Core UDC30 Problems

[Chris Larner]

I have recently re started racing and got myself a second hand Core charger. I was charging (ballance charging) my Intellect 5400 lipo at 4 amps and it started ok then dropped to arround 0.2Amps and carried on for ages, the cut out voltage is set too 8.4volts and the mah is set too 5400. Is this normal or is there something wrong with the charger. Its also connected to a much more 13amp supply so no probs there.
Any help or advise is appreciated.

[/tobys]

Lipo chargers will drop the Amperage when the Lipo reaches 8.4v - thats the way they charge - it's different to Peak charging for nicad/nimh.

What you are seeing sounds like normal behaviour. You can probably charge at 5 Amps too (which is just under 1c for your Lipo) unless your cells specifiy a 4A charge limit.

[angieamyabbie]

thats normal as a lipo reaches fully charged in balance mode the amps drop it can take ages to fully balance a battery i have had one that took 3 hours to fully charge but once balanced should charge quicker the next time

[teamxray]

lipos charge in a different way which is ccv= constant current voltage not like your nicd/nimh they charge at peak voltage thats why you see a drop off in amps when the lipo getting nearer to there full charge of 8.4v but i would ALLWAYS balance charge all the time it safer for you and your batteries

[DCM]

indeed they are all correct, LiPo charge by the Constant Current - Constant Voltage, so basically, it charges at a high current that you fix (say 5A) till the battery reaches a set voltage, the charger then holds the cells at that voltage while dropping the charge current.

[Chris Larner]

Thanks for all the info guys. I will stop worrying now