ASK Cubby, Version 04.15.2010- A Weekly Q & A Session

“A friend sent this link and asked if I could make the lead for him. I can make the leads BUT is it safe to charge 6 lipo of different capacities at the same time at 20a in parallel
Craig” link/video: Youtube Vid
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What’s up Craig? The politically correct answer to your question is- contact your battery suppliers to see what they say, and do what they recommend.

The official Cubby answer is- I wouldn’t do it. In a perfect world we’d all have a stack of Hyperion 720iNet3’s and a 24v 100 amp power supply to play with. In that perfect world we could connect each of our uber new battery packs to an individual 720 and balance charge them to perfection. Now, parallel charging may work just fine- if each of the packs is in relatively the same state of discharge and each has nearly the same internal resistance, but I have not tried it first hand, so therefore I can not recommend it. Perhaps the best “real world” testing of parallel charging that I’ve seen on the net can be found HERE in a thread on RC Groups. In that thread, it looks like parallel charging is no big deal, but due to the potential downside of a thermal runaway, I’d pick safety over convenience and stick to a traditional one pack/one charger routine.
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“My local hobby shop sucks they dont stock sh*t and when I place an order with them they always screw it up I dont like buy off the internet what should I do

Adam Kay”
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Hey Adam, ever heard of a comma or period before? LOL

There are a lot of hobby shops out there that aren’t “optimal” for the typical rc hobbyist. But, of course there are things you can do. First off, when you place an order at your LHS, be sure and give them an exact part number. If you go in and say “Hey Goober can ye get me one of dem dare a-arms fer me Traxxas?” don’t expect a good end result. All the part numbers for your rc can be found in the owners manual, if you don’t have one, download one off the net.

Your LHS stocks what they sell the most of. Ok, so maybe right now they don’t stock the parts you need, but if you and a few of your buddies all buy new Losi 8’s and come in looking for parts every week, they WILL take the hint, they are in the business to make money. If you sit at home and buy off the net they won’t see the demand, hence they will not have the parts you need when you break.

That’s it for this week, submit your questions/drivel to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com.

YOUR Cub Reporter