Parallel Charging is a safe and easy way to charge several batteries at one time. If you have a four button multi-chemistry charger (similar to the Accucel 6) this Hobbyking parallel charging board makes it easy for you.
Before you go out and start charging lipos be aware that all of the standard disclaimers and warnings for charging/storing and using lipo batteries apply. Spend some time on the Google machine and familiarize yourself with lipo safety and advanced charging concepts for parallel charging. Familiarize yourself with the risks and manage the risks. Lipo fires are real and do happen. Ultimately you will be the one held responsible if an accident should happen. Play and charge safely.
Here's a great article about parallel charging:
http://flitetest.com/articles/Parallel_Charging
And another good article about lipos in general:
http://flitetest.com/articles/Choosing_A_LiPo
Hobbyking Parallel Charging Board for 6 packs 2 - 6S XT60
Here's a pic of what the board looks like as delivered from Hobbyking:
The board works fine as delivered from Hobbyking but I chose to clip off the XT60 and soldered on a couple of banana plugs so I could plug the board directly into the charger.
Here's the board hooked up and ready to go on the Accucel 6
The Accucel 6 and the ECO 6 both hooked up and charging batteries. These two chargers are very similar, the operator menus appear to be exactly the same.
Pulled back a little to overview the whole setup.
There are plenty of other ways to accomplish parallel charging with both of these chargers but these boards make it easy. Just make sure the voltages of the individual batteries are fairly close (within two tenths of a volt seems to be working well for me). Plug the big plugs (xt-60) onto board first, if there is a difference in battery voltage, it will equalize (same with the balance pugs, but the traces are much smaller so they are much more likely to act as a fuse if there is too big of a difference). Only charge batteries with the same amount of cells together and follow all charging precautions as normal. Using these chargers, you will not charge multiple batteries super fast but at least you can charge and save time by charging a bunch at once. Charge safely!
Please charge carefully make sure you are aware of the risks.
Watch this series of lipo videos. Here's the link to the first one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odxR1lkfiEI&feature=channel&list=UL
Maybe I should do another article and link these videos?
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
I may actually move this setup out to the garage. It's all about risk management.
The cinderblocks likely will prevent a fire in case of a catastrophic lipo event but would most likely still fill the house with the stinky smoke.
Kind of weighing the risk. Charge attended inside my hobby room vs. unattended in the garage. In the garage I will probably place a big ziplock bag of sand on top while charging...
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
A friend of mine recently had a lipo fire in his home due to a charger malfunction.
I have decided that my charging will be done outside from now on. My friends home did not catch fire but was rendered uninhabitable by the toxic smoke from the lipos. The risk of a malfunction is too high, I will not even be using my setup in the garage. I still haven't had a fire or an explosion but I have recently had a lipo puff on the charger- It was quite warm and on the way to a failure. It was only good fortune that it reached it's full charge and the charger stopped before it failed.
Log In to reply
They are constantly plugged in to my 4 port charger and I use them for single charging, parallel charging and as adapter boards with XT60 to Deans, XT60 to JST, XT60 to Traxxas as well as a cable for charging my radio and receiver batteries.
Log In to reply