Hi I just built my first DIY skateboard, using an cute old school santacruze deck. I have a question about the battery I am using. it is this one: ZIPPY Compact 5000mAh 6S 25C Lipo Pack
I found article online say that you can only use 80% of your battery capacity, so every time, i will left 1000mAh in my battery, so when i charge it, it will only need about 4000mah to get fully charged?
Is this the right way? or should i just can use all 5000mAh ?
Just easier to look at it in terms of voltage. Gonna drive yourself nuts.
@domfeng123 Just dont charge up till 4.2v, kiddo
Choose Li-ion setting when charging… thus you will spare your pack some cycles…
If you dont want to compromise on capacity, set it to 4.15v… thus you will be in between 
(that is if your charger allows you to change current)
– Plus, I think it is hard to ‘‘pull’’ all 5000mah out of the pack… you usually just end up using 4800mah or so anyways… if you do get 5000mah … hands down to your lipo pack!
@Okami Thanks a lot for your reply
i found this article online:
do you think it is good practice to just leave 1000+mah in battery for every time i use ?
it all depends on the quality of the pack. I have pulled 5100mAh from a 5000mAh pack before it reached 3.00V per cell before, but on the flipside I have also had packs drop to 3.00V on a cell before 5000mAh has been used.
a good quality pack should deliver what it advertises, just be aware that some companies lie about their mAh ratings… 9000mAh from an 18650 is probably a lie.
its probably also worth nothing that battery voltage percentage is not the percentage of the battery used. so when my battery meter on my board reads 70% I have actually used about HALF of my capacity… so… stay woke LOL.
@lowGuido Oh, kind of heard about that, lol, thanks. So what you mean is how many mah you use is not accurate, just not let the battery v below 3v never is enough ?
actually what Im saying is the mAh you use is MORE accurate that the battery voltage…
say for a 5000mAh battery when you have used 2500mAh you have used 50% of you battery capacity, but if you look at the voltage meter it might still read close to full… the battery voltage stays high for longer, once it starts to drop it drops rapidly…
so when I ride my voltage stays around 90%+ for a say the first 45 mins but then once it hits 60% it will drop to nothing within 10mins.
@domfeng123 for you… better staying in 3.4v-3.5v per cell would be best…
I think lowest you want to go for lipo is 3.3v…
They need to be a bit higher in voltage than regular li-ions…
If im wrong… just say @lowGuido
Thanks a lot, i will test that and see what is max mah i can use 
It might be close to 4ah you mention… but I think you can aswell use 90%… just dont use it all the time… only occasionaly
It is a recommendation… not a rule you have to obey for all costs… Your skateboard will just get slower… and as lowguido says… in the last 10% or so… the drop in voltage / power might be a bit drastic, so it is wise not to use your board beyong this point…at least that is what I would do … not to destroy the balance of the cells a lot.
don’t forget voltage sag! so when you are riding you might drop down as low as 2.9V or even lower under load and when you take it off load you are still at 3.2v-3.3v so I set my alarm at about 3.0
having said that its always best to never fully discharge all the way so… learn your range and never go too far.
@lowGuido So do you finish discharging batteries at 3.2-3.3v?
I heard in the other topic you said you barely discharge more than 50%… is that true also?
my pack is 10000mAh and most of my skates are about 7km which uses around 3000mah so I re charge after every skate. I almost never go lower than 3.8V per cell unless Im doing a full range test when I will purposely drain the batteries down to 3.0v per cell to see how far i can push it.
Good ‘‘economy’’ on battery life, that’'s for sure 
curious how many kilometers can you do… drawing only 3ah for 7km does sound good…
interestingly enough a 7km skate with a 3000mAh drain still reads 85% on my battery… longest ride I have done is 22km till cells at 3.00v