Help! Does B6AC charger stop automatically once my LiPo is fully charged?

[Sasikanth T]

Hi.. I'm new to this beautiful hobby.

I have purchased an iMAX B6AC charger online. I balance charge my battery (3S 4200mAH 25C LiPo) and I want to know if the charger automatically stops the charging process once my battery reaches its full capacity. Is there any option like that?

Thank you, because you are about to answer me!

 

[Arcfyre]

Yes it does. Pretty good charger for the money, and it has a storage function too, which charges each cell to 3.7 and then shuts off.

 

[PsyBorg]

The ba6 and clones all do well and as long as you use the default programs everything is automatic providing you input correct voltage and charge currents.

There are manual settings you can use but I dont suggest using them until you are more familiar with lipos batteries and how they work.

 

[quorneng]

Just be aware that the charger may not be able to detect a 'battery full' condition if one or more of the cells has become just a bit weak.
As it approaches 4.2V in each cell the charging current is progressively reduced to zero. When at zero the charger monitors each cell voltage for a few seconds. If all the cells maintain exactly 4.20V then it stop charging and shows 'full'.
If however one or more of the cells drop its voltage even 0.01V during this period the charger applies a very low current to those cells but stops again as soon as the show 4.20V. Being dumb it will continue to cycle like this until either all the cells do hold 4.2V for the required time or the time limit cuts in (normally at 120 minutes).
When this happens it does not mean the LiPo is no good but simply that it is no longer 100%.
As general rule if the balance charge current has started 'cycling' every few seconds between zero and 0 .1A then the LiPo is effectively full and you might just as well stop. Leaving it on charge will not do any immediate harm but it won't store any more power either.

It pays to monitor what your charger is doing as apart from any safety concerns you can also learn quite a bit about the state of your LiPos.

 

[Sasikanth T]

Yes it does. Pretty good charger for the money, and it has a storage function too, which charges each cell to 3.7 and then shuts off.

Thanks mate!

 

[Sasikanth T]

The ba6 and clones all do well and as long as you use the default programs everything is automatic providing you input correct voltage and charge currents.

There are manual settings you can use but I dont suggest using them until you are more familiar with lipos batteries and how they work.

Great. I haven't disturbed any of the default settings.. I just went through them to know what functions are available in the charger. Thanks

 

[Sasikanth T]

Just be aware that the charger may not be able to detect a 'battery full' condition if one or more of the cells has become just a bit weak.
As it approaches 4.2V in each cell the charging current is progressively reduced to zero. When at zero the charger monitors each cell voltage for a few seconds. If all the cells maintain exactly 4.20V then it stop charging and shows 'full'.
If however one or more of the cells drop its voltage even 0.01V during this period the charger applies a very low current to those cells but stops again as soon as the show 4.20V. Being dumb it will continue to cycle like this until either all the cells do hold 4.2V for the required time or the time limit cuts in (normally at 120 minutes).
When this happens it does not mean the LiPo is no good but simply that it is no longer 100%.
As general rule if the balance charge current has started 'cycling' every few seconds between zero and 0 .1A then the LiPo is effectively full and you might just as well stop. Leaving it on charge will not do any immediate harm but it won't store any more power either.

It pays to monitor what your charger is doing as apart from any safety concerns you can also learn quite a bit about the state of your LiPos.

I can easily relate to what you said. It makes sense. I have charged my LiPo a couple of times till now and both the times when the capacity is full, the current reading starts dropping from 1A (I set as 1A) to 0.8, 0.5, 0.2 amps etc.. I suspected it might be automatic shutoff, and that's why I asked the question here in this forum to make sure I was right. Thanks mate.
I initially purchased a cheaper B3AC charger that's very basic and can charge only 2S or 3S LiPos. But because of that my battery started getting puffed up gradually. Hence I bought this new LCD display charger iMAX B6AC.

Those who are reading this, iMAX B3AC is simply not the right charger. It didn't display all lights as green (which would mean fully charged) even after several hours after the estimated charge time. Better go for a cloned version of the original iMAX B6AC like I did, if you cannot afford a genuine one, like I couldn't.