To prevent your LiPo battery from discharging beyond an unsafe threshold, you can use a cheap alarm gadget to warn you with a beeping sound. This video shows you how to use the LiPo alarm. Costs only $1.20-$2 apiece from Aliexpress!
Awesome. Glad it was helpful. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I no longer use it while the car is being used because of voltage sag. Once the voltage drops even temporarily below the set level, it will continue sounding even after the voltage goes back up. After awhile, you’ll get used to the feel of the battery and know when to stop.
Sure, glad I could help out. The number of comprehensive videos was limited when I was learning to use mine so I figured I’d put something out there for anyone else in the same situation. I have a video on how to use a 4-button charger too which maybe be helpful if you ever get into that.
Thanks man. Tried to keep it simple but still thorough. The gadget looks so simple that I think there aren't many people who bother to explain it so figured some might find it useful. Very popular item too.
Do you leave it in the car while your running it? I want to run Li-po in a Danchee where the ESC isn't setup for Li-pos (I guess there is no Low Voltage cutoff).
Thanks! I did notice later on though that during extreme maneuvering, the sagging of the battery (temporary drop in voltage) will make the alarm sound. So it kinda warns you too prematurely. Some cars also have LiPo cutoff already built into the ESC to prevent over discharge of the battery.
@@Funcentric I have a old racestar esc already set with good punch and brake . punch on full as it was being used with a nimh for the kids. I’m not to up for buying a new program card and waiting up to 4 weeks just to put cut off up one notch so one of these fixed in the car is my cut off. 3s now hoping for some good speeds and hoping this saves me buying a new program card. The premature warning will be good for me and this information has also helped. Thanks for the advice 🙏🏼👌👍👍👍👍
@@imnoexpertrc1054 Excellent. Glad you found a good use for it. I don’t think there is a program card for nimh batteries. Only works for LiPo as far as I know.
@@Funcentric I mean a program card for my esc. Using this stops me having to get the card and make sure it’s at 3.2 or 3.4. The alarm tells me instead. I just put a nimh battery in the car to slow it down as it’s brushless and kids use it. now going to 3s. Read 28 mph on nimh battery so hoping for a big gain. Check my video on it a new one uploaded soon
Thanks for this info. I will be dumping all the power of a 3s into the Tamiya motor without an ESC and will be interested to see the result. Go big or wxplode trying.
I just bought a 2pack of these from Amazon and they good reviews but had zero instructions or basic info.. to me it looked like It needed soldering to work, so I put them on the shelf.. luckily I'm still on the first charge on my new lipo battery. So thanks for a rt to the point vid I'm sure it just saved my battery
Nice! Glad to hear! yeah, mine didn't come with instructions either and videos on how to use them didn't have enough detail and audio or video was horrible. Thought I'd just make a simple video that everyone can understand w/o having to be super into this stuff.
Zir ByG I have a good gauge now of how long the battery lasts with my style of driving so I no longer need to use the LiPo alarm. I’m getting more confident that at least the HBX esc’s have a reasonable LiPo cutoff level. My other HBX which is the 16889 I ran until the battery died and it was still above 3.3v which is getting tight but it’s definitely above 3.0v so it’s okay to run it that for down if I’m really not paying attention. I use it mostly as a LiPo voltage tester now as opposed to an alarm on the vehicle itself.
Thanks for the extremely clear and super informational video! This will help me out. I do have one question though, can we use this alarm for a drone instead of an rc car?
It’s probably not inserted correctly or you have a defective unit because the LiPo alarm itself does not have a battery. It uses the battery you are testing to light up the LED digital screen. So if your battery was truly at 0.00v, the display wouldn’t light up at all. It wouldn’t show 0.00v.
So this video was super helpful! Thank you. Quick question, mine says all is 08.2 but each cell is 4.10. Is that right? I feel like it should say 8.2 without the 0 at the front
Hi again! If I set the alarm to ring at 3.5 volts while the balance lead is plugged in, and then take out the balance lead, will the alarm reset and make it so I have to set the alarm to ring at 3.5 volts again when the lead IS plugged in?
Do you leave it in the car while your running it? I want to run Li-po in a Danchee where the ESC isn't setup for Li-pos (I guess there is no Low Voltage cutoff).
It remembers the voltage. You do not to reset it every time. I no longer uses this lipo alarm on the car b/c there are times where there is a burst of amperage that drops the voltage a lot but only temporarily and it sounds the alarm w/o stopping even if the voltage comes back to above the alarm set level. I use it just to test lipo voltage when I'm done.
Not sure what a G2 battery is. Although it's rare, I have seen 2S batteries that don't have balance leads. They won't last long as there's no way to balance them. As you probably suspected, the LiPo alarm wouldn't work for your situation.
@@robertshepherd3584 Hmm, that's interesting. The current chargers on the market may not be able to recognize it well then b/c it'll inform you if the balance lead isn't plugged in.
@@Funcentric if I’m correct the newer traxxas battery’s don’t have the balance lead because it’s built into the lead that plugs into the charger. This is because they have smart chargers now that automatically program and stuff.
Hey bud, I have a dynamite 60a esc (DYNS2210) that drops my power to 50% within a few minutes of running but returns to normal if I turn the car off and back on. You think it’d be safe to run the esc in nimh mode with one of these alarms on it to let me know when to stop? Heard people online going from 5 minutes of full speed to 25 minutes by circumnavigating the awful LVC of these escs
What's happening with your batter is called battery "sag". It's basically lowering the voltage dramatically during use. The LiPo alarm will sound even if it hits your set limit even for a brief second, so especially in your case with extensive battery sag, the alarm will be more misleading than useful. I would recommend driving it like you do normally until you "feel" the car run a bit slower. Then check the battery voltage and take note of your run time to that point. Then you can keep doing that to gauge how long of your driving style you can run the car before it gets to 3.70v per cell. You'll then have a good idea of how long you can run it and can estimate by time rather than actual voltage. Just put a timer on your phone or watch or something and you'll be in good shape. Do the same thing to 3.80v per cell which is storage voltage. Then next time you need to run it to storage, you'll have a good feel for what it takes to get it there and not have to manually put it in storage mode using a charger.
@@Funcentric someone gave me the idea that the lipo mode on that esc is garbage, they were having the same issue across all their lipos they suggested to run it on nimh mode with a voltage alarm (since LVC on nimh mode is too low), ran it for 20 minutes today with 0 slow down! Heat wasn’t an issue whatsoever even after that extended full power run either so In theory I should be good to go as long as that voltage alarm doesn’t come unplugged mid run 😅😂
@@Funcentric confirmed it with the company that makes the battery, If anyone else has a similar issue it’s a safe and effective fix. Got my runtime from a couple minutes of full power to 20+ of full power just make sure your voltage alarm doesn’t come unplugged and you’re good to go 😁
Yes, the numbers should appear once you plug it into the balance lead. Look at the back of the alarm and you’ll see a plus and minus sign. Make sure the red side of the balance lead is on the plus side.
Yes I fly and I can hear it in my battery plane. It's an eflite valiant using a 3s 2200 mah battery. Usually goes off around 8 mins if I set it to 3.8v. Plenty of time to set up for landing.
Yes, a 3S battery will work too. It works for up to 8S. Just put the battery's balance leads onto the prongs and it'll read both the total voltage and also the voltage for each individual cell.
Maybe 0.01-0.02v error. I use mine exclusively in the field. If you have one or it’s handy, you can plug each battery into a hobby charger to check voltage. The alarm though is so much more portable ans easier to plug in. If I’m parallel charging, I prepare by plugging each battery into the alarm/checker for voltage.
If it’s within viewing distance, you’ll likely hear it. I wouldn’t recommend it for FPV though. Voltage sag will make the alarm go off and when your lipo stabilizes, the alarm doesn’t shut off. Basically the alarm will sound very prematurely. For this reason, I don’t use it as anything but a lipo checker. I don’t strap it on anything while in use. For FPV, you can use the voltage shown in your goggles to judge. Also after awhile, you’ll just get the hang of it and be able to judge.
Yup, for storage charge. Except it’ll beep even if it sags to 3.8v and climbs back to 4.00. So if you really want to stop at storage charge, then maybe set it lower.
@@petertebo914 your balance lead has one red wire and the rest are probably black or white. The back of the lipo alarm had a white label. One side has a + and the other had a -. Make sure The red wire of the balance lead is plugged into the + side of the lipo alarm.
@@illhairacing3543 when the cells drop below the preset number, the alarm will sound. However, I don’t use this lipo alarm on the rc car anymore. I only use it as a battery checker. The reason is because the car’s ESC already had a built-in lipo cutoff where it will shut down at a safe voltage. Another reason is because there are peak instances where the voltage will drop just temporarily, yet the alarm will sound and keep sounding.
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Do you have to do this setting every time you plug a lipo in or will it stay on what setting you've set? So can I put another battery in straight after without setting the alarm again?
