Eagle Tree amp draw vs. Infinity 3 charger & balancer

[Patriek]

Hi!

When I read the total amps put back into my packs through my Robbe PowerPeak Infinity 3 charger/ balancer, it always is more than my EagleTree datalogger is saying how much was drawn from the packs.. Anyone has an explanation for this event?

Which one is more true on total mah drawn/ flight?

Thanks,


Patriek

[Big Fil]

One thing i've noticed with my eagle tree is that mah used on my graph is always lower than what my charger says is going back into the pack. Not sure why.

[pwoodyp]

Thinking maybe the difference with the battery being under load and the other is not when the readings are taken? Don't know enough about the whole subject so that's more a question than an opinion

[Pinecone]

Because most balancing chargers deplete the high cells to keep the pack in balance. So the charger always has to put more back into the pack than was taken out.

[Omar_P]

I can't really tell from the description of your charger but if it balances the cells by discharging, every time a cell goes out of balance it would have to discharge some cells and that could account for the extra mAh put in by the charger.

As far as I could tell only by using a charger that charges through the balance port you would see the same mAh as in your eagletree

Hope it helps

[Omar_P]

Pinecone: you're fast... damn

[Big Fil]

Makes sense.

[JimLerch]

One more nit-pick, "Charge inefficiency"

Batteries are not 100% efficient at storing the quantity of power input during charge. This is especially true with NiMH or NiCd cells.

Having started my RC life on Lipo batteries, I was rather surprised the first time I discharge / charge cycled my 1800 Mah NiMH RX battery in my plank. Its pretty common for me to see several hundred ma more on the charge cycle than the discharge cycle.