LiPo Battery Care

[Yuneec Skins]

Just another Night Flight
The worst thing you can do with a LiPo Battery, is to Fully Charge it, and Store it with your Drone, and expect it to be Ready for the next Flight... Storing a LiPo Fully Charged will Slowly Destroy your Battery.

Please Feel Free to give me any additional Information, or if you disagree with any of the Tips included.
I have been Studying all the Information I can find about LiPo Battery Use & Care in RC Aircraft for longer than I care to mention.

I've been Flying RC Heli's & Planes long before Drones & LiPo Batteries existed, and proper care of a LiPo Battery is just as important as caring for a Gas or Nitro RC Engine.

I Love to Fly at Night...

 

[Pier2162]

Agree 100% with your tips. I will add the following:
To increase battery life, charge at 50% of its maximum capacity (50% of C)
Charging at 1C can overheat chemistry

 

[Camomille]

Hello, Lipo battery care is certainly intersting lots of people!
How to charge or discharge your battery at 50% ? how can you check this?
I've been flying one more minute after ST10 told me land. Since I first had solid red led before achieving a complete charge, I'm planning to make a complete charge again before preparing for storing.
I'm using 2 X Lipo 7500mAh on my Q500 4K. I'm not using my drone regulary !!
Thank you for your good tips.
Greetings to all.
Camomille

 

[Steve Carr]

I'm planning to make a complete charge again before preparing for storing.

I always land before the low battery warning. Doing so is much better for the life of the battery.
After you land you don't need to do anything with the battery. The voltage should rebound to about 11 volts which is suitable for storage. Do not store a fully charged Lipo for more than 24 hours.

 

[Camomille]

Thank you,
I'll charge both batteries again and, fly the drone until first battery warning. Two complete charge cycles will certainly help keeping batteries alive
Greetings from Belgium.
Camomille

 

[Yuneec Skins]

If you want the Best Performance & Longest Life from your Flight Batteries;
Store Typhoon H/H-Pro/H-Plus/H3/H520/H520e Batteries at; 15.2volts
Store Q500 (All Models) Batteries at; 11.4volts

 

[Camomille]

If you want the Best Performance & Longest Life from your Flight Batteries;
Store Typhoon H/H-Pro/H-Plus/H3/H520/H520e Batteries at; 15.2volts
Store Q500 (All Models) Batteries at; 11.4volts

Thanks for the tip. Reading related topics on french forum, someone recommends the use of a IMax B6 Charger Discharger. Do you also recommend the use of that kind of device ?
Great thanks in advance.
greetings to all.
Camomille

 

[Steve Carr]

IMax B6 Charger Discharger

It should work well with your batteries.

 

[DoomMeister]

Most chargers that can service several battery types will suffice and work better for you than the OEM charger from Yuneec. You just need the adapter cables for balance charging. Besides being able to do balance charging and storage charging the ability to do internal resistance (IR) measurements is a good thing to have for tracking battery health.

 

[Camomille]

Hello,
back again after learning and testing Imax B6. Everything OK but the device has chosen 11.52V for "Storage mode" Do you think 11.52V is acceptable for storage ? If lower voltage is recommended, does anyone know how to set that voltage to 11.4V on this device ?
Whatever your answer is, I've learned important info thanks to this topic and I'm certain I'll not loose batteries anymore due to inadapted care
Great thanks in advance.
Greetings from Belgium.
Camomille

 

[DoomMeister]

Hello,
back again after learning and testing Imax B6. Everything OK but the device has chosen 11.52V for "Storage mode" Do you think 11.52V is acceptable for storage ? If lower voltage is recommended, does anyone know how to set that voltage to 11.4V on this device ?
Whatever your answer is, I've learned important info thanks to this topic and I'm certain I'll not loose batteries anymore due to inadapted care
Great thanks in advance.
Greetings from Belgium.
Camomille

That should be fine. That ends up being 3.85V/cell which is default in many LiPo chargers for storage level. My older chargers use 3.80V/cell, but the newer ones use 3.85V/cell.

For your 3S 7500mAh packs I would select charging amps to 3.7A which is 0.5C. It will take a bit longer to get to full charge, but will help with longevity of your packs.

If you need them charged as fast as possible do not exceed 7.5A charging current which is 1C.

 

[Camomille]

Thank you very much

Greetings from Belgium
Camomille

 

[Pier2162]

If you need them charged as fast as possible do not exceed 7.5A charging current

Imax B6 will never reach that value. Max current is 5A (teoric), 4A real.

 

[DoomMeister]

Imax B6 will never reach that value. Max current is 5A (teoric), 4A real.

I wasn’t sure of the specs for imax B6 so just giving rule of thumb for max charging current. Thanks for the info!