In this video, I go over how to charge multiple lipo batteries with only one charger. by using a parallel charger, you can cut down on charge times and not have to worry about plugging and unplugging batteries all day.
This video is 9 years old and still relevant for newbies like me 😁 Excellent 👌 Video sir. As I've just bought a charging board and a decent balance charger and needed to know how to work that thing 😂 plus I didn't even want to attempt reading the Chinese translated instructions 😆 So thank you 🙏
Great video. Gotta say I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and content from what I was expecting with a lower view count video (only low for now!) Im sure that will rise!
Thank you for the video I was not sure on the balance board what order to use. Now I know it doesn't matter they are all the same. The math was much appreciated too thanks again.
Thanks for the tutorial. Several sources are claiming you can charge different capacity lipos, in parallel, as long as they are the same cell count. I believe this makes sense considering the charger is measuring voltage, not mAh.
Thanks for this video. Some tips. Music never ever goes on explanation videos. and for higher production value, you can skip saying what you are going to do and just do. Time is valuable.
Excellent video, thanks very much, I learned some things about using my parallel board from your video and it is much appreciated. Have you tried or do you know, can you use the board to put multiple batteries in storage mode as well? Often when I come back from a day of flying and I have lots of batteries I want to put in storage mode, was just wondering if being able to use the parallel board would allow me to put multiple batteries in storage mode and cut down the time :) Thanks again for taking the time to do this video, much appreciated. Cheers, Scott
Nice video and I would add the following from other tutorials: 1. Step one - measure the voltage of each cell of all the packs. The cells of the packs should not have more than 0.1v difference, if they do those packs should be charged separately. This is a recomandation on many tutorials. Example: une pack has 3,75v/on the most discharged cell, the other cells on the packs should not excede 3,85v. that's 0,1v. The reason for this are the higher current exchange between packs when in parallel as explained in the following steps. 2. If the cells of all packs have more than 0.1v difference we should connect first only the main cables( the discharge, power cables) of the packs, starting with the pack that has the less voltage. 3. After a few minutes, during which, currents up to 10 Amps! depending of the voltage differences, go from the highest voltage packs to the less voltage ones. That's way beyond 2C of charging them from the other packs, thus the need for less than 0,1v difference as the currents rise if the differences are higher. Then we connect the balancing plugs, after minutes. Why is that? Because after some minutes the packs have come to similar voltages and the exchanged currents dropped so it's safe to connect the balancing plugs. 4. The number of cells should be the same, as the charger see all the packs as one huge pack with the same nr of cells as each pack has. The capacity doesn't matter. If one pack reaches the selected cell voltage, it starts delivering current to the other cells of the packs until they reach it too. Thus the capacity can be different. 5. Start the charging process at the courrents explained in the video. Multiplying the current you want to use with the nr of packs. 6. We should select lower current than 1C/pack because the packs have different internal resistance and although we calculated that the lets's say 8A current devided at four 2000mA packs will be 2A/pack(1C) some packs might receive beyond 2C and others half a C because of different internal resistance. Learned all of these recently after 15 years in the hobby, in which time I've always charged my lipos after flight (big mistake) to have them ready, and stayed charged all their life..a short one, 20-30 cycles before puffing and dropping in power, when others get 200+ cycles. So, no more staying charged more than a few hours from now one for me, and following the rules including the parallel charging ones described above.
Great video, thanks. Was never sure if the charge rate could be upped to the total of what you are charging. Like a dummy I've been charging at the rate of the lowest ah battery and wondering why it's not saving me any time to parallel charge. It should be pointed out that it's a good idea to let the battery cells of all the batteries equalize out for a while after connecting them to the parallel balance board and before starting the charge process.
thanks great infomation, but i got 1 question! Is it also possible to charge 3 or 5 battery's at the same time, or does it need a even number to balance each other out?
Just a quick question do you need to plug the balance lead in at all ? The reason I'm asking is most of the balance leads on my batteries are chewed up due to crashes.
question...because i will be using a parallel charging balance board do i have to set my charger on to " balance" versus regular "charging"? cause as of now i when i charge one pack at a time i charge under "charge" versus "balance" you know what i mean? thanks for any help you can provide. awesome info video BTW.
Hey I'm building an electric longboard and I want to use this balance charging board to connect two 3s batteries together to make charging easier. To make the entire wiring setup easier, I'd like to then draw power through this board, which will then power my ESC and then obviously in turn the motor. So basically, my question is, with an 85A ESC and 60A motor, will this board screw me over since I want to draw so much power through it. It says max is 30A. Would I be able to draw power through it to the ESC like I described?
this makes a slow charger even slower, right? the reason my fast chargers are slow is that the balance discharge current is limited to .7a, if i try to use parallel charge board it will make charging my batteries even slower if i want to balance them. great video though, i always wondered what these parallel boards did
Thanks for this helpful guide! I have 2 packets 5200mAh 3S. Normally i charging one at 4.0A, when i connect two is this good if i chargé tchem at 6.0A? Thank You!
If you gave 5200 mAh, the correct charge rate is 5.2 Amps (if the battery states “2C”) that’s means it can handle twice as much charge amps rate which is 10.4 Amos charge rate. But that can shorten your life of your LiPo. Charging under the required rate is okay, and actually better for the battery. I have had LiPo’s for 10 years and a they still work as great as they did when I first bought them. For example: 3000 mAh (max 3 amp charge rate) unless the C rating is 2C then you LiPo can handle up to a 6 amp amp charge rate. Hope this helps.
hey so i got a dynamite vision peak ultra lipo charger and i noticed it doesn't have a lipo balance port thing how come its made like that? is it safe to charge a lipo can i solder a balance port ??
My battery is 9.6V 11.7Ah LiFePo4. What setting should i use please. I keep getting low voltage or high voltage. What setting should i charge it? It is 27 cell battery. What should my mAh and V be on my charger? Please help.
My Batteries have the 4pin white connector but lack the XT60 connector. They are 11.1V Lipo batteries. Will this method work for me to charge multiple or does it need that XT60 to work?
So if you have multiple batteries to charge and they are outside the 1amp difference how do you get them to roughly the same voltage so you can parralel charge them?
Good basic information. If your charger can charge the full amperage don't. Its best to set your charger at .8 the total charging amperage. This ensures longer battery life.
I think there is a lot of hearsay involved with LiPo batteries. I often charge at double the amperage, I've left batteries fully charged for over two years, they are still going great since I bought them in 2014.
Okay... So I guess Battery 1 and Battery 2 should be similar/basically the same voltages? B/c as soon as I hooked up my battery's balance connectors, they started getting hot as a crap ton of current flowed through them and started balancing cell B1 Cell 3 with B2 Cell 3. Is this correct? B/c if so then this isn't very handy unless you're sure your packs are all "charged" to the same voltage.
m8 im having equilibrium and this board is showing info just as just 1 lipo is connected. cables are allright, can you suggest if the equilibrium evo 90w is supporting this? or having different issue?
Great video! But isn‘t it possible to also charge batteries with different (!) capacities? As long as the voltage of the different packs is the same, when connecting them, it should be possible with no problems. Imagine two connected water tanks with different volumes but same filling level.. Have a nice day!
my charger can max at 10amp and i have 3 5200 mah 4S 10c batteries. should i discharge first every time i charge or should i go ahead and plug my 3 bats and rate it to 3 amps or 6amps or 9amps? im trying to do your basic math im thinking maybe i can charge faster at 9amps, 3 for every battery. am i making sense?
Ok those are 2S batteries ... ok, so you should always charge at 1 amp per battery? So if I have five 1.3 3S batteries, I should set my charger at 5 amps 11.1 volts (3S)? thanks
World you charge two 2s 450s at 0.9 amps ? It's taking twice as long as it does for 1 battery I thought it was supposed to be quicker. Missing something I think .. what do you think?
I’m new to this, and I have a question. Here goes: I can charge my pair of 2s 3200 mah batteries no problem using a parallel board. Works great. When I hook up my pair of 2s 5600 mah batteries though, the charger says check batteries, disconnect. I can’t figure out why! Any ideas?
Hi , After seeing the video on RU-vid I decided to challenge you with a question. I use a battery pack for my lifepo4 battery 40152S 3.2V 15AH 16 cells, the battery pack is serially connected, ie 48V, and controlled by internal BMS. Since it is not possible to verify the integrity of the BMS controller and it is not possible to check the cell balance. Recently I was trying to test the necessity of using BMS when I saw your video and decided to adopt your solution, that is to divide the 16 cells into four groups in which each group has 4 cells connected serial. 1. Can the configuration you are viewing match the type of battery I am using? 2. Can the charger you use meet the configuration I want to perform (4 sets of 4 cells)? 3. Last question, is there a simpler, easier, and more quality solution that you know or recommend? Thanks, Abe
Can i charge two 3s batteries connected in series on this board?i have connected two 2 3s batteries in series so i can get 24 volts my question is how do I charge them together is it possible?,what do i put on the charger should I charge them as 6s or 3s,should I multiple the mAh by 2 or does it stay the same,sorry for my English
The voltage on every cell of every battery needs to be checked before you do this, and all cell voltages need to be with 5% of each other. Parallel two cells that have voltages far apart, and you'll be dumping voltage from the higher cell to the lower one at very high current - which can destroy your battery. Parallel charging is handy if all your batteries have been storage charged to about 3.8 volts per cell, and you want to charge several batteries at once.
lipo need to be charged constant current, constant voltage. When finished it needs to switch off. A power supply will supply as much current as the battery calls for, so not cc. It also will not switch off when finished. To get the maximum life from your batteries, they should only be charged at 1c.
Because the batteries have to be the same capacity for this to work, will a 2200mah and a 2250mah battery charge together or is the difference too much?
the slightly smaller battery will charge slightly faster and raise its voltage a bit faster... but as the nice guy in the video explained they will try to balance their voltages all the time... its like having compleatley drained battery and a battery that has like 10 seconds of flytime left... so yea you can charge them both safely... in theory you can also charge 1500mah battery and 3000mah abttery together... just sink the board into liquid nitrogen :P
so at 4:10 when the charger displays individual cell voltage, from which battery is it measuring? Also, does each battery need to be at the same level of discharged state in order to parallel charge safely?
Bo Han the cell measurement is no longer an actual single cell being measured on any one of his lipo packs, but rather a collective value of a particular cell number of every connected battery combined. so for example, the second value on screen is the combined voltage as a result of parallel connecting "cell 2" from battery 1, 2, 3 and 4 all together. so if i leave all four of his 3S 1600mAh batteries connected to the board but in stead of hooking it up to a charger i use it on my RC, i would still get a nice 12,6V output but the capacity of that would be 6400mAh. and yes, it would be extremely dangerous to mix fully charged and fully empty lipos together because the second that connector makes contact, all the connected batteries will try to rapidly discharge into the empty one, most likely melting your board, probably damaging the full packs by excessive discharge rates and possibly even starting a fire at the empty pack from the extreme charge rate.
Nice video. Was it me or was the battery you touched a little bloated? If so, please take care. Remember always to charge your batteries in a safety back :-)
What if the batteries only charge up to around 15.2 to 15.4 and not up to 16.8 on 4s batteries 🤔. Im charging 6 1000mah 4s batteries and I set the charger at 6000mah and 6.0 amps. Well, the charger didn't like that and after about 45 seconds of charging the screen dims out and it stops charging and beeps. So, I guess its because my charger Max's out at 6.0 amps. So, I set it at 3000mah with just 3 batteries and set it at 3.0 amps of charge rate and it charges for about 35 minutes and it will say they are full at 16.8 each with all 3 connected. Then, I will test them out 1 at a time and they are indeed not making it to 16.8 but only to around 15.4 per battery? Which is around storage amount. Im wondering why it is doing this? I then still have to finish each battery one at a time up to 16.8 a pc from 15.4. Each one will make it to 15.4 identical to the others. Also important note...I did have the charger set to balance charge not storage charge so I don't know what is going on. Any help would be great if you have any ideas what is causing this. Im thinking I need a bigger charger with more capacity. The charger is a B6 V3 smart charger rated for 1 to 6 cells for lipo charge rate 0.1 to 6.0 amps discharge rate 0.1 to 2.0 amps and it does 2 3 4 5 and 6s. Thanks in advance for any ideas 💡 😊. Take care and talk soon.
I realise this way late, but for the sake of other people that may come across this. It is absolutely imperative that they are the same capacity. If they are not the same capacity it is quite likely that batteries will explode or balance wires will melt.
If cells connected in parallel equalize. Does that mean they have to be the same voltage? Because if one cell is 50% and the other is 10%. Wont the 50% battery start charging the 10% battery at full discharge current??! That is bad because we are only suppose to charge at 1C.
