Cycling a new Lion battery pack

[p1p]

Just got my new pack in from batteryspace for my Salvo 35wHID.

Do I need to cycle it, or just gun and go.

Also, what should my expected runtime be with it? (Just got the light recently, but battery wasnt in good condition)

thx!

 

[TSandM]

Need to know the size of the battery pack to tell you the burn time.

Don't cycle it -- according to Tobin George, whose opinion I completely trust, these batteries do not have "memory" and do not appreciate deep cycling.

 

[p1p]

15.6ah pack...

 

[p1p]

finally found something that stated 270 minutes? (4.5 hours) for real?

 

[Superlyte27]

Yah cycling Lipo is no good.

 

[p1p]

These are Lithium Ion, not Lithium Polymer, different beasties in certain ways.

 

[Hatul]

You don't need to cycle it, but the first charge it's often recommended to be long, much longer than usual. I believe the reason is to fully charge all the cells so they're at the same charge level. The charger will trickle charge after the main charge is complete.

 

[p1p]

Depends on the charger, I dont know if mine is charge shut off, or maintenance mode. I'll leave in on till saturday morning anyways, does no harm.

 

[cool_hardware52]

These are Lithium Ion, not Lithium Polymer, different beasties in certain ways.

Not really. Lithium Polymer is Lithium Ion, with a slightly different electrolyte. Charging routines are essentially the same.

Tobin

 

[Spg01]

I would hope that the pack has cell protection circuits for the batteries, that will help prevent overdischarging the pack. The circuit just shuts the battery off before the voltage goes low enough to damage the battery cell. Charging depends on the charger. Some chargers will get to the desired voltage and shut off. But the good ones will actually balance the cells as they are charging, but the battery pack has to be configured correctly for the charger to measure each cell.

If your charger does not balance the cells the state of charge for each cell will eventually get out of wack with each other and shorten the life of the pack. If one battery is at 80% of charge and the other battery is at 60% of charge the 1st battery will get fully charged and the 2nd battery will only get a partial charge when your charger turns off.

Go to CandlePowerForums - The Front Page to learn more than you would ever want to know about batteries.


Once charged put the light in water and run it till it dies to find the run time. The protection circuits will shut down the batteries before anything melts down. The batteries usually do not like to be stored fully charged. So I charge my light the night before a dive, use it and then wait until the next week to charge it before I go out again. Like others said, they do not have a memory so you do not need to fully discharge the pack before charging again.