Charging Amps? Please Help

[noobdude]

I just got a 25C 3200mah lipo and an imaxb6 charger. I can tell it how many amps to charge at. It just says "a" Im assuming amps. Whats a good number of amps to charge at? I dont want to blow anything up. Kinda scared of this whole lipo thing to be honest. Please help.

[Rockcrawler]

Just charge at 1c. For a 3200mah battery, it would be 3.2 amps.

[noobdude]

ok. if i have this correctly. The amount of amps controlls how fast the batteries charged. also my 7.4volt battery actually had 7.8volts in it when i got it. Should I charge to 7.8 volts? or stop at 7.4. this lipo stuff is confusing

[Rockcrawler]

Originally Posted by noobdude

ok. if i have this correctly. The amount of amps controlls how fast the batteries charged. also my 7.4volt battery actually had 7.8volts in it when i got it. Should I charge to 7.8 volts? or stop at 7.4. this lipo stuff is confusing

If its a lipo charger, it should know when to stop.

My 3s lipo peaks at 12.62.

[Lorents]

Originally Posted by noobdude

ok. if i have this correctly. The amount of amps controlls how fast the batteries charged. also my 7.4volt battery actually had 7.8volts in it when i got it. Should I charge to 7.8 volts? or stop at 7.4. this lipo stuff is confusing

Dont know the charger you have, but usually chargers either let you select the no of S'es your pack have (how many cells in series) or the average voltage for the pack. Your pack would be a 2S pack with an average voltage of 7.4 volts.

Each lipo cell have an average voltage of 3.7 volts but in use the voltage is between 3 volts and 4.2 volts. Since your lipo have two lipos in series the voltage would go from about 6 volts to 8.4 volts fully charged

As for the amps its common to charge lipos at 1C (1 times the capacity of the pack) which would be 3.2 amps, or maybe 3 amps if your charger wont let you select 3.2. Some lipos can handle beeing charged at 2C or more (6.4 amps), but its still ok to charge them at lower C's.

Lipos can be dangerous when:
- Charged above 4.2 volts per cell.
- Charged without balancer when cells are inballanced (meaning that one or more cells will be charged above 4.2 volts).
- They get too hot, or physically damaged.

Lipos dont like to be discharged below a certain level - around 3ish volts per cell. If they get discharged below that level you can risk that one or more cells gets damaged. If your pack feels soft and seems to have grown (puffed) it means that one or more cells have been damaged. Puffed packs should never be charged - at least not without a balancer. If you crash your car and the lipo gets damaged it might be a good idea to take the lipo out and put it in a safe place for a while.

Have fun