Charging LiPo's with cigarette lighter sockets...possible?

[ctbon]

I'm quickly learning that the science of charging LiPo's isn't as simple as I had first thought. I'm wondering if there is an adaptor available that can allow you to plug your charger into the cigarette lighter and get the 12V that way.

I'm also wondering if one could use those rechargeable portable emergency jumpstarter units. Something like this http://www.amazon.com/Clore-Automot..._3?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1306788374&sr=1-3

This will probably blow up the battery, no?

I know zero about batteries...can you tell?

 

[Cabe]

You'll be looking for a "12v Lipo charger" there are many about but as with everything you get what you pay for.

 

[Emowillcox]

HI Ctbon.. be sure you use a balancer.... I first started using lipos on some electric planes about 4 years ago and nearly burned down my dad’s shop while charing a lipo that got out of balance.. so you wanna be careful don’t catch your car or house on fire... you ‘ll read about it in the magazine and it can happen.

 

[ctbon]

I have the charger/balancer. It is an EOS 0730i NET3 by Hyperion. It can be hooked up to the car battery but I'm wondering if there is something that will go in the cigarette lighter that I can plug the DC leads of the charger into or if I can connect the leads to the mentioned jumpstart battery pack so I could stray away from the vehicle.

 

[Crash]

There was a car fire on the road today. I wonder if he had LIPOs charging on the passenger seat.

I would not use the 12V plug to charge LIPOs. One burnt wire in a car wiring harness is a real PITA to fix. My fuse is 15A but it can blow running a laptop. You may be able to get by with a low amp charge but why bother. Charge them ahead of time. When your at the field crank the amps up and connect direct to car battery.

I don't think I would use a jumpstart pack either. The ones I have seen are not heavy enough to have many amp hours for charging LIPOs.

Someone who is 'serious' could run a dedicated wire pair and plug through a fusible link to a location outside of the engine compartment.

Like Emo said, LIPOs can be dangerous. Be careful.

 

[ctbon]

Charge them ahead of time.

What do you use for this? Did you hack together a PC power supply charger? I've seen some videos on youtube with this being done.

I am asking this because I (being completely green) assumed that my charger would be able the plug in to AC current.

 

[Crash]

I am no expert in LIPO charging. They do sell chargers that take AC current. I don't own one yet though.

At home I charge the batteries with a 12V charger when they are in a lipo sack with a lab power supply at 2amps. It's slow and painful and I don't like how hot the power supply gets. Clearly there is a better way and someone else will tell us.

PS. I have two broken car battery chargers looking at me right now. The first one that blinks will get dismantled.

 

[Sebbie]

Ctbon, what make and model is your charger, can you give us more info to help you out.

 

[ctbon]

EOS 0730i NET3 by Hyperion
http://hyperion-world.com/products/product/HP-EOS0730iNET3

 

[Emowillcox]

Ct.. another idea is go to home depot if they have them up there and get a little utility bag like this and put your own big battery in there and charge from it like this.. if I know I am going to do a lot of flying that day i’ll take this with me.. plus it has pockets to put my tools in.... that little trey fits onto of the battery

[/IMG]

Here is the battery that is on the inside

[/IMG]

 

[Sebbie]

Ctbon why dont you run two cables (makew sure they are suitable size) from your car battery to the boot and have a plug fitted to them to allow you to use the charger while you have a drink/break.
This will allow you to endless charge time, as you can start the car to charge the cars battery if needed.

 

[Crash]

http://www.multirotorforums.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=787&d=1306846324

Here is the battery that is on the inside

http://www.multirotorforums.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=786&d=1306846322

I'm not sure why the forum mangled the URLs but they aren't working for me.

Sometimes I will charge off of a deep cycle car battery but I only get 2 or 3 charges or so on my big LIPOs before voltage drops to low levels. (Maybe that's to be expected from a 9 year old battery)

My plan one day is to use that old car battery wired to a car charger for a dedicated 12V power supply. It's a dry spiral cell so no risk of explosive vapors or acid leaks.

 

[Macsgrafs]

I use a PC power supply as its gives 12v @ 18A, so my heprion charge works a treat, as does my mobile fridge
For charging in the feild I would suggest another battery, not those cheap handy packs as they really do suck big time! Buy another car battery of about 60 - 80A rating, put it in the boot with a heavy duty lead running from your cars main battery to the one in your boot. Now when your driving along it will charge the one in the boot as well, in fact most camping supply places sell an auto switch box to switch between the 2 as the voltage drops on one.

Ross

 

[Droider]

Leisure batteries are better.. ones for caravans, they can deep cycle more than a car battery with out knackering the cells.

 

[Macsgrafs]

Leisure batteries are better.. ones for caravans, they can deep cycle more than a car battery with out knackering the cells.

Well that's the theory, but I have 2 flying mates who will prove otherwise. They both bought 100A leisure batteries & within 2 months both were worse than useless. I'll stick with my old car battery at 1/2 the price

 

[Bartman]

i've got something like this in my car for charging batteries

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Bright-...5S/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1306875370&sr=8-10

i plug it into the cigarette lighter and then plug my charger into it. i can only run two of the four chargers or the inverter will fade and cause the chargers to reset. the power rating of the inverter should be at or below what your outlet can provide (volts * amps, get the amps by finding the fuse for the circuit). if you have multiple 12v jacks then you may be able to run multiple inverters but keep the car running when you do this.
bart

 

[RTRyder]

The RC Heli flying field I use has a cargo container with a gasoline generator setup in it and power panels on the outside walls for all the heli guys that fly electric to recharge from, that's one of the reasons I fly there. Even so, I have several sets of batteries for each multi I own and charge them all before heading out to fly by using a Hyperion EOS615i Duo3 charger and one of these to provide the DC input... http://www.allerc.com/32-45-amp-dc-switching-power-supply-p-4742.html

I store and transport all of the lipos in steel military surplus ammo boxes just in case one decides to "go off" while not being used.

Ken

 

[Macsgrafs]

Ken, what other forums do you belong to? The reason I ask is because someone else called Ken told me to use empty ammo boxes & thats what I now use, even drilled a few holes in the top as suggested.

Ross

 

[CopterCam]

All this Battery talk has me feeling a bit flat I am certainly missing the benefits of these additional charging support batteries ?

Must look into this a bit more.

Sid

 

[Stacky]

A couple of days ago I connected a Lipo to my hexa and it shorted out and the power wiring burnt out. Luckily this happened before i got it in the air. When i had a close look at what happened I realized that my power leads were not of a high enough rating and over time my power leads plastic sheathing had hardened and broken down. I would be worried that over time that could happen with a cigarette lighter connection in a car causing similar problems in the cars wiring loom.