Battery charging LiPO

Hello

I have been researching this a while and keep getting stumped... :confused:

I have 3 LiPO 2000mA (6000mA) batteries imbedded in my project which cannot be removed for external charging - wired in parallel. I am looking for a very small component USB 3.0 charger

Something like Sparkfun's charger

Unfortunately it only charges one cell.

I am also looking for a BMS that would match this something along the lines of

but buying this product has a $50.00!! charge to the UK

All ideas appreciated :slight_smile:

Thankyou

LolaLED:
Something like Sparkfun's charger
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10401

Unfortunately it only charges one cell.

When LiPo cells are charged in parallel, they are charged as if a single cell. You treat your pack as if it were a single 6,000mAh cell and use a single cell charger with it.

Your pack can probably be charged with 3A of current (possibly more) but it should charge just fine with a lower current charger. Low current chargers will just take a long time to charge your pack. If the charger charges at 500mA then your pack could take 12 hours to charge.

I don't see why the SparkFun charger wouldn't work. There are lots of single cell LiPo chargers on ebay. These should also work.

What's a BMS?

If you go to Hobbyking.co.uk you'll find a wide selection of balance chargers that should suit your requirement at a sensible price I take it your battery voltage comprises more than 1 cell, hence the need for a BMS (Battery Management System)

jackrae:
If you go to Hobbyking.co.uk you'll find a wide selection of balance chargers that should suit your requirement at a sensible price I take it your battery voltage comprises more than 1 cell, hence the need for a BMS (Battery Management System)

I'm not aware of a charger which will balance cells charged in parallel. I didn't think a balancer was needed provided the cells being charged are in similar states of discharge. I'd think having the cells in parallel while in use would insure all the cells were in similar states of discharge.

It looks like the device at Amazon prevents overcharging and over discharging. This seems like a good thing to have. I generally use use a LiPo alarm with a meter.

Revolectrix.co.uk do a charger system that can charge parallel batteries, providing they are all of the same chemistry and same cell count. They use 'safe adapters' to couple together individual cells via self-resetting fuses such that they are then coupled to a single balance port on the charger. I believe they can accommodate up to 8 packs in parallel.

A simple charger without cell monitoring for individual cell voltages is not recommended for Li type batteries. Cells do not charge or discharge at similar rates and the more often they are used/recharged without balancing the more apart they drift.

When LiPo cells are in parallel they will all have the same voltage. They don't need to be monitored separately. All the balancing circuits I've seen are for packs in series.

Here are a some quotes from articles about charging LiPo packs in parallel.

RcHelicopterFun.com has this to say.

I have even read a couple articles that state no battery expert would ever recommend parallel charging. Well, I would love to get the data source on statement's like those.

Why? Because out of the half dozen LiPo experts I've talked to, and the numerous electrical engineers in the hobby I've also conversed with; I simply can't find a single person in the know that will say parallel charging of LiPo batteries is more harmful than single pack charging or will reduce the packs life span. Provided you have good equipment and understand exactly what you are doing.

Here's a quote from TJinTech:

When you place all the packs in parallel, they all become the same voltage. I am not speaking in metaphors here, they really all do become the same voltage. Not the average of the packs either. Current actually flows between the packs and they actually all adjust voltage until they all perfectly match each other. The charger only "sees" one larger pack and charges it as if it were a single pack.

ElectricAircraftGuy doesn't seem to think highly of the boards which use fuses.

This entire article is written for those of you using raw, unprotected parallel charge boards with NO fuses or current protection circuits of any kind. If anyone tells you that you must have protection power fuses and polyfuses and things on your board, they are flat out wrong.

I figure these guys know what they're talking about but I can certainly understand having a reservation about charging batteries in parallel. I've certainly had a lot of LiPo cells go bad and it sure would be easier to catch a bad cell if they weren't be charged with other cells.

I personally don't have experience charging (or using) LiPo cells in parallel but from what I've read, it sure seems like a charger made for a single LiPo cell should be able to charge the three parallel cells as if it were a single high capacity cell.

I won't enter a debate about the rights and wrongs but what I can state:

  1. single cells in parallel act as a 'larger' single cell at a single common voltage
  2. a battery consisting of multiple cells (in series) connected to another battery (of the same chemistry and number of cells) when connected in parallel will again run at a single common voltage. However there is no guarantee that the individual cells of battery 'A' are running at the same voltage as the cells of battery 'B'