I think I roached a lipo
 

I recently made the transition to Lipo. had an awesome first run with over an hour trailing on a 4000 mah 2s. Hooked it up to the charger to recharge when I got home and get an error message on my charger, voltage too low. I had used my castle link and set the lipo cutoff to 3 volts. so I was a little confused at this at first. then after a little research I come across a post saying 3 volts per cell.... I suddenly realize where I screwed up. I need my cutoff set at 6 volts for a 2s pack and not for 3volts which I had set up originally, Is this correct? or is there anything else I am missing? I figure this pack is toast or is there anything I can do to get it back? I am not dependant on this pack as I had ordered 3 but hate to have to throw away a pack with 1 run on it. any help appreciated, Thanks

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

Be sure to put the pack in a lipo bag...pretty scary running the voltage that low.
Personally, I would submerge it in a bucket of salt water...trying to save it is just not worth the risk. Lipo fires are serious...you can't put them out

CAUTION fellow crawler :shock:

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

yeah. I figured the pack was done for, just trying to confirm where I screwed up before I ruin another pack or two.

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

IMO I wouldn't set a lipo in any crawler as low as 3.0V/C. Even Castle had a rethink about this some time ago and set the factory Auto-Lipo cutoff to 3.2V/C.

You don't get a great deal more run time in a crawler having that 0.2V/C difference. I run all my gear both racing vehicles and crawlers at 3.4 - 3.6V/C

Do a factory reset to your ESC which will change the Defaults back to Auto-Lipo 3.2V/C.

As for your lipo being run down below LVC you could probably bring it back to life but I'm not a big fan of doing this. Do a search to find out how.

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

the truck should have lost almost all power before the pack got drained that far. do you have a volt meter to check the packs voltage?

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

my charger is a balance charger and i believe it will read individual cells. will check when i get home. the truck pretty much just did but hadpretty good power up untl then. I figured that was the lipo cutoff kicking in. so should i set the cutoff at about 3.5 or do I need to double that for 2s?

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

i've done this before, and have brought them back to life. as stated up above, proceed with caution. here's what i do, get your charger, a lipo bag, and an extension cord. go OUTSIDE, somewhere with nothing around you, ie, the middle of an empty drive. hook you lipo up to your charger and place in lipo sack. Now, heres what i do. set the charger to NIMH, at 1a, then start the charge. IMPORTANT, CHARGE FOR 30 SECONDS OR SO AND THEN STOP. switch to your normal Lipo charge setting and see if it will start the charge cycle. if not, repeat the NIMH charge for 30 seconds or so. your pack shouldnt be too under charged if you saw no loss of power in the vehicle. i have never had to do this more than 3 times to a pack. the goal here is to introduce just enough juice into the cells so your charger, on lipo setting, starts the charging cycle. i've done this on quite a few packs with success. good luck and be careful.

edit, as stanmondz, pointed out, a voltage meter is good to have. if the pack is drained to far, it just isnt worth trying to revive it. if ya dont have one, grab one from harbor freight. they cost 3 bucks.

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

You need 3.whateveryoupick PER Cell.

I run 3.2 per cell and I don't even use the "Auto Lipo" feature as all mine are 3s, so I have it set to 9.6v

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

so 6.4 should be my min cutoff on a 2s pack.... that is my main concern.... not so much saving the low battery...not really worth it. I am just going to strike the dead pack as $20 for a educational expense... I just prefer to not ruin my future packs... thanks

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

I go with 3.4 or 3.5/cell and stick it in auto lipo mode on Castle ESC's and manual cutoff on my Axial AE-2's. This way my Castle OEM ESC's will auto detect how many cells and do auto lipo from there and I only run 2S with my AE-2's so they are set to 6.8 or 7.0, I can't remember off the top of my head though.

If you do the charge bump method described above be very careful, but you should be ok. I recommend charging outside or in the middle of the garage on something non-flammable so if it does catch fire you're ok.

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

I am just going to disable the pack and start fresh. now to reprogram my sidewinder, which isn't a problem, its just a pain in the butt getting into my radio box to get to the leads

Re: I think I roached a lipo
 

It's a pain...yes, but time well spent
I've seen some nasty lipo fires....they are not something you want to mess with or breath any of the fumes