Best i charger Balance setting for LiPo

[NeilP]

Anyone worked out the best setting for balancing with a iCharger?
The manual is not clear on this
I have Balance as Always On
Balance Speed Slow
Trickle Balance On/

I would imagine that I have it set correctly for slower but more accurate balancing..but just want to check what others use

 

[ZOMGVTEK]

My understanding of it, is that the 'slow' balance mode simply waits longer before terminating. The balance trickle allows the charger to remain balancing even after the charge is completed.
It's not really more 'accurate' balancing on slow, the charger simply waits longer.

Your settings are the same as what I use.

 

[neptronix]

'always balance' is a bad idea IMHO, as it will put unnecessary wear ( over a long period of time ) on cells that have a strange RI / voltage curve. This could potentially make balancing even more time consuming, esp if that oddball cell falls into line with all the other cells near the end of the charge naturally.

I like the slow balance mode because it gets my batteries pretty damn accurate, within 5mV usually.
You can of course set it to slow balance mode and terminate the balance charge at 0.50A if you need to get the batteries off the charger quicker and ride. The slow balance mode basically just goes the extra mile.

Not sure what trickle balance does.

 

[psycholist]

'always balance' is a bad idea IMHO, as it will put unnecessary wear ( over a long period of time ) on cells that have a strange RI / voltage curve. This could potentially make balancing even more time consuming, esp if that oddball cell falls into line with all the other cells near the end of the charge naturally.

Good tip! Never thought about it quite that way. Sounds rational to me.

 

[NeilP]

as it will put unnecessary wear ( over a long period of time ) on cells that have a strange RI / voltage curve.

I am not disputing that ..if you have experienced it, but can you explain what you mean a bit more..I can't understand quite what you mean.

From what I see with 'Always balance 'On is that it just starts the balancing at a lower voltage level. So it does not wait to bring a highest cell up to terminal voltage before starting to bleed it off. Why would this be an issue.

I like the slow balance mode because it gets my batteries pretty damn accurate, within 5mV usually.

I can't measure to that accuracy I am afraid. I only have cheapo e-bay meters and one more expensive Sealey one..but all still only 2 digit after teh decimal place.

I do have two cellogs, with two more on order..and they allegedly give 3 digit accuracy, but from my experience of them over the last month, they are not more accurate than the Battery medics..OK they read to 3 places, but swap my two cell logs between the same battery, and they both only give accuracy to within 10 mV.

Really need to build or buy an accurate voltage divider source/network, that we can plug in to these devices, and get an accurate output across 8 10 14 cells some can plug in to a iCharger/Cel log and calibrate to exact voltage of our source.
I am going to post a thread on that. Will come back and edit this thread with the link once done

Done
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=37219