Battery storage during lock down

[Pete]

Hi guys

Should I remove the Lipo batteries from the hulls and the eneloops from the transmitters? Should they be stored fully charged? Advice please.

[Predator]

G’day Pete, there are two trains of thought when it comes to storing LiPo batteries, some suggest they should be stored with a “Storage Charge” (one of the LiPo charger settings) which is a bit above 1/2 charge however I have always stored mine fully charged and then just top them up before usage.

The Eneloop batteries are LSD (low self discharge) so will hold a charge (typically for over a year) however I would remove ALL batteries from any equipment not in regular use.

Just my thoughts & I’m sure many will argue against it but I have Eneloop & Turnigy LSD AA & AAA cells over 8 years old and still going strong and many of my LiPo batteries are a similar age and apart from one or two that eventually a cell failed in any other replacements have been due to “catastrophic trauma” from impacting the ground at a great rate of knots.

[Pete]

Oops –  I use LiFe 6.6V batteries (from Hobby Warehouse) in the hulls not LiPo.

[Sinker]

Hi Pete, with LiFe & Eneloop batteries I store them fully charged in a safe place, but for lipo’s I always store them at 3.8 volts/cell (storage charge)

I dug out an old 4 cell LiPo the other day that has been in storage for around 5 years, charged it up and it worked perfectly.

The main thing with all batteries is to never leave them discharged. and as Mike said remove the batteries from the equipment.

[Pete]

Thanks team. Batteries are now removed from hulls and charged. Strange to be charging batteries without a chance of going sailing.

[Tugboat]

Hope all are well and coping with this lock down. Not sure I am, normally one to stay in the back ground but to be told you have to is another thing. Have to, both of us can not afford to be exposed to it.

Well summer has well and truly gone and not a hull wet, oh well that’s the way it goes, to many other things in life to take care of.

But I did eventually sort out my battery storage situation. Most of my hobby batteries Li and Ni are stored in supposedly fire proof bags but I have not been happy with just that as they are stored in a room under the main roof of the house. Pretty hard to explain to my wife that we lost the house due to my hobby. Would not be the first to have to do so.

So all the batteries came out on the back table and I proceeded to test them. Forgot I had so many. The Li batteries were given a discharge test and then taken up to storage charge, most came through with flying colours but a few did not and were disposed of. Took a week or so to do but at least it gave me a reference to what I had. The big test for them will be in a boat to see their true condition.

The Ni packs were similarly tested and fully charged. About 20% of the packs failed and have been put aside to investigate each cell under load to see which are faulty. Interestingly the main ones that did not come up to scratch were the ones used as Tx power supplies. Not sure why, maybe the load is pretty low and they did not get exercise.

So all the batteries are in flame proof?? Bags and stored in a weather proof box away from the main house under cover. Not sure how it will go, they will be subject to more extremes in temperature and humidity than where they were before, so see what happens. I realise that grouping them altogether could be asking for trouble but if they all go up and damage nothing else but themselves I still have a house. Will just keep an eye on it.

The ones that are up for testing and those that past the test, interesting my very first Turnigy LSD 10+ years old came through with flying colours.

Cant seem to attach photos at the moment, will try later.

To be checked

Passed

[Predator]

G’day Tug, glad to hear that you are hanging in there.

Last things first. If you are having trouble attaching photos make sure they are re sized to around 1024 pixels x ???. Any picture files posted that are too large trigger an approval process and disappear until administrator approval is given.  The easiest way is to resize the pics in Picasa (or similar) before posting.

You are right about the Turnigy LSD batteries, many of mine are around 9 years old and still going strong. I have had a couple of LiPo’s fail over the years but usually only after a sudden impact with Terra Firma beforehand.

I think most of our players down this way are using all the spare time they now have with getting all their models back up to scratch for when the LockDown restrictions are finally eased.

At this stage there may possibly be a relaxing of the number of persons allowed in a group (back to 10 from the current 2) in about 3 weeks so if this does happen we can most likely get back to flying before the winter sets in. Other than that we will have to be content flying the simulators to keep our skills up.

 

[Tugboat]

Thanks for the reply Pred. The photos I was using had been reduced to 1080×810 (175kB) using the resize option in the menu for windows Photo. Not sure why I choose 1080, probably because you see it every where. Tried to add photo again but would not load. So resized photo to 1024x 768 (163kB) but that also wont load. Will try again in the morning.

[Predator]

Tug, either of those sizes should have worked OK. You need to wait till the photo link displays in the top line (next to the camera icon) then click OK to insert into your post.

If you still have troubles today let me know & I will do a new updated “How To” video to show the exact steps.  You are not the only one who seems to have problems loading pics.

[Tugboat]

Thanks Pred. To check I was doing it correctly went back and watched your how to video.

This where I get to.

Click on photo icon

Opens picture select box

Click on browse

Select picture

Click on open

Goes back to select picture box.

Should show please wait until file is loaded but this remains blank.

Will try my laptop later today to see if that is different.

Thanks Rob

[Predator]

Ok, if you cant see please wait it may just be a colour problem (white on white), wait a few seconds & then move the mouse (while holding down the LEFT mouse key) over the box where the “Please Wait” should display, moving the curser over the area changes the colour and may allow you to see the text.

The Text Colour was fixed a while ago but sometimes you need to delete all the website buffer info stored on your device before it will reload the corrected code.

[Tugboat]

Thanks Pred, that was the problem. Not sure what has changed as I have not had this problem in the past, just something to store in the memory banks.

Have updated original post with photos

 

[Tugboat]

The reason I decided to move out all my batteries was from seeing reports on the news re hobby batteries catching fire while on charge. I never leave my batteries on charge unattended but decided to move them just to eliminate any perceived risk in my mind. The most common fires I have seen are toy heli’s, quads and hover boards. I am suer cars/trucks would be in there as well. All the batteries and chargers I have bought have very clear warnings on them.

Of course this has not removed all the LI batteries from under the main roof as just about anything electrical in the house will run off or use LI batteries for backup these days. A number of well know brands have had recalls because of fire risk but minimal on the total number sold. looking into these devices there are very complicated circuitry to manage battery condition. But even the best get it wrong sometimes. Looking inside a 18V drill battery you will find a very complicated circuit board on a lot of them. Of course also built in there is a memory chip they can use in a warranty claim to see how you have looked after it.

A few months after I sorted my batteries there was two reports close together of two houses burning to the ground over here. Both initially were blamed on charging batteries overnight. Never saw anymore info on them. One was a drill and the other a lawn mower. There may be some very crucial facts missing from that initial report like maybe the drill was dropped from a great height and suffered some mechanical damage which was not obvious on a cursory inspection. Who knows but it was not the toys this time.

That opens up another situation where I store all my power tool batteries in my shed. All I can do in that case is not leave them on charge unattended. I dont mean sitting on them but be within the vicinity.

There are many other causes of house fire, electrical faults, electrical appliances etc, they are at the very low end of risk so apart from maintenance and replacement.

On this forum I am talking to the educated but a reminder occassionally does not hurt.

 

[Tugboat]

Pred when adding the photo to the above report I could not get the text to display at all. Just waited a while and pressed ok and it imported. Before doing that report I cleaned up all my links, cookies etc. Was not much as It is done fairly regularly. Will let you know what happens next report.

[Tugboat]

Another project was to create universal all in one charge leads for my chargers. These will charge 2 and 3S (90% of the packs I use), NiMh car packs and with an addition short adaptor cable the other type of batteries I have.

Text was visible again????????

[Predator]

Oh well, hang in there, at least you know what to look for if it stops again.

It has been several weeks since the White on White issue was rectified and there have been no reports down this way since then so I’m at a loss as to what is currently happening @ your end.

[Tugboat]

This something I wrote for a woodwork group re a couple of 18V Li-ion tool packs I just about gave up as duds. May be of interest but if you are not confident about the method consult someone who is.

 

Li Recovery

When Masters was closing down I wanted more Triton Li 18v batteries. The cheapest way to buy them was in kit form with one or more power tools. These kits were in the most part cheaper than just buying the battery. I ended up with a couple of torches which I used the 1.5AH batteries on.

This one was kept in the house in a draw and has been used a few times over the years. Needed to use it a few months ago and it was flat. OK put it on the plug pack charger and see what happens, well nothing, after 24hrs it showed no sign of life. Put it down to a physical failure and put it aside to look at one day.

A few weeks ago noticed it and decided to strip down the battery pack and see if I could see anything broken. Stripped it down and measured the voltage across each cell (5 for 18v). Each cell was approx 35mV (35/1000 of a volt). That is that I said to myself as normally any Li battery below approx. 3V can be damaged and not be recharged.

As all the cells were of equal voltage decided to bypass the battery management electronics and direct charge the cells to see what happened. NEVER do this unless you understand the risks and implications of this and NEVER leave the pack charging unattended. Two houses have burnt to the ground due to faulty battery charging of Li batteries in power tool products in the last few months in WA. Controlled the voltage and current going into the cell pack so as not to stress them. After 5 mins disconnected the charger and measured the individual cells and they were all the same at around 1v. So reconnected and continued on until the cell voltage was around 3V.

Reassembled the pack and connected to Triton plug pack charger. It was now happy to continue charging to full. To test the battery I plugged it into the torch and left it turned on for 5 hrs making sure the battery meter on the pack still showed at least one light. Put it back on charge and it recharged no worries.

To say the least I was very surprised this pack came back to life. If it is OK time will tell.

Was not sure what happened here initially, the battery management system should have disconnected the power to the torch when it reached it minimum battery voltage reference 3V ?? thus saving the battery. This you would have noticed with Li batteries, there is no taking them to flat like a NiMh battery, when they reach the min voltage the power tool stops as the BMS disconnects the battery from its tool connection pins and wont reconnect until you have charged the battery.

What I think has happed in my case is the grandkids have been playing with it and put it back in draw turned on. As the torch is a low current device I am assuming the battery management system failed to turn off and the torch drained the batteries to effectively be dead flat. Just my assumption.

A week later I went to use an Ozito Li 18V battery. As it had not been used for a while put it on the charger but came up with and error. Oh well out with the Torx driver. In this case 4 cells were 3.2V with the 5th at 2.4V. In this case I only charged the low volt cell up to 3V. Then reassembled the battery and connected to its charger and it fully charged. Used it on a sprayer for 5 tank fills and it ran and recharged no worries. How it will go just sitting around I don’t know. The low volt cell could have a different resistance than the others and will discharge to a lower voltage over time than the others.

Was lucky they came back as in most cases they would be history and for disposal, still might be. As I said previously only time will tell if it is just a short term gain.

[Author]

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