Battery charger / discharger adapter

abptech · Jan 29, 2017

Hello all. Not too long ago I charged 2 of my batteries all the way. Later that day something came up and I was not able to fly the solo. I knew that was not going to be able to fly for at least a couple weeks. I needed to discharge my batteries to store them. I looked around the house to come up with a way to do it and I found some DEAN style connectors that I dint need any more as I switched everything to XT60 connectors. I used two DEAN connectors and 1 XT60 connector and made an adapter to be able to use my charger/ discharger and discharge the batteries. It worked well. I was able to make a second one in less than 20 minutes. I used one of them today to charge my battery at 1C with the adapter and my charger and it worked really good and fast. Attached are some pics that show what I did. If you like or have your input let me know. Thanks for reading.

Jubalr · Jan 29, 2017

Everyone has their own opinion on this storage crapola of 3DR Solo batts; so here is mine based strictly on experience. 'Don't worry about it'. I have 12 batteries and I keep at least 4 charged should I need to go out in a hurry. Solo batts will slowly discharge themselves to around 50% or so given enough time. If I don't fly for a week they are generally down to just the one light is off. 10 days to 2 weeks and they may be down 2-3 lights. When I go to fly if it is down just 1 light I fly it as is. IF it's more than that I charge it before I fly, time permitting. Still using the same batts that came with my Solo in May of 2015.

My opinion, YMMV.. Also, nice work on the adapters, they will come in handy for charging.

ETA.. Please don't bother posting the various articles on the care and feeding of LiPo batteries. We are talking specifically about Solo here. Not your run of the mill RC Lipo..

andrew.baker.142 · Jan 29, 2017

abptech,
You could just use the stock charger end by splicing in XT60 connectors. Allows you to charge or discharge the batteries with any LiPo charger.

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abptech · Jan 29, 2017

Thank you Jubalr. Andrew, yes that is an option but i wanted to create something to charge and or discharge more than one at a time. I have chargers capable of doing more than one battery at the time. Also there are other treads here that shows how to make your own dc to dc adapter to make your own chargers. Just wanted to share my solution.

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Chuck · Jan 29, 2017

I do the same as Jublar. It seems that the Solo battery will slowly discharge on it's own down to 50%. I have noticed that it takes a long time to discharge down below 50% once it reaches that point. I guess that is why it is called a "smart" battery.

Air_Max · Jan 30, 2017

Great Information.... Those of us with balance chargers can do Duel charging 1 on the Balance charger and the Stock 3dr Battery charger..

I have one question for Everyone/Anyone.
I'd like to see one of these 3DR batteries innards. -Post some pictures of an Old dead one if you have one around. (Show the LiPo Size, connections, design)
What I have in mind is... create a Balance monitoring cable "setup/interface" (probably a 4S type-depends on the design of these Solo Bats) & then once in awhile condition these, etc.

Just joined the group, looking forward to bouncing ideas around here and stories, etc..
Thx

Jubalr · Jan 30, 2017

Air_Max said:
Great Information.... Those of us with balance chargers can do Duel charging 1 on the Balance charger and the Stock 3dr Battery charger..

I have one question for Everyone/Anyone.
I'd like to see one of these 3DR batteries innards. -Post some pictures of an Old dead one if you have one around. (Show the LiPo Size, connections, design)
What I have in mind is... create a Balance monitoring cable "setup/interface" (probably a 4S type-depends on the design of these Solo Bats) & then once in awhile condition these, etc.

Just joined the group, looking forward to bouncing ideas around here and stories, etc..
Thx

Several on here and elsewhere have done it over the last year & half or so. Search and Ye shall find...Here is one...

Air_Max · Jan 30, 2017

That is Sweet... This is cool.. thanks for the link..

I will be searching more along these lines... nice qik response.

jamedved · Apr 12, 2017

andrew.baker.142 said:
abptech,
You could just use the stock charger end by splicing in XT60 connectors. Allows you to charge or discharge the batteries with any LiPo charger.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice, I'm gonna create the same cable....can you please tell me which polarity the cable with the inscription on the Solo end has?

Thanks!

andrew.baker.142 · Apr 13, 2017

I just used my multi-meter to determine the polarity of the stock charger and went from there. I'll check when I get home tonight.

jamedved · Apr 13, 2017

andrew.baker.142 said:
I just used my multi-meter to determine the polarity of the stock charger and went from there. I'll check when I get home tonight.

Sorry, I dug mine up as well and figured it out....my IMAX B6 ACV2 takes too long to discharge the Solo battery though, 7+ hours to get it just above 50% from full charge.