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My charger mod

Hi Jimmy.
Thanks for the instructions for the charger. I am trying to connect mine to my Graupner Polaron, but I am confused.
I think the colours are different on my flat white connector. I have (left to right) red yellow blue white black.
I think m ground lead is black. It used to be 50 years ago.
I've done it the same as in your photo, but my blue wire goes to ground. (end terminal) My blue wire is in the middle of the five wires at the white plug.
Is the black lead the ground wire ? Are my colours different to yours. ?

Find the gnd wire coming off the balance lead, solder that to the main power gnd, and then the rest in order as shown in Jimmy's picture.
 
with chargers/charging the ONLY number that matters is the watts it can handle. the amps is literally meaningless as it probably isn't at the voltage you need. The way to read it is you have X watts with a maximum available of X amps at any one time.

As an example i have a 1400w charger here or 40amp limit, whatever one comes first will limit the charge rate.

you need 80w to 1c charge the yuneec battery so very modest by todays standards.

i personally have a few chargers 1344w powerlab 8, 1000w reaktor and 300w reaktor, so yes, it is very powerful. They are powered with 2x 2000w 24V server psus but that is waaaaaay beyond what this yuneec needs.

a GOOD 500w PC PSU is ample to charge 4 yuneec batts at the same time, technically you could manage 5 but maybe pushing the PSU a little.
 
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I modified two HP DPS-600PB PSU's to give 12V/24V 47A 1150W Power Supply and coupled to my iCharger 208B I can easily parallel charge 3 3s x 5400mah battery's @ 1C 5.4amps =16.2amps in about 45 minutes, hopefully it wont be to long before we can parallel charge the H battery's.
 
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Hi Jimmy.
This is a bit confusing. Too many colours !

Sent a sketch of what I've done, but I have no way of knowing if it is correct.

" What do you reckon ? "
" Just plug it in and see what happens ?"
 

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with chargers/charging the ONLY number that matters is the watts it can handle. the amps is literally meaningless as it probably isn't at the voltage you need. The way to read it is you have X watts with a maximum available of X amps at any one time.

As an example i have a 1400w charger here or 40amp limit, whatever one comes first will limit the charge rate.

you need 80w to 1c charge the yuneec battery so very modest by todays standards.

i personally have a few chargers 1344w powerlab 8, 1000w reaktor and 300w reaktor, so yes, it is very powerful. They are powered with 2x 2000w 24V server psus but that is waaaaaay beyond what this yuneec needs.

a GOOD 500w PC PSU is ample to charge 4 yuneec batts at the same time, technically you could manage 5 but maybe pushing the PSU a little.
Actually, you need 90.72w for 1c charge @5400 mah 4s but who's counting.

Then there's rated, actual (80% typical efficiency) and max output vs peak. Just because a psu is rated at say 500w doesn't mean it will output 500w constant or at all. Mfr's of psu's play a lot of numbers games to inflate the capability of their product.
 
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Glider, excellent point and i shall explain, not necessarily for you as you obviously know the game :)

the wattage is typically calculated at nominal voltage, you will not see 90w (unless manually forced over it ofcourse for 1c plus) charging as you won't be in constant current mode. i don't know what voltage all chargers leave CC mode but it will never be 4.2v, all of mine are at 3.95v-4v per cell depending on if i have cold weather charge mode enabled....anyways adding another complication that one :)

at that point and you will be down to whatever the balance current is of your charger. again as an example one of mines is 350mah balance DISCHARGE which is reasonably high and i believe the PL8 is 4 amps balance CHARGE but don't quote me on that number. (will need to look up specs). so in theory the PL8 could balance 10x quicker than my other charger just about. please note the difference on balance discharge and balance charge methodology, only a handful of chargers in the world balance CHARGE. the vast majority of them all balance discharge the high cell down to match the low and then start charging again at low current. budget chargers are probably 50mah perhaps???

if you want to know what your balancing current max is it should be on your charger spec sheet and this is where more money usually shows itself in chargers more than anywhere else in my experience.

server PSU's are rated to very exacting standards so if it says 500w then you can bet decent money it will give that and then some to cover themselves for server build specs...however there are PSU's and "PSU's" as with everything else which is why i said a GOOD psu. you are bang on that some makers do play the game with numbers, typical of modern times with cheap stuff.

with the above said you are quite correct you need to factor in efficiency losses but it is impossible to put a number on it as we have no way of knowing the connectors, gauge of wire, length of wire etc so all you can do, and what is done typically, is give the maximum in theory.

to be absolutely clear, don't buy an 80/90w charger and expect to 1c this yuneec battery, you will need a 120w minimum i would suggest to ensure you can do that....hope that helps some!
 
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Hi Jimmy.
This is a bit confusing. Too many colours !

Sent a sketch of what I've done, but I have no way of knowing if it is correct.

" What do you reckon ? "
" Just plug it in and see what happens ?"

Brian according to your sketch it looks right to me.
Your lipo charger may or may not detect an error but if it starts to charge and you see the correct voltage for all four
cells you should be good.
 
I modified my Yuneec H charger so I could charge or store my battery.

I got this setup idea from someone else that wired it up this way
without taking the battery connector out of the charger and still
leave in functional.

My biggest hope was that it would charge faster than the stock charge
but it turned out to be about the same, maybe 15 minutes faster at best.

A depleted battery, (14.3v) take about an hour and a half to charge.

This lipo charger is 80 watt 6 amp but the most I
see this battery take
is 3.2 amps during charge.
View attachment 1085 View attachment 1086
Hey Jimmy, your charger is only 50w, not 80w (15.32v x 3.2A = 49.28W). I've got a 100W charger and can charge up to about 6.4A which is double what you're getting. It takes about 45-50mins to charge up a battery with this setup. Although I'm only flying the battery down to 14.6v so far (about 12 mins flight time), still breaking it in. I suspect if the battery was depleted down to 14.3v like you said, it probably take about an hour, maybe a little more.
 
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I'm new too this LiPo battery gig, and am not sure if this is a stupid question or not but when you guys talk about your battery voltages being for storage or break-ins or lowest voltage the battery should be, are you talking about the battery while it's under load or not under load?
 
Hey Jimmy, your charger is only 50w, not 80w (15.32v x 3.2A = 49.28W). I've got a 100W charger and can charge up to about 6.4A which is double what you're getting. It takes about 45-50mins to charge up a battery with this setup. Although I'm only flying the battery down to 14.6v so far (about 12 mins flight time), still breaking it in. I suspect if the battery was depleted down to 14.3v like you said, it probably take about an hour, maybe a little more.

Yes I realized my little charger was the problem for only being able to charge up to 3.2 amp.
I have a better charge coming that I should get today.

Thanks Bob
 
Hi Jimmy.
This is a bit confusing. Too many colours !

Sent a sketch of what I've done, but I have no way of knowing if it is correct.

" What do you reckon ? "
" Just plug it in and see what happens ?"


Brian,

I also have a Polaron;

IMG_2167.JPG

Notice that the red wire is opposite the pin 1 indicators on the charger and balance board. The order of the wiring pinout is maintained from Polaron charger, to balance board, to Yuneec charger base;

IMG_2165.JPG

Close up. Pardon the crappy soldering on the large wires - it's temporary. At 2 am I was too lazy to look for smaller wire or a larger iron;

IMG_2166.JPG
 
Got a new lipo charger to replace that 50 watt, now we are charging at 5amp.

Got a Duo Dual 2 Port (2x 12Amps, 2x 120Watts, 240Watts Total) for $120 on Amazon.

This should handle just about anything I can throw at it.

So has anybody tried charging the H battery more than 1C yet?

2016-06-15 11.20.21.jpg
 
yes....2c here.

10 amp or something in-between?
How long to charge at that rate?
Can the battery handle it long term?

As you can tell I don't know that much about lipo's but learning.
 
10 amp or something in-between?
How long to charge at that rate?
Can the battery handle it long term?

As you can tell I don't know that much about lipo's but learning.

10 amp yes

depends how discharged it is obviously but if flown until 14.3v it will be circa 35 mins ish.

can the battery handle it long term?

well the IR is low so the cells are of decent quality so i have no issues multi c charging them if i need to get out quickly, but that is me, i am not recommending anyone else do this, that is their choice. but question is impossible to answer i am afraid. far too many variables to speak about it...in theory though they will last longer if you go easy with them but i have had lipos that were pampered and only 1c charged taking a dump after 30 cycles, i have lipos that have 400 cycles on them i have 2c charged all their life in some planes, yes the IR is high but after 400 cycles it is entitled to be!

as an example, i have 12x 6s 5000mah identical packs all bought at same time about 18 months ago for my helis (the helis run 12s (45v nominal) 5000mah). they only last 4.5 mins in the heli and land at 3.5v per cell, they spike WELL over 120 amps and average about 75 amps, heli lipos get a VERY VERY hard life. i have always charged these packs at 2c minimum whilst at field, sometimes 5c if i want another flight before going home. 3 of the packs a single cell died whilst the other 9 packs remain fine with IR's in the region of 2. so it is impossible to say how long a lipo will last.

the best advice is if you are worried about your yuneec lipo then only ever 1c charge them, fly down to 14.3v under load and storage charge them to minimum 3.7v and max 3.85v per cell, never leave them fully charged for a prolonged period and try to keep a constant temp while in storage. in THEORY that will prolong their life but can't prove it as sometimes lipos just fail, hence they normally only have a 30 day warranty when new.

the best advice i can give someone is lipos are a consumable item, if you can come round to that thinking you will enjoy the hobby a lot more.
 
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10 amp yes

depends how discharged it is obviously but if flown until 14.3v it will be circa 35 mins ish.

can the battery handle it long term?

well the IR is low so the cells are of decent quality so i have no issues multi c charging them if i need to get out quickly, but that is me, i am not recommending anyone else do this, that is their choice. but question is impossible to answer i am afraid. far too many variables to speak about it...in theory though they will last longer if you go easy with them but i have had lipos that were pampered and only 1c charged taking a dump after 30 cycles, i have lipos that have 400 cycles on them i have 2c charged all their life in some planes, yes the IR is high but after 400 cycles it is entitled to be!

as an example, i have 12x 6s 5000mah identical packs all bought at same time about 18 months ago for my helis (the helis run 12s (45v nominal) 5000mah). they only last 4.5 mins in the heli and land at 3.5v per cell, they spike WELL over 120 amps and average about 75 amps, heli lipos get a VERY VERY hard life. i have always charged these packs at 2c minimum whilst at field, sometimes 5c if i want another flight before going home. 3 of the packs a single cell died whilst the other 9 packs remain fine with IR's in the region of 2. so it is impossible to say how long a lipo will last.

the best advice is if you are worried about your yuneec lipo then only ever 1c charge them, fly down to 14.3v under load and storage charge them to minimum 3.7v and max 3.85v per cell, never leave them fully charged for a prolonged period and try to keep a constant temp while in storage. in THEORY that will prolong their life but can't prove it as sometimes lipos just fail, hence they normally only have a 30 day warranty when new.

the best advice i can give someone is lipos are a consumable item, if you can come round to that thinking you will enjoy the hobby a lot more.


Thanks for the recommendations and advice on lipo's.
Sounds like you have had plenty of experience with them.

I just did not want to blindly over charge my one and only battery
that I have right now and destroy it.

If I am in a hurry I think I will try the 2C charge.
Other wise just 1C charge it when I don't need it right away.
 
If I am in a hurry I think I will try the 2C charge.
Other wise just 1C charge it when I don't need it right away.

I don't think your new charger will be able to handle a 2C rate, prob need a 150-200W charger to do so. I'm one of the poor guys lurking around the forums soaking up as much info as possible while being stuck with a tracking number =(
 
I don't think your new charger will be able to handle a 2C rate, prob need a 150-200W charger to do so. I'm one of the poor guys lurking around the forums soaking up as much info as possible while being stuck with a tracking number =(

Your right, I forgot about that, 120 watts is good for about 7 amps with the H battery.
I can live with that.
 
Couldn't stand the 2+hr wait times with my sole batt so decided to do this mod. With an 80W Turnigy Smart 6 charger powered off a 100W power supply, was able to squeeze through 5-5.3A close to 1C. Except it's not really 1C considering the batt took over 6000mah of charge (flew it down to 14.3V) so it's definitely under rated.

IMG_0135_zps4ufmqx4a.jpg


IMG_0134_zpsf3cflifc.jpg
 
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