LiPo Balancer
Designed in Germany by JG,
manufactured in the UK by CSM

 

RRP £6.75 GBP

The use of LiPo batteries has revolutionised electric flight - the power to weight ratio of this type of battery has meant that either longer flights or more powerful motors can be used. But there use requires care: over charging can lead to over heating, fire and even explosions.

The main problem when charging LiPo batteries is to balance the individual cells of a pack so that each cell is fully charged, but no cell overcharges. LiPo-Balancers eliminate the problem of cell imbalance, allowing your valuable LiPo packs to reach their maximum performance and life span. Traditional LiPo protection circuits simply terminate the charge when one cell goes above 4.25 volts. This gradually reduces pack capacity because the imbalance slowly increases with each cycle. LiPo-Balancers allow the charging process to continue until ALL cells have reached 4.20V while still protecting each cell from overvoltage.

WARNING: You will still require a suitable LiPo charger to charge your pack at higher rates than 200mA. While LiPo-Balancers make charging safer and more convenient, their primary function is cell balancing and overvoltage protection.

How to add LiPo-Balancers to your pack
You need as many LiPo-Balancers as you have cells in series. Parallel cells always share one balancer. For example, you need 3 LiPo-Balancers for a 3s1p pack and also 3 LiPo-Balancers for a 3s4p pack. For a 10s4p pack you need 10 LiPo-Balancers.
LiPo-Balancers are thin and robust so you can simply tape one LiPo-Balancer to each cell, (or parallel group of cells), before you put the heatshrink on.
Each LiPo-Balancer has a red wire and a black wire. Connect the red wire to the positive terminal of a cell and the black wire to the negative terminal of that same cell or group of parallel cells.
Please use clear heatshrink so that you can see the red LED's through the heatshrink.

How it Works
Each LiPo-Balancer contains a precision voltage reference, a voltage comparator, seven discharge resistors, a power switch and a pulse-width modulator. When the cell voltage rises above 4.20 Volts the comparator activates the power switch, turning on the LED and allowing the cell to discharge in a controlled manner. Discharge current is pulse-width modulated. It will start with short pulses at 4.21V and reach 'continuous on' at 4.24 volts. The pulse width modulation is quite slow, so by watching the the LED you can see what each LiPo-Balancer is doing.

Specifications

Discharge current: 335mA
Threshold voltage: 4.21V +/- 10mV

100% Duty cycle reached @ 4.23V
Idle current: <4uA @ room temperature and <10uA @ 85 Degrees C.

Operating voltage range: 2.5V-4.5V
Weight without wires and double sided tape: 1.0gram (0.04oz)

Dimensions: 24.4mm x 14.5mm (950mil x 560mil)

Download Instruction manual

IMPORTANT NOTICE: IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON USING THESE LiPo BALANCERS AS AN OFF CELL PLUG IN MODULE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU CONNECT THEM UP. IF YOU DON'T YOU CAN DAMAGE THEM.

Available from all good model shops and distributed World Wide by:

RC Models Distribution Ltd.
PO Box 101
Glossop
SK13 5ZW
England

TEL: +44 (0) 161 929 5955
FAX: +44 (0) 1457 857 097
E-mail: sales@rcmodels.org