RunRyder - 636 Charger help

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e-Electric Batteries & Chargers > 636 Charger help

airshares
Senior Heliman
Location: Camarillo, CA

Can anyone give me an easy instruction for charging batteries on the 636? I have a tanic 6cell 2200mah. I tried charging it last night but didn't know what settings to use. I did use 6 cell, I=.25 and 400mah.
it charged for 4 hours and still wasn't done. I unplugged it before i went to bed and the charger said it had 1100mah. I guess that means it half charged it.
Can somebody tell me what settings i should use for safe charging of lipos. Is there a basic equation for the charge rate?

Thanks

02-03-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

Eco8gator
Key Veteran
Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Hello

Im assuming you already know how to get into the menu to choose the cell type.

From there do this.

Choose LiPoly
Choose the cell count(6 in your case assuming your pack is 6 LiPoly cells in series.)
Choose the capacity with all the 999999999's(no real reason to use the charge limits since the charger will turn off after the pack reaches the correct voltage).

After you exit the menu you are back to the regular menu with that lets you choose the charge current. Choose the highest current that is not over 2.2 amps. Your pack should be charged in an hour.

LiPoly batteries can be charged at one C, which mean 1 X capacity rating.

Carlo

02-03-2004 Over year old.

cwd10
Veteran
Location: PA, - U.S.A.

I agree with Eco8gator, but keep one thing in mind. ALL batteries don't like heat. Fast charge times create heat. Your batteries will last longer (more cycles) if you slow charge. The 636 is a great charger, and will shut off when it's done if you charge at .25 or greater. I know it takes longer and LiPo's require supervision, but if you have the time to check on them periodically then slow is the way to go.

02-03-2004 Over year old.

Eco8gator
Key Veteran
Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Hello

The pack should not ever heat up in the charge cycle well mine dont. I charge all my small LiPoly packs at 1C and the are roomtemp after the charge. I charge my 5s3p 6000mah LiPoly at 5.5 amps(I have a 330D so this is as high as it goes) and it is room temp off the charger as well. I think the main deal with LiPoly is not to discharge them past what they are rated. Its the high discharge that really causes heat to build up in the cells.

Carlo

02-03-2004 Over year old.

airshares
Senior Heliman
Location: Camarillo, CA

charger

So... to charge my battery slow i should pick the I=.25 rate?
And to charge fast pick one under 2.2?

Thanks for your help.

02-04-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

Ace Dude
Elite Veteran
Location: USA

Since it's a Li-Po the max charge rate is 1C, which in your case is 2200Mah or 2.2A. Thus, anyting less than 1C is fine.

I disagree with setting the charge capacity to 99999999. It's there for a reason. Obviously, peak detection circuits aren't perfect and that's why it's there. Just set it to the next setting larger than the pack you have and you'll be fine.

Lastly, never every charge LiPos unattended! Thus, if you do charge at the 0.25A rate make sure you'll be around until they finish which will take hours. Charging at the 1C rate will generally take an hour.

I've been using my 636 to charge some 250Mah 2 cell LiPo packs at I=0.25 ( the max charge rate in this case) and had no problems.

I used the computer interface with my 636 and it was nice to see the charge curve. Very different than Ni-Cds.

02-04-2004 Over year old.

Eco8gator
Key Veteran
Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Hello

First off, LiPolys are not peaked. If LiPolys could be peaked we wouldnt have to go through the trouble of selecting cell counts ect like we dont have to for Nicad or Nimh cells. With the charger set to 99999999 the current limiter is disabled so that the charger goes straight off of the voltage of the pack. Just make sure the cell count and charge current(1C or less but no reason to go too much under 1C if you want to charge slower) is set correctly and you are ready to rock.

The reason for the current limiter is that the charger is supposed to stop after it put X ammount of charge into a pack. The earlier versions of the 8.xx series software have a problem of not compleatly stopping the charge current even when the current limit is reached....

Here is is straight from RC Direct.

"We have found that there is a problem in the lead acid and lithium programs when the charge quantity limit is set improperly. The isl 6 does NOT COMPLETELY cut off the charge current when the limit is reached and neither the quantity limit message nor the buzzer signalled this.
With "normal" pack charge settings this condition can not occur (this means that the charge limit has to be set to a value the pack never can reach)...

This problem occurs in the software versions 8.00 through 8.04 in lead and lithium programs and is solved from version 8.05 upward.
All users of an isl 6 charger with software versions 8.00-8.04 should absolutely set the charge quantity limit to "99999" when charging lead-acid or lithium batteries - i.e. simply disable this limit."

And I fully agree, DO NOT charge these cells unatteneded! LiPolys are basically fire balls just waiting to be let out...

02-04-2004 Over year old.

Ace Dude
Elite Veteran
Location: USA

Okay, so if they are not peaked, what is algorithm is used to determine the end of the charge cycle? I wasn't necessarily speaking in terms of the dv/dt peak used with ni-cds sorry for the confusion.

The current limiter is there to do exactly what it's intended to do, prevent overcharging. As perviously stated, I see no harm in using it. Sorry for the clarification, I should've mentioned that the firmware in my 636+RS is v8.06 and I have not used previous versions of the firmware.

02-04-2004 Over year old.

cwd10
Veteran
Location: PA, - U.S.A.

If you have version 8.0 - 8.04, you can get a free firmware update chip from RC-Direct. Go here.

http://www.rc-direct.com/sch_soft_update.htm

02-04-2004 Over year old.

Eco8gator
Key Veteran
Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Hello

Once the charger reaches a certain voltage it "knows" to stop charging. For instance if you have a 3sXp pack then your charger know to stop charging when the battery voltage reaches 12.6 volts(the voltage each individual LiPoly cell is charged to is 4.2 volts).

I agree, there is no harm in using it. One reason I didnt use it is it have have the correct choice for all different pack capacities to choose from so the limiter wasnt useful in my case.

Carlo

02-04-2004 Over year old.

Ace Dude
Elite Veteran
Location: USA

Quote
Once the charger reaches a certain voltage it "knows" to stop charging.

Okay, that's peak detection to me. It's just doesn't have the rise/fall found in a traditional Ni-Cd peak charge curve.

Quote
For instance if you have a 3sXp pack then your charger know to stop charging when the battery voltage reaches 12.6 volts(the voltage each individual LiPoly cell is charged to is 4.2 volts).

Right, but since the 636 doesn't measure individual cell voltage we really don't know if each individual cell is really 4.2v. That sure would be nice though.

Quote
I agree, there is no harm in using it. One reason I didnt use it is it have have the correct choice for all different pack capacities to choose from so the limiter wasnt useful in my case.

I understand, I'm just paranoid of a runaway charge that doesn't stop. The last thing I want is a fire or to damage the pack from overcharging. Call me paranoid. I did see my Alpha 4 fail to detect the peak on a Ni-Cd a while back. I was able to manually stop it and it only happened once, but....

02-04-2004 Over year old.

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e-Electric Batteries & Chargers > 636 Charger help

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