A drop-dead simple product – basically plug it in and let it do its work
Lithium Polymer batteries are volatile. Failure to read and follow the below instructions may result in fire, personal injury and damage to property if charged or used improperly.
This excerpt from Thunder Power's Lipo Safety Warnings pretty much says it all – Lipos are a great power source with high density storage – but they do require careful handling. One of the ways to ensure that your Lipos are in top shape is to use a Lipo Balancer. This unit is Thunder Power's Cell Balancer #TP-205v; this handles up to 5 cells; there is a larger unit available that will handle up to 10 cells.
The potential problem with an unbalanced Lipo is that if one cell's voltage is significantly under the others, the charger will charge to the lower cell, overcharging the other cells – the result may be a very hot battery, or worse.
A: Imbalance under 0.03V: yellow status LED “on”, red LED(s) “on” for 5 seconds. Proceed with normal charging.
If yellow status LED “flashes”, pack average voltage is below 3.6V.
B: Imbalance 0.03 to 0.2V: yellow status LED ”off”, red LED(s) flash for 5 seconds. Charge at 0.3A to balance the pack or proceed carefully with 0.5C charge.
If yellow status LED ”flashes”, pack average voltage is below 3.6V. Proceed with normal charging.
C: Imbalance over 0.2V: yellow status LED “off”, red LED(s) flash for 60 seconds. Battery may require repair (Keep battery plug into the balancer for auto self balance, do not charge battery until bleeding/balancing stop)
If imbalance remains >0.2V, balancer continues beeping every minute for 10 seconds.
If yellow status LED begins flashing, pack average voltage has dropped to below 3.6V. You may charge the battery at 0.3A and monitor charging for one hour, if the beeping stops but bleeding continues, unplug the charger and balancer to retest the pack with balancer. If beeping continues, you need professional help.
Additional audio alert: Cell voltage below 3.2V, audio beeps for 5 seconds
Using it is drop-dead simple; plug in your battery pack, watch the LEDs and act accordingly. This blurry shot shows it in action:
If an unbalanced condition is detected, you can let the balancer do its thing and the cells will be balanced by equalizing the charge among them. As it does this, the LEDs will flash and show which cells it's balancing. When the flashing stops – done!
The other alternative is to charge the battery with the balancer in place, following the manual's instructions.
CONCLUSIONS
This is a drop-dead simple product – basically plug it in and let it do its work. Lipos are not cheap – using a balancer seems to me cheap insurance to keep Lipos in top shape. The balancer is not cheap either (about $60), but what in this hobby is?
Thunder Power Lipo Balancer
A drop-dead simple product – basically plug it in and let it do its work
Lithium Polymer batteries are volatile. Failure to read and follow the below instructions may result in fire, personal injury and damage to property if charged or used improperly.
This excerpt from Thunder Power's Lipo Safety Warnings pretty much says it all – Lipos are a great power source with high density storage – but they do require careful handling. One of the ways to ensure that your Lipos are in top shape is to use a Lipo Balancer. This unit is Thunder Power's Cell Balancer #TP-205v; this handles up to 5 cells; there is a larger unit available that will handle up to 10 cells.
The potential problem with an unbalanced Lipo is that if one cell's voltage is significantly under the others, the charger will charge to the lower cell, overcharging the other cells – the result may be a very hot battery, or worse.
The following excerpt from the TP-205V LITHIUM POLYMER BALANCER User’s Guide shows how it works:
If yellow status LED “flashes”, pack average voltage is below 3.6V.
If yellow status LED ”flashes”, pack average voltage is below 3.6V. Proceed with normal charging.
If imbalance remains >0.2V, balancer continues beeping every minute for 10 seconds.
Additional audio alert: Cell voltage below 3.2V, audio beeps for 5 seconds
Using it is drop-dead simple; plug in your battery pack, watch the LEDs and act accordingly. This blurry shot shows it in action:
If an unbalanced condition is detected, you can let the balancer do its thing and the cells will be balanced by equalizing the charge among them. As it does this, the LEDs will flash and show which cells it's balancing. When the flashing stops – done!
The other alternative is to charge the battery with the balancer in place, following the manual's instructions.
This is a drop-dead simple product – basically plug it in and let it do its work. Lipos are not cheap – using a balancer seems to me cheap insurance to keep Lipos in top shape. The balancer is not cheap either (about $60), but what in this hobby is?