volts. Correct?

[@ZeroFPV]

The capacity doesn't matter for parallel charging. You can mix them as you like. Cell count and an relatively even voltage between the batteries are all that count.

[@travisgrindal]

I guess that makes sense. The most important thing really is that the individual cells between batteries have voltages that are close. The balance charger couldn't tell anyway if there were a mixture of 2S, 3S, 4S, 5S, and 6S batteries.... I hadn't thought about that before. Good to know. I'll save that info for the next lipo charger video I make. Thanks! :)

[@ZeroFPV]

travisgrindal cell count counts but capacity don't. if you charge a 1300mAh 4s and a 1500mAh 4s it will just behave like one 2800mAh 4s for the charger. if you want to charge them in series you have to match capacity. A 1300mAh 3s and a 1300mAh 2s would react as one 1300mAh 5s in that case.

[@travisgrindal]

Okay, I get it now, the problem with mixing 2S, 3S, etc. is that the overall voltage would be different (voltage going into the XT60). Mixing different sizes would not be good though because a 1300mAh cell would charge way faster than a 2200mAh cell because of the smaller capacity, right?

[@marcinpacyna2917]

travisgrindal no you can mix a 1300mah and a 2200mah because parallel board connects them together as if they were a 3500mah battery. They will both reach full charge at the same time.

[@travisgrindal]

Cool. I'll keep this in mind. Thanks!

[@miguelquiroz1550]

Travis . Thank you so much for your videos. You are my first mentor of Fpv. GOD bless you brother!

[@LS8eighteen]

This helped me a lot selecting a field charger. Banggood has the charger, multi-battery board and battery checker on sale right now. Thanks!

[@travisgrindal]

I really like this charger. I don't usually balance charge except for at the flying field. I'm standing/sitting within a few feet of the charger so if anything were to go wrong, I can react quickly. At my house, I charge all my batteries individually... well unless I'm dying to run out an get to the flying field. In that scenario, I will balance charge at home too. :)

[@zaimfpv]

this video helped me thanks bloke

[@MrJob91]

Btw your videos are still legendary over on the H8 mini side of rcgroups XD

[@travisgrindal]

LOL! Nice!

[@michaelpetale6872]

Great info bro!👏👏🥇😀

[@jcnorth]

Also important to plug in all the xt60 before connecting the balance leads as any imbalance in the voltages might cause a rush of current through the balance leads and may damage them as they cannot carry a lot of current.

[@Heretic10001]

As long as you plug in each battery’s XT-60 before you plug in its balance lead, any current rush will go through the main leads. No need to do all the XT-60’s before plugging in any balance leads.

[@jamiegerrard2129]

Nice work

[@rafabalderas8948]

awesomevvideo. You've got a new sub!

[@rizkyp]

Looking at the title i didnt expect this to be about balance charging tbh. I have been balance charging almost from the beginning, the only time i wished for multiport chargers is to charge different number of cells at the same time other than that parallel charging has always been my way of charging.

[@travisgrindal]

At home, I always use my 4 bank charger. I think that is the safest way to charge. I'm keeping the ISDT 6Q in my suitcase for field charging.

[@DoggFart]

I parallel charged 4 1300mah 3s packs with this combo. I used the ISDT charger to individually check the cells for balance afterwards and they all look good. But when I checked them on my alt battery checkers the 1st cell of each battery is farther outside tolerance. Cell 1, 4.160V Cell 2, 4.197V Cell 3, 4.204V

[@m.sierra5258]

Then either your charger or your battery checker is wrong. Check with a third or fourth battery checker and bin the piece that is incorrect.

[@Spartan_Blades]

if i have 1500mah & 1550 can is charge? is there different between 50mah???? or must be exactly the same battery?

[@dee1251]

Can i charge and test the resistance of 12v or 24v ups batteries ?

[@LotharKrupka]

Uneven batteries will level themselves out as you connect them to the parallel charging board, even before you start the charging on the charger. Remember that all pins are from the xt60 are connected together, the same as the balance port pins (1st cell to first cell, 2nd cell to second cell, etc...)

[@lexxington98]

love the vids travis keep up the great educational content! - alex from canada

[@enricobononi8655]

1.3amp x 3 x 2 = 7.8 amp...am i wrong?

[@aarshmathur2909]

Can I power it with a 12V Deep Cycle Marine Battery ? I have a MPPT Solar charger setup I was wondering I can eliminate my inverter and connect a couple of these chargers in parallel directly to the battery.

[@travisgrindal]

Yes, a deep cycle battery should work fine.

[@amirmotalet361]

Hi man, I'm learning a lot from you, thanks for everything, I have a question you might find stupid but Its a real question for me , I would appreciate your help, I want to know in which way I'm spending more electricity when charging lipo batteries please? for example let say I want to charge (12) 4S 1500 mah batteries and I have a 200w 12A charger with 2 spot for charging ( like isdt D2 charger ) I can charge all 12 batteries at once by using parallel charging in just one hour,, also I can charge them one by one and each take one hour in parallel charging the fans of charger blow all the time , but if I charge them one by one the fan just work few minute once in a while, I like to know in which way I'm using more electricity ? thanks a lot

[@TsDomain]

What's a good battery to charge from? (As opposed to the wall outlet) that's great for portability.. *will be parallel charging same 4s 1300mah's

[@travisgrindal]

I charge from a 6S 15,000mAh battery.

[@shawnzfpv]

I know 300W = 17.8A, but it says it's a 14A Charger. Is 14A on the input or is that an output cap? Even if it is an output cap, 14A is pretty awesome!

[@michaeldyer6079]

My charger says output over current protection. What do I need to do?

[@Wad3c]

Im using the isdt q6 plus charger aswell. What would a safe amp setting be for two 2200mah 4s batteries? 4.4amp?

[@travisgrindal]

Commycruza assuming the batteries are within 0.1 volts of each other, you can charge them at 2.2amps x 2 = 4.4 amps safely. If I was outside at a park, I'd personally push them a little harder... Maybe 5 or 6 amps. They'd most likely be fine.

[@Maorifpv]

It always do a balance charge ?

[@realsoftgames7174]

as you mention all the batteries require similar voltage roughly 0.1v apart. obviously this is not possible by manual usage, so how would we get them all to the same voltage, could we plug them all in and do a discharge, then start a balance charge?

[@travisgrindal]

You can discharge them or charge a single one to bring it up. At the flying field during a race, I don't pay attention to how discharged each one is... that is probably not good, but that is what I do. I fly the batteries, the charge them with the balance board. I'm usually pulling at least one back off before the charge process is complete. The bigger deal is to make sure the batteries aren't getting warm during the charging process. If one battery is significantly lower than the others, the charger will push more amps to the batteries would could possibly stress the more charged ones, but I haven't had any problems balance charging yet.

[@xboxice2005]

Look like this will be my next charger,buying it today :) i have a 50w with balance board but it struggle to charger my 4500 4s packs,charger don't have enough whatts :(

[@lucasmatas1361]

3.9A x 2C = 7.8A , NOT 7.2A

[@NodariSP]

Love the intro.

[@travisgrindal]

Thanks! My wife just laughs at me sometimes. :)

[@RelentlessLegacy2020]

You said you can charge 7s with it?

[@ConditionZero76]

old vid but I have a quick question if you wouldn't mind. so I have a 3s 6600MAH that says I can charge at 2c, so wouldn't 1 C be 6.6 amps & I would be safe to double that & charge at 13.2 amps?... although my charger ISDT AIR8 only goes up to 10 amps so would I simply set it at the 10 the highest rating? Thanks for your help.

[@travisgrindal]

Yes, that should be fine since.

[@ConditionZero76]

@@travisgrindal since??

[@danlatu209]

multistar 4s 20000mah lipo is an awesome battery for your power supply with the Q6

[@travisgrindal]

Sweet. I'm also looking at taking some of my old 2200 4S batteries and connecting them in parallel to charge from. They still hold a good capacity, it is just that their discharge rate is terrible. When I use them on my quads, the voltage drops like a rock. I'm hoping that they can handle the lower discharge rate of charging my other batteries.

[@uchews5182]

my q6 will only discharge at .4 amps no matter what setting you put in here. It started this on only the second time I used it. Know how to fix this?

[@Wind1000100]

This is the intended function of the charger, as it can only discharge at eight watts - so basically, on a 4-cell battery, the maximum discharge rate is 0.4 amps.

[@ueigerchaves5726]

Can i use 2s 6000mah 75c lipo battery to power the isdt?

[@TheTomy03ful]

Yes. Because the minimum input voltage is 7V, so the 2s is usable.

[@ChristopherF_1971]

Hello. I’m new to the battery charging school so my question is I want to charge a 10,000mah 3s whAt amp should I charge it. 1C 1.0a or 2C 10.0a?

[@travisgrindal]

1C would be 10 Ah. This should charge the battery completely in about 1 hour. If you charge it at 2C (20 Ah), it should charge in 30 minutes, however, there aren't may consumer, reasonably-priced chargers that can charge 20 Ah. Charging lipo batteries at 1C is almost always the safest way to charge as long as that does not exceed the manufacturer stated charge rate for the battery. Most will charge at 2C just fine, but 1C is almost always the right way to charge. My charger won't go over 6 Ah, so for my 10,000 Ah battery, I usually set it to charge at 6Ah but it times out. Then I restart it and it finishes fine. If you are unsure, start charging the battery and check the temperature every minute or so. If it gets warm to the touch, you're probably pushing it too hard. It should stay the same temperature during the whole time charging.

[@jyunte]

@@travisgrindal Your iSDT Q6 Plus charger *will* charge at greater than 6A... But you have to supply it with 24V on the input. If you're using only 12V on the input, you're limiting the charger to about 7A on the charging (output side). Joshua Bardwell explained this in one of his vlogs, "Why you MUST Use a 24v Supply For Your LiPo Charger".

[@tigertom53]

great

[@VictorBelda]

It's safe for the batteries to charge them in paralell?

[@travisgrindal]

It is safe if you charge them correctly. At home, I always balance charge batteries independently on my 4 bank charger. I think that is the safest way to charge.

[@scottfirman]

Could I add a cigarette adapter in my car and charge the battery from my car battery? I would only charge two or three battery at a time,except my single cell batterys. I need a charger or cord to go with that charger to do that. Could you even charge single cell battery with that charger? None have balance plugs. If I have several different brands but all rated the same is that ok. How do so balance a cell to get it up even with the other cells. Can I throw a non balanced battery on this and still get them all charged in An hour? Say I have three ,three cell batterys one has a cell that is over charged or actually not balanced even with the others,but not under charged. Would that one battery affect the other two battery being charged. Speaking of heat, would it be better to charge in the shade,or does it make a difference? Thank you for making this video,it kind of helped. I see you had unbalanced battery like I was asking about. My concerned is overcharging a cell,or cooking a battery if one battery is too low.

[@travisgrindal]

You'd be better off using alligator clips and connecting directly to your battery. Without doing some testing, there's no way to know if the internal wiring to your cigarette adapter has strong enough wiring. It should charge 1S batteries just fine. If you have batteries with out of balance cells, you need to charge them by themselves to try to get them to balance back out before you start charging them with other batteries. If one cell is consistently lower than the others, it may be time for a new battery. I don't worry about shade or not shade for charging.

[@quistador7]

isdt plus has a 7 pin balance port. my lipo has 5 pin balance port. how do i plug it in

[@travisgrindal]

The ground wire goes on the first pin. The last pins are used for 6S batteries.

[@quistador7]

Thanks. the beginning of this video made me lol. then i continued to laugh through it. very informative. your a funny guy though thanks

[@whollymindless]

The Q200 is awesome except for the port order.

[@travisgrindal]

I've though that was kind of goofy too. I wish they were in order from left to right.

[@jyunte]

You keep calling this "balance charging", but it's "parallel charging". The individual cells are being balanced charged, that's true, but what makes this process special, is that you are charging multiple battery packs in parallel.

[@LotharKrupka]

Hi Travis, please add a WARNING to the beginning of the video. Parallel charging can be very dangerous for new people coming into the hobby, without too many electronics knowledge, and who are only looking to shorten the charging time of their batteries....

[@MrJob91]

actually its very dangerous to add a charged battery to a balanced board with empty batteries attached. ITs because there is about a 1 or 2 volt difference in voltage so Amps wil run through the balanceplugs and fry your board.

[@travisgrindal]

That would not be good.

[@Sergeant898]

@huhhman NO! That's how you destroy your batteries and potentially burn your house down.

[@m.sierra5258]

@huhhman there is zero resistance between the batteries, meaning, a LOT of current would immediately flow from the charged to the discharged battery. Results in white/black smoke with potential combustion.

[@xboxice2005]

So just mine and fire it up and charge x2 4s 1500 packs and I'm pleased 🙂

[@travisgrindal]

I really like this charger.

[@ScottieTsunami]

why did he pretend that we surprised him??

[@ICEMAN_GLX]

just bring a generator and your charger that you currently have LOL then you could be constantly charging batteries on the go

[@ICEMAN_GLX]

okay you just put my comment to shame LOL

[@travisgrindal]

heh... I've been taking that Q200, but it is so big and takes up so much room in my suitcase.

[@ICEMAN_GLX]

travisgrindal any footage from the qualification

[@travisgrindal]

Here's a video from the guy that won. He was insane fast. He was the only pilot the whole day who was able to pull of 6 laps. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mn-cdqSvgr57fqc

[@ICEMAN_GLX]

travisgrindal dang he might be able to keep up with flying bear now I'm scared to go qualify LOL