charging - that’s another whole can of worms. Or down the rabbit hole or something…
Your charging is going to depend on a couple key things.
1 - pack life vs quick charge. Your battery will have a charging “c” rating. Just like the discharge rating of the battery - it lets you know max charging amps.
2 - more complex setup with AC-DC PSU and you’ll need a Parallel balance board to utilize the need for more amps.
Let’s look at the specs for the Turnigy battery:
So 2 C max charge rate. 2x5Ah (5000mAh) = 10 Amps max charge rate! That’s quite a bit and will give you a fast charge. Like if you get home from work, want to charge and get out the door to ride before sunset!
BUT - nothing’s free. Higher amp charging and discharging decreases pack life. Usually decreasing the # or re-charges it will do before IR (internal resistance) or a cell will go (discharge before the rest) - which leads to puffing and all sorts of bad things (why i look at my packs before charging).
So to extend battery life, you usually want to do a lower C charge - like .25 C or .5 C - so on this turnigy 1.25A or 2.5A respectively. You can also charge just below “full” 4.2v per cell which extends life further - but decreases range.
Back onto chargers - if you have a b6acv2 charger (a budget charger i usually recommend) - it maxes at 5A charge rate - across all batteries you are charging. So 2 batteries would be getting 2.5A ea. That’s good for pack life, but going to be slow sometimes when you want to ride NOW!
A better charger like an iCharger (206/306 etc) can charge at 20-30A respectively (the first two numbers of the model is amps, the last number is # in series it supports). So the 206 could charge two of the Turnigy’s at 10A each for 20A total - FAST! or a slow .25 C charge for better battery life. A great option.
The downside of most chargers like this (iCharger or similar) is that they require DC voltage. So a separate AC-DC power supply is needed. You can get several really nice variable ones online, or do what i did and get a Dell Server (or other brand HP/Lenovo/etc.) power supply and modify (or buy already modified) to switch on and supply a huge 12v power source. I have two 750w in series for 1500w 24v to supply my iCharger 306b and Hobbypartz Thunder 1220.
A setup like this as an example of AC-DC PSU -> 8s Lipo charger:
And in order to need 20A+ you’ll need to connect enough batteries in parallel to utilize (also convenient and decreases swap and charge time) the full potential of a setup like this. The best ones i’ve found (will depend on which connector you utilize on your packs) is BuddyRC’s paraboard:
Nicer chargers typically also have a temp probe you can utilize. with an elastic band they sit against the pack while charging and will auto-shut down the charge if the temp of the pack spikes while charging. Heat almost always happens before a catastrophic failure on Lipo. So an inexpensive failsafe (usually a few bucks for the temp probe if not included).
Told you it’s a rabbit hole discussion and a ton of info to digest. Hope it’s not too long winded and makes sense. let me know any questions i can explain or help further.
GL!
