BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT BATTERIES
DANGER!! LIPO BATTERIES ARE DANGEROUS AND CAN BECOME VERY EXPLOSIVE
DO NOT CHARGE LIPOLY BATTERIES UNATTENDED EVER!!
DO NOT CHARGE LIPOLY BATTERIES UNATTENDED EVER!!
CAPACITY- The capacity is denoted as a value over a period of time of one hour. This is the number of Amperes a battery can deliver in one hour. In the picture to the left the battery has a capacity of 4000 mili amperes per every one hour ( 4000 mAh ), or 4 amperes per every hour. What does this mean? Well as it turns out it means that if you had a light bulb that uses 4 amps, the battery could maintain the light bulb burning for one hour exactly. If you had another light bulb that only uses 2 amps, the same battery could keep it burning for two hours. So if you know how many amps your motor is using, you can calculate how long of a flight time you will have with a specific battery.
BATTERY VOLTAGE- This is the voltage of your battery pack. In lipo batteries each cell is rated at 3.7 volts.
3.7 volt battery = 1 cell x 3.7V (1s)
7.4 volt battery = 2 cells x 3.7V (2s)
11.1 volt battery = 3 cells x 3.7V (3s)
14.8 volt battery = 4 cells x 3.7V (4s)
18.5 volt battery = 5 cells x 3.7V (5s)
22.2 volt battery = 6 cells x 3.7V (6s)
NUMBER ONE LIPO KILLER IS OVER DISCHARGE
+++DO NOT DISCHARGE LIPO PACKS BELOW 3.7 VOLTS PER CEL++++
DISCHARGE RATE- A battery with a discharge rate of 10C would mean you could safely discharge it at 10 times more than the capacity of the pack, a 15C pack = 15 times more, a 20C pack = 20 times more, and so on. So using the battery displayed in the picture above, it has a 20C discharge rate and a 40C burst discharge rate. This means that the battery can be discharged at 4000 mAh X 20C = 80000 mAh or 80 Amps per hour. The burst rate is 4000 mAh X 40C = 160000 mAh or 160 Amps per hour for only five seconds.
Therefore you can get the same Amps out of different packs for example:
Lets use the battery in the picture as our comparison, so we have the following:
4000 mAh X 20C = 80000 mA or 80 Amps
2000 mAh X 40C = 80000 mA or 80 Amps
So you see you can get the same Amperage out of two different size batteries. Of course the smaller battery because it has a smaller Capacity will deliver the 80 Amps for half the time that the larger battery in this case.
3.7 volt battery = 1 cell x 3.7V (1s)
7.4 volt battery = 2 cells x 3.7V (2s)
11.1 volt battery = 3 cells x 3.7V (3s)
14.8 volt battery = 4 cells x 3.7V (4s)
18.5 volt battery = 5 cells x 3.7V (5s)
22.2 volt battery = 6 cells x 3.7V (6s)
NUMBER ONE LIPO KILLER IS OVER DISCHARGE
+++DO NOT DISCHARGE LIPO PACKS BELOW 3.7 VOLTS PER CEL++++
DISCHARGE RATE- A battery with a discharge rate of 10C would mean you could safely discharge it at 10 times more than the capacity of the pack, a 15C pack = 15 times more, a 20C pack = 20 times more, and so on. So using the battery displayed in the picture above, it has a 20C discharge rate and a 40C burst discharge rate. This means that the battery can be discharged at 4000 mAh X 20C = 80000 mAh or 80 Amps per hour. The burst rate is 4000 mAh X 40C = 160000 mAh or 160 Amps per hour for only five seconds.
Therefore you can get the same Amps out of different packs for example:
Lets use the battery in the picture as our comparison, so we have the following:
4000 mAh X 20C = 80000 mA or 80 Amps
2000 mAh X 40C = 80000 mA or 80 Amps
So you see you can get the same Amperage out of two different size batteries. Of course the smaller battery because it has a smaller Capacity will deliver the 80 Amps for half the time that the larger battery in this case.