Safely Using LiPo Batteries
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- Today we will learn to SAFELY charge, discharge, balance, store, and dispose of LiPo batteries. We’ll also learn how to put out a LiPo fire, just in case!
Article with more info: dronebotworkshop.com/lipo-safety
More articles and tutorials: dronebotworkshop.com
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LiPo, or Lithium-ion Polymer batteries, have the highest energy-to-weight ratio of any rechargeable battery, and they are used extensively in radio-controlled aircraft and land vehicles. They are also used in mobile phones, some electric vehicles, and, of course, robotics.
When handled properly, LiPo batteries are a perfectly safe power source that can last for up to 500 charge and discharge cycles. But if neglected or misused, their lifetimes can be drastically reduced, and worse, they can even catch fire!
Today we will learn how LiPo batteries work, and how to read their specifications. We’ll also see how to charge, discharge, and balance LiPo batteries to ensure that they live a long and happy life. We’ll see some methods of safely storing them, and disposing of them when they have finally worn out.
Not only that, but we will also see how to prevent a LiPo fire, and how to extinguish one if you are unlucky enough to have one.
Here is the Table of Contents for today's video:
00:00 - Introduction
01:37 - All about LiPo Batteries
08:23 - LiPo Batteries & Accessories
14:55 - LiPo Charging
23:34 - LiPo Discharging & Balancing
27:28 - LiPo Storage
36:21 - LiPo Fire Extinguishing
39:51 - LiPo Disposal
42:59 - Conclusion
As always, you’ll find more information in the accompanying article on the DroneBot Workshop website.
It’s a powerful episode today! Hope you enjoy it.
Bill 
Хобби
Hi everyone - It's come to my attention that there has been someone masquerading as myself, responding to some comments here with a link to a Telegram chat to win a prize from me. THIS IS A SCAM, I am not holding a contest, nor do I have a Telegram account. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE MESSAGES!!
It's happening on a lot of my videos, I'm taking steps to remove them manually, but as I have 162 videos, it will take some time. If you do run across a suspicious comment, I would appreciate you letting me know at info@dronebotworkshop.com.
Thanks!
Bill (The real one!)
Your advice about removing the rubber seal was great; I used to store mine in document fireproof safes, since they're airtight, I've second thoughts about those now and will definitely change this. Thanks man
Wow ! That was a comprehensive video Bill!
I don’t think anyone could ask for a more informative video !
Thank you !
Thanks for this really informative video! Everyone using LiPo batterise should watch this! 🙂👌
That has to be the very best tutorial on battery management to be found on YT and beyond ;) I was trained in the military on battery and battery store management way back when and although the chemistry was different it is the same H&S process as you have illustrated. All that you outlined can be usd for any chemistry, just learn the different steps and characteristics. of the chemistry. If you are looking after lead acid then there are various dangers, not least sulphuric acid or performing a gassing charge :) And so it is whith any chemistry. Thank's for a great video!
Just what I needed. Well produced content, thank you for what you do.
Yeah, I learnt to use same width wires and not to draw power using jumper wires from my previous experience. This video enlightens me further.
Thank you for such a thorough and educational guide to these batteries!
This was VERY informative, Bill !!
Impresive and complete explanation, thank you for sharing with us.
As always, a well structured and informative video. Thank you very much.
Very informative! Thanks!
Your videos are very informative, thank you for providing them!
Thank you so much your detailed explanation for putting this together this is great video
This is more informative. Thank you
I am a year 2 electronic engineering and I have learnt a lot from you bill espically arduino hardware and software . You explain things in a logical and clear manner. Thanks for your work
Very comprehensive. Thanks
Let me like the video first and then watch it. Love to see the notification of your videos Bill :)
Love your voice and the way you explain things. Very informative video :)
Excellent video.
Such good video, and valuable reference that I keep coming back to. Thanks!!!!
Very serious and informative video. You can't stress the importance of safety enough. No room for complacency here. Great work.
Merci beaucoup pour les tutoriels............
A very detailed video everyone operating with LiPo should have seen :-)
As usual an excellent introduction to the subject.
Excellent, information-dense video. Thank you.
Very informative.
Absolutely fantastic video, learnt more here than hours on the forums, and some really handy accessories too!
Keep up the good work :>
I have none of these batteries, yet. I hope to buy a drone later in the year which will obviously have such batteries. This video was very well presented and gave me information I wasn’t aware of. Thank you for producing it.
Thanks for the video. Very detailed and informative. 👍
I have learned a lot today. Thank you.
ive had a cheap RC 2S 5200mAh lipo for 10 years and it still works great and has at least half capacity left when fully charged
Great video, thanks!
Fantastic video. Thanks for the great information!
Great video, as always!
Very important reference video. Thanks 🙏
Great video and very informal.
Very well explained
This is what I need right now!
Lots of ways to start a lipo fire only one way to put it out. Great video as always
As always, your videos are well thought out and informative. What are you thoughts about multi-battery parallel charging boards that I would say thousands of drone flyers use?
I love your videos. Thank you so much for what you give to the world! People like you make the world better.
Thanks for another great video. This one feels like a reference video to which I'll return again and again.
Fun to see you using a green screen, too. If it's not a green screen or other color background replacement, your lighting upgrade is fabulous!!
No, it's not a green screen, I've never used one. I have been gradually upgrading my lighting and I bought a new camera. Great to hear that the difference is noticeable!
Thanks Bill
Safety! May you all be vigilant while you enjoy creating!
Great video especially like all the safety tips, I've watched some other videos and mostly they're just trying to sell products below is my story thanks again love your Channel
Great video, super informative. Looks like I'm going to have to reconsider working with LiPO in an apartment building..
You were reading my mind awesome video 😁👍🤖🛸
Everytime i see ur video, i fond of the intro music. It was amazing...
Good video, very thorough.
Does your little controller have a mode for storage? Or what do you use?
Thanks
Very informative Bill, with their ability for a catastrophic fire I am surprised they are not required to all have over current protection built right into the battery packs. With the vast array of connectors is there a standard list of them with standard usages.
Another video on using 18650 batteries can also be very helpful!
What a great video, so full of useful information ! Thanks, I really learned a lot !
When storing with cement blocks, why not use two blocks with the top block turned ninety degrees from the bottom. That would make the battery fully encased in concrete if on a concrete floor or on a third block.
Hello and thanks for the videos. I've been watching a lot of your tutorials so thanks! That said, I read the article and watched this video but, I was looking for advice on connecting 2 3.7v 1100mAh batteries in parallel. The article said there was an accompanying video using splitters but, I didn't see it on the website! Can you provide a link? I'm pretty sure I understand how but, I want to be as safe as possible. Thanks again, your videos have been extremely helpful in developing my project.
Hello Bill. Your vídeos are great. I am using 18650 batteries for motores in general. Could you provide us with your expertise on 18650 batteries?
niiice toolbox! I just might make me something similar!
I use LiPo batteries in a lot of projects. In my RC airplanes, they provide a HUGE amount of power for their small form factor.
Hi, thanks for this video! Very informative! I have a quick question, I will appreciate your opinion about it:
I have some powerbanks at home and recently I started using one of them as a "UPS" for automatic pet feeder, it stays charging at all time and also connected to the feeder.
I did some research and could not find any issue doing it. I'd like to know your opinion about that use.
Thanks a lot!
I use LiPo packs (11.1v) in all my airsoft shooters, have been for around 15 years and some of them are the original packs I bought. Look after them and treat them well and they'll last and last.
Bill, where did you get the battery monitor units? I order some and they do not work at 8s.
Good information my cell phone just started to swell up and split the casing open. How do I get all my pictures and apps. transferedto the new one when it comes next week ? I've turned it off and removed the SIM card card. I plced it in an Old Cement Mixer out in the Yard just in case .I like your Videos on Arduino ,555 timers and Transistors but I'm Retired and just getting started. Things have sure Changed since I took High School Electronics back in 1967 -1968.
Do the same concerns apply to LiOn?
17:15 - very good advices but I am wondering if they are practical. I have lots of devices charging even when nobody is at home - I am not sure about it. Even every laptop is with LiPo - who is always present when laptop is charging?
Hi Bill,
once again a very informative video. I really appreciate, that you also look above the local horizon, as the law regarding LiPo's are indeed very different in other regions - as we have them here in germany.
You mentioned, that your other hobby is cooking. Is there a chance to see a video, how you are making a pizza on your BBQ? ;-)
Greetings from rhine-main-region, germany
Alex
What is the meter at 11:40 called and where can you buy one?
Can you recommend any good protective case for lithium ion batteries - used for electric bikes? Capacity of the battery is 11.6 Ah
This video is great, but its put me off getting batteries for my project. Is there an alternative to Lipo batteries, like a car battery
@18:00 Do graphene batteries also need "breaking in"?
I have LiPo and Li-Ion (in 18650 format) Batteries, will you do one on Li-Ion as well?
Maybe on Protection Circuits too?
I've used 3S ones from Keeppower, the Keeppower XZD-3S1550
I actually store them all in an ammo case (the same type you showed in the video), but hadn't removed the rubber seal, did that right after the vid though - safety first ^^
Seems that you have inversed the anode and cathode at 2:55. Anode is positive and cathode is negative. Otherwise, great video as usual. I use a lot of your videos to help with my ESP32 projects.
what about remote solar charging of LiPo?
At 42:45 They are called "Transfer Stations" in California.
👍👍👍👍👍👍 ps what's a name of that 'handy device' @13:10 ?
Thank you, great video as always.
But... C remains a little confusing. I read a lot of literature on the subject and it's never clear.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but C is the capacity.
50C is the discharge rate. Meaning you can discharge the battery at 5.2x50=250A, which I would very weary of.
But to charge it, at max 1.5C, that's 5200 x1.5 = 7.8A. You mention around 21:00 that you could go all the way to 12A... I don't think you should.
When LiPo charging, is it necessary to place the charger, as well as the battery, in a fireproof enclosure?
nice
nice
LiPos gave me PTSD and my OCD made me switch most of my high power applications to Lifepo4s at the loss of some capacity.
On that small battery monitor (I have that loud thing); I noticed that one cell was reading 4.35v. I freaked out and pulled out my meter to prove that the maonitor was very far off on cell #2. Otherwise, it's a great product.
are Nickle metal hydride comparable i also have some fast charge cells that deliver a full 1.5 not the 1.25 of other rechargeable cells.
No not even close. If you wamt safety with almost the capacity of Lipo get LiFePO they will get hot and vent but not burn evrn when shorted or shot with a gun.
I'm glad I watched this before buying any LiPos. I'm definitely not prepared for the risks.
The risk are very rare tho and it’s usually only when charging they don’t just spontaneously combust. Just be smart about where you place the charger and battery every time you charge and you should be fine. There’s people that have dealt with lipo’s all their life and have never seen a fire once. Just follow basic safety steps or charge outside somewhere you can chuck or leave it in case it does happen. I charge mine on my desk on a metal baking pan near my window in a two story house. I never leave them charging unattended and I check on them every like 10-15 minutes to make sure they aren’t getting too hot or making any weird noises. If something were to happen tho I can easily chuck the pan with everything on it out the window worst thing that would happen is the charger might not make the fall but that’s it. Just be smart and sensible you’ll be fine, also don’t cheap out on the batteries. That 10-15$ lipo might seem like a good deal but it’s just better to spend the extra cash and get one from a trusted manufacturer.
"Tamiya" connectors: commonly known as Amp/Tyco FASTON connectors (aka "1/4" spade connector)
Kind of makes one wonder about all the cell phone & tablets that use batteries similar to these
Does anyone know what to do if the lipo battery won't charge? Like am I using it till the individual cells are too low? The battery is brand new and so is the charger. I've double checked the specified settings on the charger and everything but the battery will not charge.
Awesome video, I am now hungry for a delicious lithium polymer pizza.
I am used to working on USB powered projects with 5V and maybe a max of 2A. The idea that they have a higher voltage and output a whopping 357 A sounds crazy to me ... Is this just the peak value or can they output this for longer?
just a few minutes in serval bursts.
the wires are mostly 4mm2 crosssection. so 40A continuos would be max. for the wires alone.
Informative and valuable information. Safety first! Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge. My Neighbor started a fire in his garage charging a Lipo and the fire spread to the house. Took them near a year to rebuild the home. Thanks again Bill.
Interesting. Having 20+ years of experience using LiPo I've never used cells with a charged state voltage of 4.4v (03:50) , they have always had the (critical) limit of 4.2v which you even state (16:17) so I wonder where that figure came from?
The term "resting voltage" you use is probably a little confusing to some as the "nominal" voltage is usually referred to as the nominal voltage under operation although the real cell voltage will be somewhere between the maximum charge voltage of 4.2v (not 4.4) and the safe minimum of 2.9-3v (depending on manufacturer).
I can't quite agree with the broad statement (04:45) that parallel cells are no longer necessary because individual cell performance has increased - that is totally dependant on the end use of course. I have a specialist product in front of me that has been specifically designed to use parallel cells due to the form factor and availability of the chosen cell.
Your safety advice on charging and the treatment of LiPo (17:05) is certainly exceptionally conservative these days. For example you would never consider taking your mobile phone, laptop or any other commercial device outside to charge it! Great advice for high capacity model batteries that are regularly abused with high current deep discharge cycles but again in 99.5% of other cases using a commercial charger on well treated cells is as safe as charging your phone. In the lab we have often charged cells using bench supplies using CC/CV method, it is perfectly appropriate for that environment but of course not good practice for the average user.
Thankfully many or most LiPo cells - including small pouch cells for hobbyist projects - come with over/under voltage and balancing protection these days to avoid many of the pitfalls present in the cells of yesteryear to which all of these precautions applied.
Again great production on the video. Cheers.
Yes, he's overdoing his safety a bit - he's charging a battery in good condition in a Lipo bag, then on a baking stone and on top of this at just 1/3rd of the lower bound of regular charging rate (normally 1C to 1.5C). And he's got his fire extinguisher on the side and is complaining he can't charge outside 😂
I bet he couldn't sleep later that day because of all that risk he took charging inside 😂
@@JC-XL to be fair Bill does a great job of these videos this one is perhaps just a tad biased towards the care and feeding of very abused older cells.
These batteries are used in Cel phones no wonder they catch fire i think i will stay with my NI metal hydrides thanks. iguess if you drop one of these things it is pretty much done for.
Great video! I learned a lot of good information. I do enjoy seeing a spicy pillow once in awhile though 🤣(just kidding)
18:08 "Direct charging (via output lead) is NOT recommended". I'm pretty sure all chargers put it the bulk of the charge via the output leads. The only alternative to that would be the balancing connector and leads, which are not rated to carry a 6A charging current ("1C" for a 6000 mAh battery), let alone a 15A charging current (3C for the 5000 mAh battery shown at 6:07).
I think what he means is that direct charging via ONLY the output leads (i.e. without balancing) is not recommended.
I bought a nice new fireplace ash bucket to keep my lipos in, I put a small bag of sand on top of the batteries.
👍👍
May I have a LiPo cells pizza, spiced up with some 4.2 Volts and a tip drop of sand?!
I think I'll wait for a more straightforward battery . Plenty of new ones in the pipeline.
What a bummer, I bought 12 100-amp cells at $155 each and BMS for $149 from Overkill solar. For my off-grid property, got a victron mppt charger, went up to my off-grid property my my charger was putting out 13.5 battery was at 9.8 12-volt battery. I think each individual cell is below 3 volts I guess the BMS did not do its job. Overkill solar refuses any kind of support. Looks like I just pissed away $1,800, never could connect to the BMS through Bluetooth. really bummed out I'm going to try to charge them individually get a different BMS we'll see what happens. Thanks for the great video even though it ripped my heart out. Sounds like my battery is totally ruined. I'll be making a video showing my whole process trying to save this battery. Sounds like the bms shut it down and then drained itself powering the bms. Then I found out you got to spend five bucks to a third party to be able to change your parameters. I'm going to try to hook to my laptop through the USB
is the BMS even suitable for 3S Li-Po or Li-Ion.
or did you order LiFePo4 ? 100 questions...
@@casemodder89 you can find that same BMS all over the Internet with different companies. I sort of hit a roadblock trying to figure out a good BMS. I'm trying to figure out American made Power storage but it seems impossible. I would never use Overkill solar again though. They may have good batteries I really don't know but their customer service is terrible I'm out a ton of money
i am now kind of scared to use a lipo battery , i will take a good care while using it my future projects
In June 2020, I became homeless and lost everything I had in a fire started by someone in a neighboring building. That is the something I do not want to go through again. I must admit I took the risk of LiPo fires too lightly. Blame it on ignorance. I'd been carelessly mangling the experimental battery I'd been using! The plastic covering has not been cut open, but the battery did suffer a few small dents in it. This has not kept it from working though. I'd set aside the idea of buying an extinguisher for my home, but after watching this video I ordered a Class BC extinguisher right away. I have been experimenting with LiPo batteries for a short while now. I have 6 of these devices in my home.
I'm relatively new to electronics. I have no formal training in the subject, but I'm an adventurous explorer in many domains. Recently, after destroying one of the chargers found inside the two 20000mAh LiPo power banks I took apart, I realized I only needed one charger to charge both batteries. However, having removed the charger also means I removed the low battery indicator which was on the same device. I don't want to damage my batteries to low charge. So, I have been perusing the internet for a suitable low battery indicator circuit. Preferably, one I can build myself at home. Of course, I will only use the chargers I separated from the power banks with the same type of device the chargers came with. And because the chargers are intended for 5V batteries, I will not attempt to use them to charge a 3.7V battery.
Though I don't have one, I like your idea of storing LiPo batteries in an ammo box. The metal case should make these somewhat fire retardant, and I imagine these must be explosion-proof, right? Your drywall-lined toolbox is also a very good idea.
Thanks for all of the useful info, Bill. Keep it up. I'm watching, learning, and better informed.
Years ago I opened a battery pack an surprised to find a microcontroller attending to every need that the new types battery had, just like a prima donna actor/actress or athlete, in either case you don't want a meltdown, the old lead acid batteries was always easier going, it took a lot to get a lead acid battery to misbehave in comparison, it's a shame about the limited capacity.
This video is sponsored by the Lead Acid Battery Association 🤣
🌟🌹🌟