icharger 4010 DUO - Cycling new lipo's?

[Miracle Boy]

Hey guys,

I'm a little confused with how to set up my icharger to cycle some new lipo packs I have.

I'm unsure what the icharger default discharge voltage is doing. Let me explain.

The default voltage is set at 3.5v / cell, but does that mean that it will discharge at 3.5v per cell, and x discharge current, or is the 3.5v / cell the target end voltage for each cell?

I have bought some 3s 500mAh lipo's for my new 180CFX.

What I'd like to do is run 5 cycles on these lipo's to break them in. But being new cells, I want to break them in gently. So, say I set up a cycle to charge to 4.19 per cell, then discharge to 3.80 per cell, and run that cycle 5 times.

If I up the the default discharge voltage from 3.5v / cell to 3.8v / cell, will this make the charge cycle do what I want to do?

Thanks guys!! I hope I've managed to explain what I'm asking well enough LOL!!

MB

[RedOctobyr]

Originally Posted by Miracle Boy

Hey guys,

I'm a little confused with how to set up my icharger to cycle some new lipo packs I have.

I'm unsure what the icharger default discharge voltage is doing. Let me explain.

The default voltage is set at 3.5v / cell, but does that mean that it will discharge at 3.5v per cell, and x discharge current, or is the 3.5v / cell the target end voltage for each cell?

Yes, if you leave Discharge set to 3.5V, it will discharge at the amps you set in Discharge, until the first cell hits 3.5V.

As an aside, I don't know why they set the Discharge default to 3.5V, that's way too low IMO. I change that to 3.85V for my charge profiles.

If I up the the default discharge voltage from 3.5v / cell to 3.8v / cell, will this make the charge cycle do what I want to do?

Yes. Change the discharge target voltage. This won't change anything with Charging. But you could then use Cycle to charge/discharge them automatically, setting the # of cycles, if you wanted.

[Miracle Boy]

Originally Posted by RedOctobyr

Yes, if you leave Discharge set to 3.5V, it will discharge at the amps you set in Discharge, until the first cell hits 3.5V.

As an aside, I don't know why they set the Discharge default to 3.5V, that's way too low IMO. I change that to 3.85V for my charge profiles.

Yes. Change the discharge target voltage. This won't change anything with Charging. But you could then use Cycle to charge/discharge them automatically, setting the # of cycles, if you wanted.

Why thank you sir!! That's just what I was hoping to hear (read)

It's the default 3.5v that had me wondering, like you said, 3.5v is WAY to low, if I discharged to that, it would surely damage my lipo's.

Thanks again!!

MB

[neilgreene]

I have regenerative discharge setup to a setup of resistors on Channel 2. Which works fine when I select DISCHARGE. Which of course is using my discharge settings, which have REG ON to Channel 2.

But, I wanted to CYCLE a couple packs, and when I select CYCLE which is going to do a DISCHARGE --> CYCLE, I keep getting a message that says "Other channel is occupied." I mean, it is occupied, because I have the REG DIS setup to discharge packs to the second channel.

What am I doing wrong?

Now, I can disable the discharge to the 2nd channel, and run the CYCLE perfectly fine. Only thing is of course I do not want to cycle large packs on this little iCharger. Which is why I have the resistors to support higher load discharge.

[RedOctobyr]

What firmware version are you using? I'm running 2.15 on my 308Duo.

I just tried a quick test, a pack on one channel, my external resistive load on the other. I selected Cycle, using Discharge->Charge. Started it, and it seemed fine, no error messages. It only ran a few seconds, since the pack was already at storage, but I'm assuming your error was immediate.

Then I swapped the channels, switching the position of the LiPos and the resistive load, still no issues.

So I can't seem to reproduce your issue, sorry. The short-term workaround, of course, would be to manually Discharge, then Charge, then Discharge, etc. The charger shouldn't be left unattended during this anyhow. Depending on the size of the resistive load, hopefully the Discharge phase doesn't take too long.

[neilgreene]

Originally Posted by RedOctobyr

What firmware version are you using? I'm running 2.15 on my 308Duo.

I just tried a quick test, a pack on one channel, my external resistive load on the other. I selected Cycle, using Discharge->Charge. Started it, and it seemed fine, no error messages. It only ran a few seconds, since the pack was already at storage, but I'm assuming your error was immediate.

Then I swapped the channels, switching the position of the LiPos and the resistive load, still no issues.

So I can't seem to reproduce your issue, sorry. The short-term workaround, of course, would be to manually Discharge, then Charge, then Discharge, etc. The charger shouldn't be left unattended during this anyhow. Depending on the size of the resistive load, hopefully the Discharge phase doesn't take too long.

The second you said firmware, I realized I had not updated this iCharger. Works perfect now! Thanks! I have 4 5000mah packs I want to cycle. But, I do this outdoors in the fire pit. I have suffered my 1 fire for the team 4 years ago. Was watching all of my charges except the last brand new packs which I figured I could leave since they were unused. NOPE. Fire in the garage, got the pictures and t-shirt to show from it too.

[W@Sp0die]

That's why you should not cycle lipos. Always discharge lipos in a model.
Nicad / nimh batteries are for cycles to being them back to life.