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mikehains wrote:methods,I have read many of your posts, and it seems you are one of the most experienced with Lipos.My new 8 x 18.5v 5A Lipo Turnigy "Bricks" turned up, and I want to wire them like this:My question is ... do you (with your Lipo packs) leave the balance connectors paralleled while using them ? Or do you only connect them in parallel when charging them ?I know I've seen posts about this, but it is your experience that I'm keen to hear.Kindest
Response from methods
Re: Zippy Flightmax / Turnigy lipo testing
Sent: Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:36 am From: methods To: mikehains
That is exactly how I do it and I keep them paralleled all the time.I think you are on the right track.
You want to keep them in parallel all the time for many reasons, not the least of which is the risk of constantly connecting and disconnecting the JST-XH connectors. You want to connect everything once and leave it. I promise that if you can make a mistake (like plugging one of the upper balance connectors into one of the lower) you will eventually. This is not to mention the wear and tear on the connectors. I cant tell you how many times I have smoked up balance taps due to stupidity.... You also want to keep them connected so that you can run cell level protection while you ride.
At a minimum you want to run a pair of BM6's so that when the first cell hits LVC you will get beeping.Later when you run cell level LVC protection you will want them all tied together as well.
I have put over 3,000 miles on my collective bikes in the last year or two and they are all run in this configuration.
Please be very careful.... Many times I have had my cells connected at the cell level and forgotten. I then tried to convert a pack from something like 12S 4P over to 24S 2P and shorted the packs. No damage but lots of smoke and fire.
Just be very deliberate whenever working with this many cells. It really is a dangerous amount of stored energy. If you keep the JST-XH taps you can get the JST-XH extenders I pointed out and use 7 pin JST-XH board connectors to hook everything together. You know those little perferated boards at RadioShack that have the copper traces on them already? Those are perfect for JST-XH board mount connectors. This way you dont even have to make a big double-Y cable.
-methods
