I know there are plenty threads out there on this but they were all super confusing. What are battery s and c ratings, what do they represent, and how do they effect performance…
S means “Series” it is an indication of how many series cells are in your battery. in short it means how many volts your battery will have. 1S = 3.7V 2S = 7.4V 3S = 11.1V 6S = 22.2V 12S = 44.4V
C is the current discharge rate where the C number is multiplied by the Amp hour rating to give peak discharge current.
so for a 5000mAh pack 20C = 100A also worth noting that for a 10,000mAh pack rated 10C its still 100A
I have seen a lot of people saying “don’t get that pack its only 10C” but the pack is rated to 16000mAh so its actually better than the 30C 5000mA pack they have.
Never use C ratings on li-ion cells. It does not apply.
Typically you’ll see something like 10S 3P this means 10 cells in series (typically each cell is 4.2V when charged, 3.6-3.7V when discharged) and 3 packs in parallel which means 30 cells total, the 10S tells you like lowGuido said the voltage. The P (in 10S3P) indicates number of 10S packs in parallel in general the amp-hour (Ah) rating is, but it depends on exactly what kind of cells are used what that Ah they will have per individual cell. You’ll also see 18650 which is a form factor for LiIon cells (cylinder shaped, believe 18mm diameter and 650mm length) but exact chemistry effects how much juice/amp hours (Ah) they store and on the other side Lithium Polymer batteries.