User Guide

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7
Guide to Lithium Polymer Battery’s
A LiPo cell should NEVER be discharged below 3.0V
Another VERY important factor to increasing the life of your batteries, is the
use of a PROGRAMMABLE Low voltage Lipo alarm in your models. Those are the
Lipo alarms that display battery pack and cell voltage on a screen, and have a
button for adjusting the alarm voltage. For optimum flight times, and depending
on the battery's state, the alarm should be set anywhere between 3.4v and
3.6v per cell. When the alarm sounds be quick to land, otherwise you run the
risk of completely depleting the battery, which is not good for the battery, but it
could also potentially crash your model.
Storage Mode
Proper LiPo Storage Voltage = 3.8V per cell
And last, but not least, we come to battery storage. For long term storage, the
batteries should be discharged or charged, depending on their current state, to
around 3.8v per cell. That voltage will ensure that the battery will not be
damaged over long periods out of use, and will also prevent the voltage from
dropping too low due to self-discharge. Most modern chargers should have
programs for charging/discharging batteries to storage level voltage. As a
general rule NEVER leave your batteries charged for more than one day. Some
people might argue that even one day is a long time for a Lipo battery to stay
charged. It is recommended to always charge the batteries one day before you
get to the flying field. If you know you are not going to be using some batteries
for a long time - anything from a week to over a year - make sure you
discharge/charge them to 3.8v per cell before you store them.
As long as the voltage is 3.8v per cell, the Lipos should be OK to sit for a long
period. Well, that about concludes it for now, so if you've understood at least
half of the information above, your batteries should last much longer.
LiPo batteries offer plenty of power and runtime for us radio control enthusiasts.
But that power and runtime comes at a price. LiPo batteries are capable of
catching fire if not used properly - they are much more delicate than the older
NiMH/NiCd batteries. The problem comes from the chemistry of the battery
itself.
Internal Resistance
Higher Internal Resistance = Higher Operating Temperature
As we touched on earlier, some modern chargers can read the internal
resistance of the battery in milliohms (mΩ). If you have one of these chargers,
you can get a sense of how your LiPos are performing, and how their internal
resistance increases as they age. Simply keep track of the internal resistance
reading each time you charge your battery, and chart the increase over time.
You will see how just the process of using the LiPo battery begins to wear it out.