Battery break-in??

[sgomes]

Just a newbie here, so I apologize if this is something that has been addressed many times before.

Do lipo's need some kind of a break-in to optimize their perfromance/life?

I am just hovering my 450SE with the 430L motor, Finnless curves, 335 woodies, and 11T pinion; and notice the batteries get up to 125 degs. external temp. At about 60% throttle, I get around 10 mins. of hovering time out of my stock Align 2100mah 20c battery.

I am using the Cell Pro 4s charger/balancer.

Thanks for the help.

Steve

[kgfly]

There are differing views but common practise is to fly the packs gently to no more than 50% discharge for the first 6 to 10 flights. That would be more like hovering for 4 to 5 minutes.

125F is getting pretty warm. 140F is the danger level. How much charge are you puting back into the battery ? For safety and maximum pack lifetime you should never discharge more than 80%. Is your motor also hot ? Check your tail belt tension and main gear mesh. If these are too tight the motor and battery will heat up quickly. One way to check is to spin the head by a hand.

Spin it CW (motor won't turn) with a quick flick. You should get at least five full rotations. If not your tail belt is probably too tight.

Spin it CCW (motor turns) with a quick flick. You should get at least two and half full rotations. If it stops in under two your mesh is too tight.

[sgomes]

Kenneth,

Thanks for the quick response. Yes, everything is loose and free spinning, and neither the motor nor esc are even getting warm; but I guess I have been over-discharging the batts.

Will cut back my hovering time to 5 mins. per battery. for the next several cycles.

Steve