TOPIC:

HI!... I bought a bunch of ZIPPY 5800 mAh, 2S, 30c LiPo's about a year ago. Totally forgot about them. Was told they are put in "STORAGE' mode when you buy them new. Well they apparently have too low of voltage and my LiPo charger refuses to charge them. I know there's a way to do it, because I've heard of people doing it before. I thought I heard somewhere to set the charger on NiCd/NiMh for a very limited time to just bring the voltage up enough so you can charge it normally in LiPo balanced mode like normal. My charger set-up is a P350 power supply and a iCharger 206B. I can't find the darn instructions for the charger anywhere.

Any help sorting this out would be greatly appreciated. I haven't actually charged a LiPo or drivin any of my runners in about 1.5 years. Memory how to do this is faded with my old age. lol!

Use this link to download your manual:http://www.hillrc.com/UploadFiles/iC206B_en.pdf

I hope you find a way to awake your sleeping lipos

Reading in various forums I see recommendations to slow charge as NiMh or NiCd up to a certain voltage level, then switching to LiPo charge.
I have never tried it, and there are different opinions on how safe this is...

HI!... Thanks. The iCharger is too smart and won't charge then in any mode, and I have tried them all. So I broke out my old ONYX 230 charger. It's currently charging them in non balance mode. I'll let them charge about 15 minutes then pull them off and try the other charger. Hopefully this works.

Be very watchful when trying to save a lipo. If they get the least bit warm to the touch pull them off nicd/nimh charge and let them cool before trying a balance charge. If they puff at all their done. Soak them in salt water for 24 hours and toss them.

Dasbeermeister wrote:

If they puff at all their done. Soak them in salt water for 24 hours and toss them.

now that sounds exciting, whats with the saltwater and the soaking, aint those lipo's airtight?

Lithium reacts violently with moisture in the air, so yes Lipo packs have to be air-tight. The fact that they have "puffed" means there's been a reaction somewhere inside, that coupled with the heat means they're likely to not be airtight any more. I guess the soak in salt water overnight is to ensure the bin men don't get a nasty surprise if any lithium has escaped the initial destruction. Normal water would work, as would just air if you're talking about as long as overnight. (Air exposed lithium coating lasts about 5 minutes, if that).

I would also suggest that cheap Lipos probably haven't got much of a "shelf-life" anyway, as air will find its way down the inside of the wiring & into the pack, unless the wiring has been properly sealed. (I see this effect all the time with water finding it's way into "watertight" equipment by travelling down the inside of the wiring from a cut/exposed end). Capilliary action, that's the phrase I was trying to remember... you also see it in the case of rusty pushbike brake inner cables

Not sure about the "charging on NiCd/NimH setting" - most Lipos have a protection circuit which disconnects the actual cell from the wiring in an over-current or over-voltage scenario, & this circuit needs voltage to work, & will permanently "fail-safe" disconnect the cells if their voltage isn't high enough to run the protection circuit (Seen this a million times with laptop & car DVD player batteries). SO, if the Lipo has "died" through old age without use, it's most likely because the protection circuit has failed-safe, & no amount of poking electricity up the wiring is going to help (Cos it won't get to the cell proper).

The only real way around it is to make your charging connection at the actual cell connections, (I really wouldn't recommend you try doing this unless you really know what your doing, or you will get injured) but unfortunately in the case of modern packs, this means destroying the air-tight pack to get to the terminals (The protection device is inside the packaging nowadays).

Every time a lipo is charged or discharged gas is released. You can watch one swell under heavy discharge. When they puff more gas has been released than can be reabsorbed. If the foil sealing the cell ruptures air reacts with lithium causing smoke and fire. Salt water conducts electricity well enough that soaking a non punctured pack will completely discharge it and make it more safe to dispose of because there's no chance of a dead short, which leads to puffing, rupture and fire.

HI!... I just want to explain that these two LiPo's have NEVER been used. They are brand new. I just went to go put in the 1st charge so I can use them and my iCharger 206B says the voltage is too low and won't charge them. I then plugged them into my old ONYX 230 charger and it tells me there is no battery connected when there is. Weird. As you can see by the pics below, they are NEW, no swelling, nothing.

Yep, sounds like the failsafe has kicked in due to low voltage from non-use.
As far as I know, you have to charge Lipos to activate them to be usable from their "new/storage mode" state, & they have a limited shelf life in that state.

Dasbeermeister - re salt water - ha I hadn't even considered conductivity of salt water for discharging! Couldn't you just leave it plugged in to a light bulb or something? It would be less messy! Doesn't really address the problem of the pack being punctured during disposal & setting fire to something or injuring someone though. I'd also say Lithium is probably one of those chemicals you get frowned upon for chucking it out for landfill.

It still amazes me that lithium-based batteries are in such widespread use in the "dumb-consumer" world, especially soft-pack Lipos, I had wondered if they were introduced by government as some form of population control...