Balance charging?

Ddub · Feb 26, 2017

Hello all,
I have been reading thru the forum looking at alternate ways to charge the solo battery.
I have came across quite a few post on it but a lot of them are using some DIY built kit or ordering an adapter to charge it. I am planning on just using my lipo charger on 4S, but not sure about balancing as it doesn't have the balance connector. Does the smart battery already have the balancer integrated into the circuit board in the battery housing? If it does then I should be able to just make a plug that will plug into the battery from my charger, and set it at the proper charge rate. Or am I way off track?
Thanks for you help,
Don

Jubalr · Feb 26, 2017

Ddub said:
Hello all,
I have been reading thru the forum looking at alternate ways to charge the solo battery.
I have came across quite a few post on it but a lot of them are using some DIY built kit or ordering an adapter to charge it. I am planning on just using my lipo charger on 4S, but not sure about balancing as it doesn't have the balance connector. Does the smart battery already have the balancer integrated into the circuit board in the battery housing? If it does then I should be able to just make a plug that will plug into the battery from my charger, and set it at the proper charge rate. Or am I way off track?
Thanks for you help,
Don

Yes, the balance circuitry is built in. Also keep in mind that just under 6a is the max charge rate. Above that and the Solo batt will turn off the charge and your charger will show a disconnect.

andrew.baker.142 · Feb 26, 2017

Don,
Jubalr is correct, just set your LiPo charger to something less than 6A ( mine maxes out at 5.3), and the battery will handle the balancing.
Also, if you want to use your stock charger ends, just splice in an XT60 (or whatever you normally use) connector into the stock charge lead. This way you can use the stock charger or your personal LiPo charger.

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Ddub · Feb 26, 2017

Thank you that is exactly what I was looking for.

Ddub · Feb 26, 2017

Andrew,
I went ahead and soldering in my xt60 connectors making sure to keep the polarity correct. It works well with the stock charger plugged into the wall, but when I hook it up to my lipo charger it errors and says too low voltage. I assume its because it can not see the voltage at the battery because of the internal board. I even verified this with checking the voltage at the battery with my DMM and it reads 0 VDC. How did you get around that, just a setting in your charger?
Thanks

Jubalr · Feb 26, 2017

Ddub said:
Andrew,
I went ahead and soldering in my xt60 connectors making sure to keep the polarity correct. It works well with the stock charger plugged into the wall, but when I hook it up to my lipo charger it errors and says too low voltage. I assume its because it can not see the voltage at the battery because of the internal board. I even verified this with checking the voltage at the battery with my DMM and it reads 0 VDC. How did you get around that, just a setting in your charger?
Thanks

With some chargers you have to turn on the battery first. Hold the power button down for a sec and start charging while the lights are still on.

Ddub · Feb 26, 2017

Jubalr,
Perfect! that worked thank you.

Sbpowerhouse · Feb 28, 2017

What are the advantages here outside of being able to discharge the battery or stock charger stopped working over just using stock charger. Just curious.

andrew.baker.142 · Feb 28, 2017

If you get a powerful enough LiPo charger you can charge at up to 6A. The stock charger only charges at ~3.2A if I'm not mistaken. The HiTec charger pictured above will do 80 watts per charger so it maxes out at 5.3A. Still significantly faster than the stock charger.

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Greg Parker · Feb 28, 2017

Sbpowerhouse said:
What are the advantages here outside of being able to discharge the battery or stock charger stopped working over just using stock charger. Just curious.

The Hitec charger pictured above and the lower powered one can charge to storage voltage and stop there automatically so you don't have to baby sit them.