multi port charging or parallel

[PKNEC]

After reading many threads on charging the general opinion that I have come to understand is that parallel charging while very effective at getting multiple packs charged is not very good at addressing individual pack needs as the process only looks at the lowest discharged pack and treats it as one big capacity.
I hope I have understood this correctly,please advise.
So if individual charging is better for pack care why is it most flyers seem to go with parallel?
I am just trying to understand the pro's and con's of both setups in more detail to see whether it would be worth getting a couple of multiport chargers rather than the battery workstations pl6, 306b etc.

The remit for all this is, I plan to be charging multiple 6s packs of between 2600-3000 mah between 1 and 2c

Any advice greatly appreciated

[bstanley72]

Parallel charging isn’t necessarily good or bad for pack care. When you hook multiple batteries together in parallel power will flow between them until their voltage is equal. So once you start the charge process the packs will all have the same voltage. You want to make sure their voltage is similar before you hook them together or you could damage them.

Most parallel charge because it is so easy and convenient. I have a dual port charger (iCharger 4010). I parallel charge my six 6s batteries for my 500 while charging my six 3s batteries for my quad (6s on one port, 3s on the other). I run them at a 1C charge rate (which is nice and easy on the packs) and they are all done in about 35 minutes. Imagine if you tried to do all of those one at a time (you’re looking at close to eight hours).

I always check the voltage of each battery before I plug them up, the individual cell voltages are always within a 100th of a volt if each other and I’ve been parallel charging for over a year. I don’t think it is necessary but for piece of mind I will occasionally storage charge the packs individually so I know each cell within the pack is balanced.

As long as you make sure the voltages are similar between batteries before you hook them up and you only parallel charge batteries that have a similar number of cycles on them, you will not harm or degrade the batteries in any measurable way.

Edit: Here is a good site about parallel charging: https://sites.google.com/site/tjingu...allel-charging

[PKNEC]

Thanks for the advice bstanley72

[Slyster]

Best of both worlds.... the new iCharger 4010B. Two ports and high output. 40A for both or 70A for one. Grab a couple of sets of parallel cables.. and you will have a lot of charging flexibility.

[josecr]

Hi guys

I was wondering...can you storage charge or discharge in parallel too? I storage charge or discharge them one at a time when I get home afger flying and doing this one by one takes ages sometimes

Thanks
Jo

[Slyster]

you can.. it will just take ages x the number of lipos.

Instead of using the charger I use one car headlamp for 3s packs and two car headlamps in series for 6s.

[heliman86]

Sent from my galaxy s
Ok not trying to jack thread but what does watts have to do with charging I finaly figured out the ...c rate lol now only the watts confuse me