1S / whoop battery management system - do they exist?

[JasonK]

I have found a bunch of 1S battery chargers, but nothing that has a storage setting, so that I can put my batteries in a storage state after using the batteries, so I have the choice of leaving them fully charged or in an unknown state of discharge (when ever the quad says 'time to be done').

The 4 batteries that came with my whoop sized craft have already started to show wear. They are listed for 300mAh, but out of the set, I often have one that is reporting out of juice after 50-75mAhs of run... the others get me from 100-200mAh, but all of them seem to be getting worse. I was hoping to find a good management solution for them.

The only solutions that i have seen is to use a parallel or serial board with a 'normal' lipo charger. Which I suppose I could do something like that, but I would prefer something with individual ports. Parallel needs all the batteries to be very close to the same charge before starting the storage run and a serial doesn't balance during storage charge (at least the charger I have doesn't do balancing as part of storage charges).

 

[OlliePackman]

I thought the same when I had a tiny whoop. Couldn't find anything to store charge them. I think just because they are so cheap, most people just fly them not caring if the voltage as long as they are charged before flight and then once the flight time gets unreliable just buy new ones.

 

[JasonK]

that sounds like a bad idea to me... why get 20 flights out of battery when you could get 100? [numbers made up]

 

[Bricks]

You do not balance a 1s lipo how can you? Storage state of 3.7 volts is not written in stone it is just a recommendation. Plugging in 6 1s cells how much voltage difference can there really be? Me personally voltage from battery to battery when charging in series I will plug in the main leads first and give them a few minutes to equalize out, plug in the balance lead, then start either charging or a balance charge. Joshua Bardwell did a video on this and it takes a while for the batteries to equalize out he was even surprised, as he always heard OH MY GOD do not plug in same cell number batteries that were of different voltages. To me it is a nothing burger as long as some time is given to let them equalize on there own using the main battery plug not the balance plug.

 

[JasonK]

You do not balance a 1s lipo how can you? Storage state of 3.7 volts is not written in stone it is just a recommendation. Plugging in 6 1s cells how much voltage difference can there really be? Me personally voltage from battery to battery when charging in series I will plug in the main leads first and give them a few minutes to equalize out, plug in the balance lead, then start either charging or a balance charge. Joshua Bardwell did a video on this and it takes a while for the batteries to equalize out he was even surprised, as he always heard OH MY GOD do not plug in same cell number batteries that were of different voltages. To me it is a nothing burger as long as some time is given to let them equalize on there own using the main battery plug not the balance plug.

the balance point was hooking up the cells in series and making them look as a multi cell battery to a charger like I have.

My understanding is that storing batteries at full or low charge tends to make them where out faster..

 

[Mr_Stripes]

I have found that 300mah batteries go pretty quick compared to the 450 and 520 sized batteries. I have accidentally ran one of my 520s to like 2.3 volts. It ended up recovering just fine, recovery voltage was 3.4 volts. Gnb has some 380mah on amazon that I am going to try. I wonder if they will stay nice longer. I am pretty hard on my whoop batteries but I do try to take care of them. And then those tine 150mah eflite batteries... don't last very long at all. I think that the batteries 300mah and less are made in a different way that the bigger 450 and 520 and that is why they stay good longer.

 

[Mr_Stripes]

And i don't think that there are any whoop chargers that can discharge. If there was one it would probably be about the same price as a new set of batteries.

 

[JasonK]

hmmmm.... that is really unfortunate if those batteries are meant to be thrown out so easy like that.

 

[Mr_Stripes]

Can lipos be recycled?

 

[JasonK]

Can lipos be recycled?

probably... my point was related to purchase -> use up -> discard (or recycle) process, wasn't meaning landfill vs recycling, just the idea of possibly unneeded cycling of product.

 

[Mr_Stripes]

Ya I know but I was wondering If we could recycle our batteries... seems like a potential waste of resources.

 

[Bricks]

the balance point was hooking up the cells in series and making them look as a multi cell battery to a charger like I have.

My understanding is that storing batteries at full or low charge tends to make them where out faster..

It does not work that way as they are single cell batteries You will still only charge as a 1S battery just at a higher MAH....... 6 1S batteries at 200MAH each equals 1200MAH is what you could set your charger for.

Correct storing batteries fully charged or at low voltage for days one end is not good for them, Me personally have no problem keeping a fully charged battery for 3-4 days, used batteries I try and storage charge at least within a day after use.

 

[joelspangler]

6 1S batteries at 200MAH each equals 1200MAH is what you could set your charger for.

Sorry, but this is incorrect and dangerous advice. 6 1s 200mah batteries in SERIES would make a 6s 200mah pack. You'd set your charger for 200mah. Cells in a series (as you'd hook up a 6 cell battery) increases voltage, but not capacity. You can connect cells in parallel, to increase capacity, but the voltage would remain the same as a single cell battery. See the picture that I found below.

 

[JasonK]

It does not work that way as they are single cell batteries You will still only charge as a 1S battery just at a higher MAH....... 6 1S batteries at 200MAH each equals 1200MAH is what you could set your charger for.

Correct storing batteries fully charged or at low voltage for days one end is not good for them, Me personally have no problem keeping a fully charged battery for 3-4 days, used batteries I try and storage charge at least within a day after use.

@joelspangler seems to understand what I was pointing out. if you connect 4 1s batteries in series [vs parrallel which is what one would need to do for your example], you have something that can be presented to the charger as if it was a 4s battery but still the same mAh rating as the individual batteries.

but what I was getting at regarding storage change... at least my charger could only do it if they were in series as it doesn't do balancing as part of storage, only charging. (and given that these small batteries seem to drift in capacity/etc much faster then the bigger batteries, wouldn't be a good way to storage charge them).

 

[Bricks]

@joelspangler seems to understand what I was pointing out. if you connect 4 1s batteries in series [vs parrallel which is what one would need to do for your example], you have something that can be presented to the charger as if it was a 4s battery but still the same mAh rating as the individual batteries.

but what I was getting at regarding storage change... at least my charger could only do it if they were in series as it doesn't do balancing as part of storage, only charging. (and given that these small batteries seem to drift in capacity/etc much faster then the bigger batteries, wouldn't be a good way to storage charge them).

You cannot charge a 1S battery as if it were a 4S battery as they are all hooked in parallel on the board, they are not connected to the charger in series.

Even hooked in series you could not balance charge as there is no balance leads for the charger to check individual cells.

 

[JasonK]

You cannot charge a 1S battery as if it were a 4S battery as they are all hooked in parallel on the board, they are not connected to the charger in series.

Even hooked in series you could not balance charge as there is no balance leads for the charger to check individual cells.

one can easily build a series board that has a balance lead, which is the situation I was talking about.

[I do have an Electrical Engineering Degree, I understand the differences between a parallel and series circuit ]

 

[joelspangler]

You cannot charge a 1S battery as if it were a 4S battery as they are all hooked in parallel on the board, they are not connected to the charger in series.

Even hooked in series you could not balance charge as there is no balance leads for the charger to check individual cells.

I can't? Why not. I use something similar to this (link below) all of the time. I can charge 4x or 6x batteries at the same time using my full sized charger. I can also discharge and storage charge. The downside is I need to always do 4x or 6x at a time - which depends on the specific adapter you buy or build.

Uruav xt30 to ph2.0 1s lipo battery charging cable wire for isdt q6 pro imax b6 charger Sale - Banggood.com

 

[Bricks]

I can't? Why not. I use something similar to this (link below) all of the time. I can charge 4x or 6x batteries at the same time using my full sized charger. I can also discharge and storage charge. The downside is I need to always do 4x or 6x at a time - which depends on the specific adapter you buy or build.

Uruav xt30 to ph2.0 1s lipo battery charging cable wire for isdt q6 pro imax b6 charger Sale - Banggood.com

We were talking about 1s batteries.

 

[JasonK]

We were talking about 1s batteries.

that link is for 1s batteries to connect them in series to present multiple batteries as 1 multi-cell battery to the charger.

 

[Bricks]

that link is for 1s batteries to connect them in series to present multiple batteries as 1 multi-cell battery to the charger.

It still does not balance charge as the original poster was asking about, when hooked into parallel you cannot balance a 1S battery it is either charged or some where in between. You could use this with his particular charger MAY be able to put the 1S batteries into storage charge With my charge I can set the percentage of charge I want which in essence can do storage charge of 1S cells. But they will not be balanced as I stated earlier you cannot balance a 1S battery as there is only one cell, so what would you balance it against?.