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A Guide to Understanding LiPo Batteries

by Uneeb Khan
A Guide to Understanding LiPo Batteries

A Guide to Understanding LiPo Batteries

Foreword
This guide, composed throughout years, has one sole aim: to educate specialists new and old about LiPo batteries with an emphasis on safety. The guide and I have been censured over the course of the years for “misleading” individuals on the dangers of LiPo batteries or the practices of charging, utilizing, and storing them. A portion of these reactions were legitimate, and the guide changed to all the more likely reflect reality (see the changelog at the bottom for details of those changes). A portion of the attacks were not supported and came from those in the business whose business I was disturbing by advising against certain practices. In those cases, the guide was not changed. My main interest in keeping the people who come to us for guidance safe and educated, without any exemptions. So read on, learn, ask questions, and be safe!

Presentation
Lithium Polymer (AKA “LiPo”) batteries are a sort of lifepro 4 battery currently utilized in many purchaser hardware gadgets. They have been gaining in popularity in the radio control industry throughout recent years and are presently the most popular decision for anyone searching for long run times and high power. LiPo batteries offer a wide array of advantages, however each client should choose if the advantages offset the drawbacks. For an ever increasing number of individuals, they do. As I would like to think, nothing remains to be feared from LiPo batteries, inasmuch as you keep the guidelines and treat the batteries with the regard they merit.

This guide was composed after many long stretches of research. It is as accurate as I can make it without actually being a chemical designer (however in researching this article, I conversed with a couple of them). That said, this guide isn’t expected to be taken as authoritative. It is a living report, and as common sense regarding LiPo batteries changes, so too will this guide.

We should initially talk about the distinctions between LiPo batteries and their Nickel-Cadmium and Nickel-Metal Hydride counterparts.

LiPo Batteries
Experts
A lot lighter weight, and can be made in almost any size or shape.

A lot higher capacities, allowing them to hold significantly more energy.

A lot higher discharge rates, meaning they pack more punch.

Cons
A lot more limited lifespan; LiPos average just 150-250 cycles.

The delicate science can lead to a fire in the event that the battery gets penetrated.

Need special care for charging, discharging, and storage.

NiMH Batteries
Stars
Longer lifespan than LiPos, usually into the 1,000 cycles range

Substantially less touchy, and doesn’t usually represent a fire risk

Less complex chargers and schedules are expected for use.

Cons
A lot heavier, and restricted on size.

Below capacity, and less proficient overall.

Lower discharge rates; they lack colossal punch.

What Do All the Numbers Mean?
The way we characterize any battery is through a ratings framework. This allows us to compare the properties of a battery and assist us with figuring out which battery pack is suitable for the need at hand. There are three main ratings that you should know about on a LiPo battery.

Voltage/Cell Count
A LiPo cell has a nominal voltage of 3.7V. For the 7.4V battery above, that means that there are two cells in series (and that means the voltage gets added together). To this end you will hear individuals talk about a “2S” battery pack – it means that there are 2 cells in Series. So a two-cell (2S) pack is 7.4V, a three-cell (3S) pack is 11.1V, and so on.

In the early days of LiPo batteries, you could have seen a battery pack portrayed as “2S2P”. This meant that there were actually four cells in the battery; two cells wired in series, and two more wired into the initial two batteries in parallel (parallel meaning the capacities get added together). This phrasing isn’t utilized a lot of nowadays; present day innovation allows us to have the individual cells hold substantially more energy than they could a couple of years ago. All things being equal, it very well may be handy to know the more established terms, in the event you run into something with a couple of years on it.

The voltage of a battery pack is essentially going to decide how fast your vehicle will go. Voltage straightforwardly impacts the RPM of the electric motor (brushless motors are rated by kV, and that means ‘RPM per Volt’). So assuming you have a brushless motor with a rating of 3,500kV, that motor will turn 3,500 RPM for each volt you apply to it. On a 2S LiPo battery, that motor will twirl around 25,900 RPM. On a 3S, it will turn an incredible 38,850 RPM. So the more voltage you have, the faster you will go.

Capacity
The capacity of a battery is basically a measure of how much power the battery can hold. Consider it the size of your gas tank. The unit of measure here is milliamp hours (mAh). This is saying how much drain can be placed on the battery to discharge it in 60 minutes. Since we usually examine the drain of a motor framework in amps (A), here is the transformation:

1000mAh = 1 Amp Hour (1Ah)

I said that the capacity of the battery resembles the gas tank – and that means the capacity decides how long you can run before you have to recharge. The higher the number, the more drawn out the run time. Airplanes and helicopters don’t really have a standard capacity, because they come in many various sizes, however for R/C cars and trucks, the average is 5000mAh – that is our most popular battery here in the store. In any case, there are companies that make batteries with larger capacities. Traxxas even has one that is over 12000mAh! That’s gigantic, however there is a disadvantage to large capacities as well. The greater the capacity, the greater the physical size and weight of the battery. Another consideration is heat develop in the motor and speed command over such a long run. Except if periodically checked, you can easily consume a motor in the event that it isn’t given sufficient opportunity to chill off, and the vast majority don’t stop during a hurry to really look at their motor temps. Remember that while getting a battery with a large capacity.

Discharge Rating (“C” Rating)
Voltage and Capacity had an immediate impact on certain aspects of the vehicle, whether it’s speed or run time. This makes them easy to understand. The Discharge Rating (I’ll allude it as the C Rating from this point forward) is a piece harder to understand, and this has lead to it being the most over-advertised and misunderstood aspects of LiPo batteries.

The C Rating is basically a measure of how fast the battery can be discharged safely and without harming the battery. Something that makes it complicated is that it’s anything but a stand-alone number; it expects you to also know the capacity of the battery to ultimately sort out the safe amp draw (the “C” in C Rating actually stands for Capacity). When you know the capacity, it’s basically a fitting and-play math issue. Utilizing the above battery, here’s the way you figure out the maximum safe persistent amp draw:

50C = 50 x Capacity (in Amps)
Calculating the C-Rating of our example battery: 50 x 5 = 250A

The subsequent number is the maximum sustained load you can safely put on the battery. Going higher than that will result in, at best, the degradation of the battery at a faster than normal pace. At most terrible, it could burst into flames. So our example battery can handle a maximum ceaseless load of 250A.

Most batteries today have two C Ratings: a Nonstop Rating (which we’ve been examining), and a Burst Rating. The Burst rating works the same way, with the exception of it is applicable in 10-second explodes, as opposed to consistently. For example, the Burst Rating would become an integral factor while accelerating a vehicle, yet not when at a steady speed on a straight-away. The Burst Rating is almost always higher than the Persistent Rating. Batteries are usually compared utilizing the Persistent Rating, not the Burst Rating.

There are a great deal of bitter remarks on the Web about what C Rating is ideal. Is it best to get the most noteworthy you can? Or on the other hand would it be a good idea for you to get a C Rating that’s barely sufficient to cover your need? There is certainly not a straightforward answer. All I can give you is my take on the issue. At the point when I set up a customer with a LiPo battery, I first figure out what the maximum current their application will draw. We should check out at how that functions.

Be that as it may, the ratings on the motor aren’t the entire picture. The way the truck is geared, the terrain the truck is driving on, the size of the tires, the heaviness of the truck… all of these things have an impact on the final draw on the battery. It’s entirely conceivable that the final draw on the battery is higher than the maximum motor draw. So having that smidgen of overhead is crucial, because you can’t easily sort out a hard number that the truck won’t ever go over.

For most applications, a 20C or 25C battery ought to be fine. Be that as it may, assuming that you’re driving a heavy truck, or you’re geared okay with racing, or you have a large motor for 3D flying applications, you ought to probably start around a 40C battery pack. Be that as it may, since there is no easy way to sort this out, I encourage you to talk to your local leisure activity shop to have them assist with figuring out which battery pack is appropriate for your application.

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