Hi guys,

I believe to use a lipo battery to the fullest you need to break in.. I have heard of this term from some guys but couldnt follow what it exactly means ?

How to break in ? Is it necessary to balance the batteries after every cycle or after 10 cycles is fine ?

please enlighten me with your pro comments..

cheers

atul g.

i balance them after every cycle

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=410400


subbu

there are tons of links one more (actually a bit less )

http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20741

subbu

Is a "break in" really required  I've read through the links, but every one seems to have a different opinion.
ps: i balance charge every time.

Use your balancer charger Discharging facility to break in the battery but it is not suggested regularly. do it only when power is not sufficient or some other problem. and should be done on new batteries (recommended)

Thanks Sandeep!!
I have two new batteries, i'll go ahead and do a proper three cycle breaking. I guess that will be the best way to find out if it really does some good.

Li-Po batteries don't need breaking-in like Ni-Cd and Ni-mH batteries. Just like brush less motors don't need breaking- in like brushed motors do,to get maximum performance.But balance charging keeps the Li-Pos in best condition.

If anyone use balance charger, the cell that have gets charged fully is actually bypassed the charging current and stops charging (Truely speaking boost charging), maintaining constant voltage (If the min voltage is 3.7 and Max volt is set at 4.2, then cell voltage 4.2 remain constant after attaining as charging for that particular cell stops). But the rest cell(s) goes charging. and after attaining the voltage of 2nd cell, it also stops charging by bypassing.
And this goes on till last cell fully charged. So, after attaining full charge, all cell bypassed and the charging current will be of no use. So, LiPO Balance charger monitors all the cell voltage and when charged fully then only it shows the charging complete light.

The case is different in case of NiCD or NiMH. As the cell voltage is very low (1.2-1.42) i. e. higher internal terminals than LiPO , are not kept outside terminals for balance charge.

For example for 11-12 volt, 3LiPO cells are used i. e. terminals are 4 but 9-10 NiCd/NiMH is required i. e. 10-11 terminals are required and not done practically.

So, Everytime, the balance charger is used for charging, we made 98-100% charge of each battery. In NiCd/NiMH, after 50-100 cycles balance charging can kept the quality.

Common Data used for designing balance charger/ General Charger of NiCD
=====================================================


Full Charge voltage at 1C = 1.52 Voltage
Full Charge voltage at 0.2C = 1.37 Voltage


90% Discharged voltage at 1C = 1.06 Volt
90% Discharged voltage at 0.2C = 1.17 Volt
Rest can be calculated by interpolation.


Common Data used for designing balance charger/ General Charger of NiMH
=====================================================

Full Charge voltage at 1C = 1.58 Voltage
Full Charge voltage at 0.2C = 1.47 Voltage


90% Discharged voltage at 1C = 1.1 Volt
90% Discharged voltage at 0.2C = 1.2 Volt

Rest can be calculated by interpolation.

I just added a little bit Data known to all.