Charging setup question

[Ultra Swain]

My 2 sons (6 and 8)and I just started in the hobby a couple month ago. Have 4 quads (Mavic Pro, Hubsan 122D, AirJugar whoop, and a Blade Inductrix BL FPV and a ton of foam gliders and planes waiting for electronics).

We have never used Li-Po batteries before and are learning the hard way about care and maintenance. Now that I know a little better, working on making our charging and storage practices safer. Which brings me to my main question regarding making a portable battery powered charging setup.

I found this battery in a Power Wheels tractor the kids don't use anymore. Was hoping I could use it as a power bank for this charger
.

What is the best way (if any) to power the charger with this battery? Can I just swap connectors?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

-Swain

 

[Bricks]

The battery will work if your charger works off of 12 volts. I do not see a picture of your charger only a parallel charging board.

 

[Ultra Swain]

The battery will work if your charger works off of 12 volts. I do not see a picture of your charger only a parallel charging board.

To be 100% honest, I thought thats what it was. Like I said, very new to this.

 

[Bricks]

To be 100% honest, I thought thats what it was. Like I said, very new to this.

That is just a board to connect to a charger to charge multiple batteries of the same cell count at one time.

 

[Ultra Swain]

That is just a board to connect to a charger to charge multiple batteries of the same cell count at one time.

Thanks! I am going to spend some quality time today getting up to speed on this.

 

[Chappie66]

What you have there is a parallel charging board. Used to charge multiple lipo batteries at the same time. There are some dos and don'ts to these. Here is a link to a good overview

https://oscarliang.com/parallel-charging-multiple-lipo/

 

[basslord1124]

What charger do you have?

 

[FDS]

I dislike field charging. You run most charging supplies flat pretty fast, you expose your charge set up to poor conditions and risk burning your car down if something goes wrong. I have the capacity to field charge but in 2 years of flying and 6 years lipo use I never have. Buying more batteries and charging them at home safely is much easier.

 

[sprzout]

What you have there is a parallel charging board. Used to charge multiple lipo batteries at the same time. There are some dos and don'ts to these. Here is a link to a good overview

https://oscarliang.com/parallel-charging-multiple-lipo/

Lots of good info there. Be VERY careful on charging batteries via parallel charging boards, as warned in the instructions. I've seen batteries go up at the field with people parallel charging (fortunately, fire extinguishers were on hand to keep it contained).

 

[FDS]

I have that type of parallel board, it’s really jank. Half the ports are no good after 8 months use. I would look for a good twin output charger and do two batteries at a time if you are doing packs. The little whoop packs are fine off the multiple chargers, just don’t leave them unattended.

 

[Bricks]

Thanks! I am going to spend some quality time today getting up to speed on this.

Since you are just getting started once you learn more it will get easier. One thing I highly recommend is using the same type of battery connector for all you batteries and ESC`s for me that was XT60 connectors and my smaller batteries JST connectors. Keeps everything interchangeable with out having a bunch of adapters around.

 

[Merv]

What is the best way (if any) to power the charger with this battery? Can I just swap connectors?

Yes, just make the connectors to hook up to you charger to this battery. I'm not sure how many lipo batteries you will be able to charge. The PB is only 7.6 amp hours, if your lipo's are 2,200 3S, then you are only going to get 2-3 charges. As others have said, I don’t often field charge. If I'm going to field charge, I use my car battery. I made a cord long enough to get the charger & lipos away form my car.

I agree with @sprzout & @FDS, I don't use parallel charging boards any more. If one cell in a pack fails to connect, you will over or under charge that cell. You have no way of knowing if a cell fails to connect until it's too late.

 

[Hondo76251]

This battery topic is almost another field of study in itself, a hobby within a hobby. The problem is that it's very hard to explain in a quick simple manner.

What you said earlier is a great idea, go study. Binge watch a couple hours on YouTube and you'll get a better idea, even then you'll have to get a little experience before it all sinks in fully.

With that said, I'll add to what these guys have mostly said already. For most people field charging isnt really the way to go. It may seem like it is at first but it's actually a whole new can of worms.

First, Invest in a decent charger. Then buy enough batteries to fly for at least an hour at the field. If you've got 4 models, that's usually only 1 or 2 per...

If you must field charge for whatever reason there are plenty of quality chargers that can accept a 12v input that can be made to jump directly from your car battery. (I actually field charge as much as I charge at home so I've learned all the wrong ways to do it.) I say use jumper leads on the battery because most cigarette outlets aren't really made for the amps a good charger can put out. Plus, if you use your car battery you can leave your cells outside your car to charge. If something goes wrong it's much easier to deal with outside the car.

Ive actually got a fused XT60 lead in my van, but it also has 6 1000cca batteries and a 180amp alternator! Of course, it's a work rig and made to charge a full bank of dewalt and Milwaukee batteries too...

 

[sprzout]

I dislike field charging. You run most charging supplies flat pretty fast, you expose your charge set up to poor conditions and risk burning your car down if something goes wrong. I have the capacity to field charge but in 2 years of flying and 6 years lipo use I never have. Buying more batteries and charging them at home safely is much easier.

Field charging is an "It depends" situation for me. I have charged at the field before, but it's been through a charging system that is rigged up off of a solar panel and configured by a couple of guys who were actual electrical engineers, and wired it up to a storage container that we'd purchased. THAT one, I trust. My car battery, not so much...

I know several guys who have charged off of portable generators that they've brought out, especially if they're charging larger 6S (6 cell) batteries for say, a giant scale aerobatic plane, or an EDF jet. Car batteries and alternators generally don't put out enough juice to charge those properly, and you run the risk of damaging your car.

 

[PsyBorg]

My friend Tom picked up a 18v 50000 mah lipo battery for solar back up at the house for the winters we have here. Its just like a car battery with the size and the hard case. We made all the connectors and such so we could take my Venom duo charger to the field. We brought it to flite fest 17 and charged packs at night at the camp. I can charge 12 1300 mah 5s batteries off that and it still has like 30% power left. It wasnt even fully broke in when it got to FF17. It only had 2 cycles of testing on it by then. Made me even more impressed with that charger as it charged up battieries to capacity when the voltage on the battery was at 12.5 v and the packs were getting charged to 21v.

Now if I could only get him to actually work on flying more then once every few months hehe.

 

[Bricks]

Being as the OP is just trying to get started I think we are getting in way over his head.