{"id":6388,"date":"2020-08-26T09:06:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T09:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/?p=6388"},"modified":"2020-08-27T04:26:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T04:26:41","slug":"how-to-parallel-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/fpv-essentials\/how-to-parallel-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Parallel Charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few different times I\u2019ve been at the field flying with a few other like-minded FPVers to find out that really we weren\u2019t all that like-minded.\u00a0 Apparently there are two definitive groups of people in this hobby; those who parallel charge and those who don\u2019t (or should I say won\u2019t?).\u00a0 Since I got involved with drones in 2012 I have heard both sides of the argument and with this article want to outline why I am in the parallel camp and how to parallel charge safely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Parallel<\/p>\n

This article was submitted through the\u00a0GetFPV Community Program<\/a>\u00a0by Duane Bradley.\u00a0 You can check out more of his content at his Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: This article was written solely by a member of the FPV Community. Views and advice in this article are that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of GetFPV.<\/em><\/p>\n

Those that aren\u2019t comfortable parallel charging usually state the risk to the battery and\/or fire as their reason.\u00a0 I agree that it can be risky however, with the proper precautions I don\u2019t think it is dangerous.\u00a0 With that said, if I can charge in series I will.\u00a0 I do believe by series charging you get a more accurate charge and it will help the life of the battery last longer.\u00a0 For me personally, I series charge at home and only parallel charge when in the field trying to keep batteries charged for constant fly time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The advantage of parallel charging is that you can charge multiple batteries in the same amount of time that you can charge a single battery and that you can charge up to 6 batteries per charger channel instead of one.\u00a0 This becomes extremely handy when field charging with only one charger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How Does Parallel Charging Work?<\/h2>\n

First thing to understand is how a LiPo is \u2018seen\u2019 by a charger when it gets connected and how it charges the battery.\u00a0 When you plug in the main connector (XT60, XT30, etc) the charger will see the total voltage of the LiPo.\u00a0 When you plug in the balance connector the charger can now see and monitor the voltage of each individual cell.\u00a0 The charger can now send voltage into the battery (at the predetermined rate) to get the battery to the \u201cfull charge\u201d voltage or 4.2 volts per cell (4s = 16.8 total and 6s = 25.2 total).\u00a0 At the same time cells that are higher than others are balanced to make them match the lowest cell ensuring that when the battery is fully charged all the cells are balanced and matched.\u00a0 The charger will send current into the battery until the difference between the charger voltage and the battery voltage is zero.\u00a0 It will then lower the amperage and maintain the battery at that set voltage of 16.8 or 25.2 while it continues to balance the cells and ensure that the resting voltage of the pack will stay at the set voltage once the charger is turned off.<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing this, let\u2019s assume I am going to charge one of my 1050mah 6s LiPo.\u00a0 I would plug in the XT60 and plug in the balance lead.\u00a0 Most chargers will now give me a read out of the overall Voltage (as you can see in the photo this pack is at 22.58) and you can see the individual voltage of each cell* (4 cells at 3.77, 1 cell at 3.75 and 1 at 3.76).\u00a0 I would set the charger to charge at 1 C which I figure out by dividing the capacity of the Lipo by 1000 (1050\/1000=1.05 amps) and then start the charger.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Depending on your charger you will either find the individual cell voltage on the main screen or on a secondary screen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Parallel<\/p>\n

Now that it is clear how the charger is going to send voltage to the pack we must also understand how connecting multiple batteries will affect how they charge.\u00a0 There are two ways of connecting multiple batteries together; series and parallel.\u00a0 Using the same 1050mAh 6s battery as an example, if we connect two of them in series we would have a 1050mAh 12s battery and if connected parallel it would be a 2100 mAh 6s battery.\u00a0 By connecting them in parallel the charger still sees a 6s battery and the charging characteristics don\u2019t change, just the overall capacity changes.<\/span><\/p>\n

By using a paracharge board we can combine up to 6 batteries together and have the charger charge them as 1 larger battery.\u00a0 To do this we simply adjust the charger to maintain 1C charging by calculating the new capacity of the parallel batteries.\u00a0 For example below see how the amperage increases as the number of batteries increase always using the formula we discussed earlier (Capacity\/1000 = Amps from charger)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Capacity of 1<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Number in Para<\/span><\/td>\nNew Capacity<\/span><\/td>\nFormula<\/span><\/td>\nAmps from Charger<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

1050<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

1<\/span><\/td>\n1050<\/span><\/td>\n1050\/1000<\/span><\/td>\n1.05<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

1050<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2100<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2100\/1000<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2.1<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1050<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3150<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3150\/1000<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3.15<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

1050<\/span><\/td>\n4<\/span><\/td>\n4200<\/span><\/td>\n4200\/1000<\/span><\/td>\n\n

4.2<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

*My charger doesn\u2019t have 1\/10th value so I round up to the next tenth<\/span><\/p>\n

Seems simple but there are some very important precautions to keep in mind.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

IMPORTANT PRECAUTIONS!!!<\/h2>\n

First, use a good quality paracharge board like the Lumenier Paracharge board that has breakers.\u00a0 This will protect you from the inevitable accident of plugging the wrong cell count battery in parallel with others or break the circuit to prevent further damage or fire when a surge is detected.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Parallel-Charging<\/p>\n

Second, only batteries of the same size and cell count can be charged together!\u00a0 Failure to do this could result in damaged batteries at best and increases the risk of an unwanted fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third, the voltages of the batteries need to be similar.\u00a0 For example I fly three packs at the field.\u00a0 I run two of them down to 22.2V and crash early on one pack so it\u2019s at 23.4V.\u00a0 You DO NOT want to put these on parallel charge together.\u00a0 The largest variance in voltage that should be parallel charged together is .1V-.2V.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fourth, the battery cells should also be checked to ensure the health of the battery is good and that one cell out of the 6 isn\u2019t way out of balance.\u00a0 I always use a battery checker or the charger to read the overall voltage and cell voltage to ensure they are all close before charging.\u00a0 If one cell is not balanced it could lead to the other parallel cells draining too quickly to try and balance the lower cell and damage and battery, all the batteries on the paraboard or cause a fire.\u00a0 Though it might be considered being too safe, I would even suggest comparing internal resistance of the batteries and trying to only parallel charge them if the resistance levels are close in value as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Parallel<\/p>\n

Fith, a personal precaution that I have always done with charging is charging in a safe location.\u00a0 I never charge in the house.\u00a0 I typically use my carport or in my shop.\u00a0 If in my shop, I charge in the center of the room on the concrete floor in case of fire and always have a fire extinguisher close at hand.\u00a0 I also never leave them unattended.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sixth, I only parallel charge when I\u2019m in the field so that I can keep flying throughout the day.\u00a0 When I\u2019m at home and not in a rush, I charge each battery individually.\u00a0 This ensures that each cell gets a proper balance because each cell is being balanced individually instead of the number of cells connected being balanced by average.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, after flying a pack I let it rest for 15-20 minutes to cool down and come to its resting voltage before trying to recharge.\u00a0 This ensures an accurate voltage and cell reading so you can group it together with batteries of similar voltage.<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion, parallel charging can be done safely if the proper precautions are followed!\u00a0 It will allow you to charge batteries faster and with less time spent connecting to and monitoring a charger.\u00a0 Be smart and cautious and you\u2019ll be able to keep yourself in the air for a full day of flying with a limited number of batteries.<\/span><\/p>\n

[vc_row][vc_column][ultimate_spacer height=”40″][vc_separator][ultimate_spacer height=”40″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6394″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center”][dt_default_button link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.getfpv.com%2Fcatalogsearch%2Fresult\/?q=ParaGuard||target:%20_blank|” size=”medium” button_alignment=”btn_center”]Get the Lumenier ParaGuard![\/dt_default_button][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fear4fun_fpv (Duane Bradley) has been working with drones since building his first Freefly Cinestar Octocopter in 2012.\u00a0 Since then he has been working full time in film with the company Revered Cinema (www.rvrd.com) using drones and other stabilization equipment (Russian Arms, Remote Heads, Gimbals) on movies, TV shows and commercials like \u2018Ghostbusters: Afterlife\u2019, \u2018Jurassic World 3\u2019, \u2018Lost in Space\u2019, \u2018Batwoman\u2019, \u2018Flash\u2019 and many more.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently there are two definitive groups of people in this hobby; those who parallel charge and those who don\u2019t (or should I say won\u2019t?).\u00a0 Since I got involved with drones in 2012 I have heard both sides of the argument and with this article want to outline why I am in the parallel camp and how to parallel charge safely.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[421,420,5803,8501,5800,5801],"class_list":["post-6388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fpv-essentials","tag-drone","tag-fpv","tag-lipo","tag-parallel","tag-parallel-charger","tag-parallel-charging","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6388"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6428,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6388\/revisions\/6428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfpv.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}