breaking in new lipo packs.

[antennahead]

I have a few new packs that I would like to start breaking in but the wind has been to strong at my current skillz to attempt to hover. Can I hook these batts up on the bench with a motor,prop, and esc and run it for two to three minutes without overheating or damaging anything? If I can, how many times does this have to be done before you can start to run full cycles?
I also have a cheap lipo that Came with my heli when I bought it, It's brand new, I never charged it and it's about 8 months old, I don't know what voltage it is showing right now, I only used it a couple of times to check my radio/servos and set up my pitch curves. does just sitting, never used or cycled affect the lifespan of a lipo battery?

[th3tick]

Personally, I'd never spool-up "on the bench". I'd rather set it to 0 pitch and go outside if I wanted to go that route.

But anyway...

I do 6 cycles at 50%, then just go fly. I tend to increase it over the last two cycles to more like 60% then 70%, but that's just greed.

John

[bird-man]

I break my lipos on the bench by connecting them to a 50W/12V halogen bulb. This setup would drain the battery with around 4.2A. With 2100mAh battery this equals to 2C or 15min discharge to reach 50% (1050mAh) of the lipo capacity. I discharge mine up to 50% for the first 5 charges.

In addition, if you have data recorder like Eagle Tree or BNB you can watch charge/discharge process on your computer screen with great accuracy.

This setup works fine with 11.1V lipos. For a lipo with a different voltage/capacity you can use a different bulb.

Hope this helps.