how to charge a123 w/ ice charger
 

hey guys i wanna get my rusty back up and running but my a123 charger broke and so i wanna use my ice charger to charge it up. how do i do this? do i have to take out that balancing wire or anything like that?

if any of you guys do that settings for the ice would be a cool thing to give me!

thanks

I think you need something like the LiPoDapter, except it's for the a123 cells.

I have a 5s2p A123 pack myself, i absolutely love these things, the fast charging, it's so satisfying. I use a BK Precision 20v - 10A programmable power supply with CC-CV (constant-current, constant-voltage) to properly charge them. They are charged in less than 30 mins.

It's strange that they aren't that popular, but I guess they are pretty new (8 months)

ya true i can ship back the charger and everything but thats just anothr month that im out of nice batterys...

thanks foryour help!

T-Maxx, I have some GP3700's for sale that will charge up great with the Ice (I actually use an Ice).

well i have 3 sets of 3300 which are nice but just not enough power for my dual 700s... wanna see how they run on dual 3s1ps

Ahh - I see.

You can charge on a lithium profile as normal.. but the voltage cutoff is higher than the recomended 3.6/cell for the a123s.

So you could just keep an eye on the pack and pull it when it hits 3.6-3.8 per cell....

An interesting thing I see on the mfg spec sheet is that the voltage per cell goes up at lower temps. At 0*C it lists 4.2v per cell charge... soooo if you put the pack in the refridgerator :) you can charge away on a lipo profile and be within mfg specs.

for what it's worth a lot of guys have charged these cells to 4.2 because they don't have proper chargers and it does no apparent harm... but they say it will reduce the life of the cell.

ok so then i put the charge at lipo or li ion? i set it at 2300 mah and what about these 3 diff things... any of them matter? charge current peak sensitivity charge volt

thanks!

You should use the lion setting cause it "peaks" at 4.1v per cell which woudl be better in case you don't stop it manually.

I think ou only need to set the # of cells... and charge current.

A couple things you can do with the settings....

1. when the pack is dumped all the way, you could try setting the max charge capacity to 100% or a little under that, to get it to cutoff the the charge before it gets to the 4+volts that the lion/lipo profile is looking for. This won't be an exact thing, but you might be able to get it close by playing with this setting.
2. you could set the capacity of the pack higher (like 4600mah) so the charger will allow a higher charge rate. The A123s can take it so why not? If you charge at 2-3c then it won't take long... so you could hang around to monitor it and stop the charge when you want.

If you do bump up the capacity like that, make sure you compensate for it by reducing the max charge capacity. Fro example... 45-50% if you set it to 4600mah(2x) .... about 30% if you set it at 6900mah (3x)

This way you can fast charge it but still have a failsafe of sorts...

For lithiums, there isn't a peak sensitivity...

copied form pm....

I would set it:
Lion
3 cell
6900mah
current: 6.9 amps
max capacity: 30%

If the pack is dumped.. then this will fast charge it to about 2000-2100 mah which should have it close to fully charged. (only @ 20 minutes)
If the volts don't hit a full 10.8-11v then you could bump it again to top it off.

If you don't want to do (3c) 6.9 amps... drop it to this(2c):
4600mah
4.6 amps
max charge: 45%

@ 30 minutes...

When I used the ICE to charge my 5s2p packs, I used a LipoDapter. It didn't cut off as early as I had liked (about 3.75v/cell), but it was a lot better than 4.1v/cell. Now I charge my A123 packs on a modified Astroflight 109 :).

kk cool thanks guys!! ya i would normally just use the charger... but it broke.. dont wanna buy a lipo-dapter if i can get the charger fixed uk..

thanks again guys!

Hy
I Charge my A 123 with a old version of the Orbit Pocket Charger ! I have two 4 S Packs, put toghether to a 8 S and I charge the 4 S A 123 Packs with the normal PB Battery 12 v Programm !
i have done this now a many Times and the cells works pretty good ! I know from some other Guy´s here in Germany, doing this the same way !
The new Orbit Chargers have allready the LI/FE Programm !
So what I wanted to say is that you can charge the 4 S Pack in a very normal charging Programm ( PB 12 ) with any Charger !

good Luck Stefan

that's a cool trick... but the ICE doesn't have this profile unfortunately

I don't have any chargers with a PB setting :(

Hmmm, my Hyperion 7i has that program, but never had a need to look into it. I may have to check it out now because this piques my curiosity.

Just wanted to mention on this topic:

What I would like to do is run a 6s A123 pack (equal to a 5s lipo) which is a very good fit for charging on a 5s lipo setting.

BUT... my chargers only go up to 4s lipo so I can't do that anyway....

hmm... does the ice go up to 5s lipo?

and when i went to charge my second pack it said...

output voltage is lower than selected cells or voltages please check proper cell or voltages

what exactly does that mean?

hmmm... how low is the dumped 2s pack? Must be under 6 volts... I didn't know if would be (stay) under the ICE's 'smartness'... I'm not sure what the minimum voltage is for the ICE to start a charge.

If this is going ot happen all the time, then it would be best to just buy a lipodapter...

For now you can put the pack on nimh charge for a minute to bump the volts up.. then switch to the lipo setting as planned. That should get it to work.

alrighty ill try that!

ill let you know how it works

thanks!

The ICE will charge a 5s A123 pack in 10cell NiMh mode with peak sensitivity to maximum. A LipoDapter could be used to stop the charge, or you could manually end the charge by decreasing the current to maintain the voltage at 3.6v/cell (18v for a 5s pack).

actually 5s LiPo setting charging a 6s A123 won't get you full charge, anything below 3.6 volts will get you about 80-85%, and takes longer to charge, but if you want to do that, go ahead.

If you want to spend some money, you could buy a good power supply like mine, and have 10A charging, and 100% charging everytime. But, again, only if you want to spend the money.

zpb, how big is that power supply? It's probably kinda big to take with you to a track isn't it? I'm sure it's perfectly fine for at home though...

It's small, it's 22 x 22 x 9 cm dimensions, and weights 2.8kg. It's actually very decent, easy to carry (one hand). It would prob be safer than using a LiPo charger, as this thing is lab quality. It has a very nice LCD screen that shows all the running parameters, and PC programmable, and can be run from PC.

that is what im using. a pc power supply. brianG helped me convert it. it actually works suprisingly well.

t-maxxracer32: Actually, ZPB is talking about an actual CV/CC programmable power supply, not just a PC power supply.

I'm glad that the PS is working for you. :)

yep yep!

thanks!