Do I have to balance during *every* charge?

[FearNot]

I have a 1A charger that can charge two packs at the same time but I only have one balancer ...

Now I am wondering is it sufficient to balance the packs only every second charge? Or would that likely damage them? Or I could swap the balancer after one hour and charge each pach one hour with and one hour without balancer..

The packs are expensive so I rather not risk them but I cant take watching my packs charge one by one over hours with no end :arggg:

(Will be ordering another charger but until then must get by)

cheers

Matt

[DebianDog]

1 amp?

[FearNot]

1 amp?

yep it charges with 1 A .. the packs should take 2 A

[DebianDog]

Well you usually charge at 1C so unless you are charging 500 mah packs I am not sure how you are charging 2 at a time.

I am charging (2) packs right now at 4.4 amps (4350 mah 5S packs for my Ion). Once balancer per.

-I- do not charge with out a balancer. Some do. Packs cost too much for me. Flight power has the V-Balancer out for like $45 bucks now so I really do not see why you would not use it.

But to answer your question : YES. You can trick the balancer into thinking you have twice the amount of cells that you do but I am no expert on that but I know it can be done. Basically if you are charging (2) 3S packs you plug in it in to the balancer as a 6S pack. But you will have ask someone else the details in doing it.

[Motions]

Some people charge 2 packs in series, and some charge in parallel. I charge mine in parallel to keep the same cell count and I only charge at .5C. I balance about every 3rd charge and it's very rare my packs are out of balance. If your charging closer to 1C I would highly recommend you balance while charging every time.

[FearNot]

sorry guys I think my explanation was misleading ..

My charger is essentially 2 chargers .. it has two seperate charging circuits ... so I could totally independantly charge 2 packs.

The max current is limited to 1A per charger output. But since I only have one balancer I only charge one pack at the time...

So if I safely for the packs charger one with balancer and the other without and the next time reverse i could charge 2 batteries at the same time ...

Getting a second balancer is not worth it .. balancer is $30-45 and a cellpro charger WITH balancer is $67 so thats what i will rather get

:) Matt

[Motions]

What packs are you using.

[Tomas Ahl]

Three years ago balancing circuits were almost a curiosity and not all packs even had connectors to be able to balance individual cells, so you don't have to balance during every charge. As you already have realized your cells will be better cared for the more often they are charged under the supervision of a balancer but the out-of-balance situation is something that comes gradually so your packs shouldn't sustain to much extra damage if you balance charge them only every second charge.

I have a 3S2P 5200 mAh Tanic pack I bought from Jeremy at RC-Hover more than three years ago that is the oldest pack I've got with individual cell connectors, the only way I have to balance it is through charging each cell individually which obviously takes a long time with 1C charging so I only do this every so-so often and the pack is still going strong for its age. No swelling of any cell detected as of yet.

[FearNot]

What packs are you using.

Thunderpower Extreme 3S 2070 mAh

[FearNot]

Three years ago balancing circuits were almost a curiosity and not all packs even had connectors to be able to balance individual cells, so you don't have to balance during every charge. As you already have realized your cells will be better cared for the more often they are charged under the supervision of a balancer but the out-of-balance situation is something that comes gradually so your packs shouldn't sustain to much extra damage if you balance charge them only every second charge.

I have a 3S2P 5200 mAh Tanic pack I bought from Jeremy at RC-Hover more than three years ago that is the oldest pack I've got with individual cell connectors, the only way I have to balance it is through charging each cell individually which obviously takes a long time with 1C charging so I only do this every so-so often and the pack is still going strong for its age. No swelling of any cell detected as of yet.


Now its raining anyways :arggg:

But I am thinking charging 2 packs and switching the balancer every half hour should be fine

I even called thunderpower but the guy was not much use

Matt

[Tomas Ahl]

But I am thinking charging 2 packs and switching the balancer every half hour should be fine
Not really necessary I think. Mostly the balancing takes place during the end of the charging unless your cells are way out of balance so I think you could watch your charger and when the amperage has dropped to, maybe, 0.5 A you stop the non-balanced charging and let it finish of via the balancer. Granted this final filling of the packs takes a big part of the charge time but then you should end up with the packs balanced every time. As you are keeping your cells well in balance you may stop the non-balanced charge pass even later to reduce the wait on the balance-charge pass, gentle experimentation on what amperage value suits your packs may be in order.