battery charge

[matt]

hi guys,
prob a silly question!
i just bought a pro peak prodigy 2 charger and i have align 11.1v 2100mah 22c batteries. do i choose the charge current figure as 2100mah or should it be lower?any help greatly appreciated!

[Heli Jim]

You would normally charge your LiPo battery at 1C which in this case would be 2.1 Amps (or 2100 mah) and it should take about an hour to charge it. You NEVER want to charge at a higher rate than 1C with most batteries. You CAN charge at a lower rate without doing any damage but it just takes longer to charge them fully.

There are some newer ones on the market that advertise that you can charge them at 2C or sometimes even higher, but for most LiPo's, you would ruin them at that rate.

[hawkman]

Make sure to stay with the battery as it charges...or if you are prone to dashing off to do some errand you want to make sure the charger and battery are placed either outside or somewhere where...if the battery goes wild it doesnt burn your house down...I am not one for scaring people but any battery under charge needs to be watched over.

I have found LiPo's are easy to use, treat them with respect....like you would treat any other potentially volatile fuel...for the power you get for their weight I reckon LiPo's are amazing.

Rob

[matt]

thanks guys,cheers for info.

[matt]

still confused guys,
so my battery says 2100mah on the side,and the pro peak charge rate is in mah.not amps,do i charge a 11.1v 2100mah 22c battery at 2100mah?
also just ordered an align balancer,is this compatible with prodigy2 charger? help please!!

[Heli Jim]

I don't know that charger but here's my thoughts.

The battery is a 3S (3 cells) 11.1 Volt 2100 mAh battery.

You should set your charger for 11.1 volts and set the rate at 2100 mAh
or at 2.1 Amps, which is the same thing. If your charger works thru the
balance port, that's the white plug with 4 wires, then it will automatically
charge at the right voltage and all you have to do is adjust the amps.

[hawkman]

The align balancer should work ok, they are pretty fool proof (no...not you) balancers are a much better option for LiPo's.

I have a Li Pro 4 or whatever its called...this charges via the main battery leads and is foolproof in operation, my batterys charge in about an hour or so. I have a balancer which is the supplied one with the heli...so its not the best...takes about 3 hours to charge a battery, again its 'plug and play' in operation.

Rob

[matt]

thanks again guys,been flyin a twister cpv2,and that comes with own balance-charger,so all this li-po stuff new to me,if your interested,nearly finished set up for my t-rex 450s.just need a new tx,lookin for a futaba 7 ch.would go for2.4 but already got a reciever for 35mhz