Thoughts on these Turnigy Lipos (60v 20ah pack)

So HK has a great price on the 4s 20,000mah blue Turnigy lipos, only $120 a piece. I would like to series connect 4 of them to make a 20ah 60v pack for only $480 dollars.

I was set on these packs, but I'm realizing I dont know whats involved with charging this high capacity of a lipo battery...

Can anyone point me to some chargers to research? And what kind of power supply am I going to be needing?


*Edit: Was going to go with lipos due to space concerns, however UUP just messaged me and told me they could make a custom battery pack in any size I want. So now I may get a 60v 20ah lith-ion in LG cells for around $700 instead... Seems safer and more peace of mind, plus I'll get a warranty for a year or two with UUP.

Does 60v 20ah lith-ion feel the same as 60v 20ah lipo pack? A little less power I am assuming?

So HK has a great price on the 4s 20,000mah blue Turnigy lipos, only $120 a piece. I would like to series connect 4 of them to make a 20ah 60v pack for only $480 dollars.

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No problem to do so. Involves a bit of wiring, but works.

I was set on these packs, but I'm realizing I dont know whats involved with charging this high capacity of a lipo battery...
Can anyone point me to some chargers to research? And what kind of power supply am I going to be needing?

Click to expand...

You can charge with any RC charger you can buy. The bigger the faster. Simple as that. A 50W charger will need around 7h to charge ONE of those batteries. If you get something like this 1200W (4x300W) charger: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turbo-charger-1200w-4-300w-synchronous-balance-charger-discharger-version-2.html, it will take a little over 1h to charge ALL FOUR of them. But you would need to take the batteries off the bike and charge connect each of those to the charger. Lot of dis/connecting wires.
AND you need a AC/DC power supply that can handle the 1.200W DC @24V that is needed to power the charger itself. E.g. something like that https://hobbyking.com/en_us/1200w-psu-eu-plug.html

Or you take the more confortable and safe way: Wire everything to a BMS ($50) and bulk charge with a 60V AC/DC charger ($100?)

Use separate harnesses to put your blocks in series to run and parallel to charge with standard RC charger. 1000W charging range is no problem. Check out the icharger 308Duo. You can double up and charge / balance in 8S. Balancing should rarely be necessary if you don't discharge too low.

You can also get a high power DC-DC boost converter, a 48V SMPS power supply and charge the pack directly. No BMS and human monitoring is better than a crappy BMS.

flat tire said:

No BMS and human monitoring is better than a crappy BMS.

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There's still proof needed for that statement, and there's no clear overall true answer. Too many variables in that equation.

izeman said:

You can charge with any RC charger you can buy. The bigger the faster. Simple as that. A 50W charger will need around 7h to charge ONE of those batteries. If you get something like this 1200W (4x300W) charger: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turbo-charger-1200w-4-300w-synchronous-balance-charger-discharger-version-2.html, it will take a little over 1h to charge ALL FOUR of them. But you would need to take the batteries off the bike and charge connect each of those to the charger. Lot of dis/connecting wires.
AND you need a AC/DC power supply that can handle the 1.200W DC @24V that is needed to power the charger itself. E.g. something like that https://hobbyking.com/en_us/1200w-psu-eu-plug.html

Or you take the more confortable and safe way: Wire everything to a BMS ($50) and bulk charge with a 60V AC/DC charger ($100?)

Click to expand...

Great, just the info I was looking for. Thank you!

flat tire said:

Use separate harnesses to put your blocks in series to run and parallel to charge with standard RC charger. 1000W charging range is no problem. Check out the icharger 308Duo. You can double up and charge / balance in 8S. Balancing should rarely be necessary if you don't discharge too low.

You can also get a high power DC-DC boost converter, a 48V SMPS power supply and charge the pack directly. No BMS and human monitoring is better than a crappy BMS.

Click to expand...

Great to know, thank you for the help

RE flat tires statement, I got the crappy cheap bms sucks statement proved to me real good.

I did not trust my lipo, though, and being a human bms has worked flawlessly for me for 10 years with my lipo. However, anything human is prone to fail.

The difference is I did not trust my human bms and kept it outside, or in a fireplace, and did trust the cheap bms. My cheap bms I charged in the garage, cuz it was supposed to be safe.

Don't trust either, is a statement I will stand by. Outside for all of it.