Charge Lipo Batteries

Powering up safely and efficiently

- John Kauk

A LiPo battery’s label has a lot of information on it: cell count, nominal voltage, capacity in either amp hours (Ah) or milliamp hours (mAh), and a recommended discharge rate or two in terms of a multiple of the capacity. This discharge rate is the dreaded “C rating,” which is a topic for another day. The only things you really need to know to charge a LiPo well and safely are the battery voltage or cell count and the capacity.

THE CHARGER

The old-school chargers I started out with had one pair of leads that connected to the power leads on the battery. Either you selected the cell count as part of the startup sequence, or the charger would read the battery voltage and guess at a cell count for you. Both methods were susceptible to error for various reasons. If you weren’t careful, you could end up charging a 3S LiPo at a 4S voltage, which would lead to an exciting conclusion.