Lipo balancing

[Jus]

I currently have an Onyx 230 for a charger and I use a blinky external balancer while charging my lipos.

I was just curious, I'm assuming the way I do it is O.K. but is there a better way? Do the chargers with internal balancers charge *through* the balance ports?

For those familiar with the blinky might know that it tends to be kinda slow and my packs will sometimes take a half hour or more after the charger is finished before the cells are balanced... So it's possible a cell could be charged too high and would take a while before it was brought down to 4.2v by the blinky. In the long run is that bad or am I worrying too much?

[Trubble]

I run a 230, but with a Team Checkpoint charge-through balancer (no longer available to my knowledge). So I charge all my comp rig's batteries through the balance port. When charging larger LiPos I'll charge through the main leads and put the balancer in stand alone mode, but at only 250mAh draw, yes it does seem to take forever. Nice thing about mine is that I can put it back in charge through mode, and hook it to a little more robust discharging rig and it'll balance much quicker. I haven't tried doing it that way yet, but the instructions say I can if ever the mood strikes.

Similar charge throughs are available from Hyperion and ElectriFly.


Food for thought, anyway.