Parallel charging question

[19trax95]

I ordered a parallel board from buddy rc to go along with my new icharger 306b and I'm a little confused on the whole parallel charging.

I have seen videos on you tube where guys say the capacity of the batteries doesn't matter just as long as the cell count and charge levels of all the batts are the same. I know for sure the cell count needs to be the same, and that the cell voltages should all be the same or as close as possible to each other, but do all the capacities of the batteries need to be the same?

I have 5 6s packs, 3 of them are 1200mah and the other 2 are 1350mah. Can i charge them all together? And I assume the answer will be the same for my 2 3s packs, one being a 2200mah and the other a 3300mah.

[JonJet]

Yes you can...the mAh capacity makes no difference...the supply will go to the battery with the least amount of charge until all packs are equal...which takes very little time to do

And as you connect them to the parallel setup, they begin equalizing even before you begin to charge, so no worries

[JonJet]

The only real concern is if you want to charge at more than 1C...I would stay at the 2C rating for the lowest mAh battery of the group

[19trax95]

That's excellent thank you. The most i ever charge at it 1.5c anyway. Sometimes ill go to 2c if I'm at the field but that's rare now that i have more batteries and other helis to fly. So as long as i stick to the charge rate for the smallest mah battery ill be fine right? So say i have 4 3300 packs and then one 2200 pack on the board, all 3s, i should charge at 2.2 amps per pack so 11 amps total for a 1c rate, right?

[JonJet]

Staying at a 2C rate for the smallest pack would mean 4.4 amps

[JonJet]

Of course...I would suspect that your charger will "drop off" the charge rate as you get close to max charge...so you could most likely set a rate of 11 amps and keep an eye on it as it reaches 10.5v and above...and adjust as needed