I HAD one of those chargers for a short while. The cable with the alligator clips is your power cable. plug it in and clip it to a 12V power source(Car battery for example). You want to discharge or charge to 50% to store your batteries. That charger is SLOW and does not have a storage mode. You may eventually want to get yourself a MUCH better charger that has a storage mode feature built in. I tell people buy the best that they can afford. There are many out there. I personally like the PowerLabs or most of the Revolectrix line or the I Charger line but there are many others that are also very good.(Hyperion, Thunderpower are just 2 of many brands). I tend to avoid the chargers with the built in power supplies but that's because many aren't fast or powerful enough for my needs,your needs may be different. As far as charge rate goes, it varies from battery maker to battery maker but to keep it simple the old rule was never charge above 1C or in your case 3.3 amps(2C would be 6.6) With the charger that you have you will never even reach that rate and with that power supply alone I doubt that could happen even if you could. I don't think that charger will even reach its advertised 2 amp output. So plug in your battery and turn it up all the way you are more than safe.Hope this helps.

So, I'm going to give you slightly different advice from William -- you can choose to be confused by this, or you can just decide what you wanted to do in the first place and then point to whichever one of us happens to tell you to do that and say "I'm following expert advice!"

If you have money to burn, go ahead and buy a new, fancy charger.  If you've got a local hobby shop that caters to electric RC pilots and has a good reputation with them, just walk in, put your battery on the counter, and say "I want to charge this, what should I buy?"  If they're confused by the fact that you fly on strings just tell them that your system has about the same power demands as a 3D RC plane of the same weight.  If you have any RC friends who fly electric start buying them beers now so you can lean on them for help later.

If you're on a budget, just use what you have until you're sure you like this control line stuff.  Then you can worry about upgrading.

Unless the charger you have is appallingly inefficient then it should not be taking 3A in to put out 2A at 12V -- so your 3000mA adapter box will probably do.  If it doesn't, turn the charger down to 1.5A or 1A and be patient.

If you charge the batteries fully and leave them lying around for months then they will lose capacity.  I don't think that you'll harm them much by leaving them fully charged overnight, or even for a few days.  This gets down to how finicky you are -- for now I think your biggest worry should be smacking dirt, not puffing batteries.  If I'm wrong then send some curses my way and buy some new batteries at Hobby King.

Once you get the plane done you'll have a poor-man's discharger.  Just run the thing for about half a flight's worth of time while hanging on to it.  If you want to be finicky, do so at reduced throttle setting, or with a one-inch smaller prop on the thing.  Don't cut your fingers off.

As far as potential danger, you should always store your batteries as if they'll burst into flame at any moment.  This isn't because they do so very often (they don't), but because you don't want your house to burn down with your loved ones in it, or worse, your shop to burn down with your planes in it.  Once a LiPo catches on fire it burns very intensely -- it carries its own fuel and oxidant and it's in a thermally insulating package, so there's no way to take away any of the three things that fire needs to keep going.  So, store the batteries in a container that'll let them burn without taking the building it's in with it, or store them outside.  (I violate this rule -- I need to get me a fire proof bucket or something, or one day you'll be reading one hell of a sob story here, starting with "I was stupid").

Lol Thanks Tim. I know I'm coming across as very serious and "finicky" (great word  ) , but its really because I hate feeling so thick!
My main concern is about burning the house down. The odd puffed battery I can live with, but I really dont want to be woken at 4am with the smoke alarm going off! Your point about having a poor mans discharger is so obvious I cant believe I didnt see that one myself. I can live with that method at the moment.

Unfortunately there are no model shops left in Belfast, the last one closed its doors last year, so I really have to rely on on-line ordering and boards such as this. The main pearl of wisdom from you and William seems to be to just plug it in with the 12v supply and set it at 2C and all should be ojk. Am I right? (why then has everything I have read told me never to charge above 1C) See what I mean about feeling thick!!

There's a lot to learn to do this stuff -- fortunately, there's little of it that's life threatening or injurious to your health if you keep your fingers out of the prop.

Sorry to hear about the hobby shop situation -- I'm surprised that there isn't at least a toy store or two selling quadcopters, but then I don't know what the legal or economic environment is there.  Fortunately, there's mail order.

As for storage, I have already bought lipo bags and I was advised to get an old Ammo box which I ordered from Amazon (US Army to be precise!), so I'm hoping that should keep it all contained if the worst happens.

That, and make a point to keep it away from anything too flammable -- I don't keep my batteries in an ammo box, but I do keep them a foot or so away from anything that can catch fire.

Neil:

Give Ivan Bolton in Dubin a call (01)5153016. I realize you are in Belfast, Northern Ireland and he is in Dublin, Ireland but at least you are both on the same island. Ivan is a good guy and he flies both glow and electric so will be a great source of knowledge for you. When you contact him feel free to let him know that Eric at RSM suggested that you call.

If you want to drop me an email (eric@rsmdistribution.com) I will be happy to send you a copy of an article on battery safety that Igor Burger and Norm Whittle wrote. It is simple to understand and will provide you with some very good advice. We send out this article with every electric power system we sell here at RSM Distribution.

John (Kelly), thanks!! I've now realised that 1C, 2C etc means capacity. So 1C is 3.3 amps, 2C is 6.6 etc. this had thrown me completely. It's weird when something so simple falls into place. So 2A is still well within the maximum capacity of 3.3A. Simple!! Lol I've learned something today at last.

Thanks Eric. I've e mailed you and had already e mailed Ivan as I was given his name by Maurice Doyle in Belfast. Hope you get my E mail ok

John Cralley, any thanks for the input. That sounds very like Tims "poor mans" discharger, which it looks like I will be employing in the short term.

Tim, funny you should mention that. The place I got the charger cable from today (Maplins) had a display of quad copters I saw today. I was in a rush and didn't get a good look, but it looked like a temporary display. Like one of those "look at this new toy we have on sale" type displays.  I've found Hobby King to be very good as long as the items are available in the UK warehouse. I ordered some items from the "international" warehouse and have now found out it comes from Hong Kong and an take up to 45 days. Not ideal. 

To be fair, Brodak also had to send me some missing screws and wheel collars and I got them in 6 days which isn't bad at all. It was the 30% postage cost plus the import tax on my first main kit order that hurt a bit. It ended up adding approx $150 to the overall cost. That's when I wished there was a local supplier!

Cheers John, and thanks again!

Ahh Queens. I have many happy memories of a rugby tour of the States in the early 90's when we stayed in Queens for a few days while we played at a tournament at Rockaway (at least I think that's what it was called lol).

Well you clearly have more electric knowledge than me. You should try it. It's all the rage now!! Lol

I'm just glad I've sorted out my A's from my C's at long last. It's starting to make sense!!

Thanks again.

Here is some intel Neil.......https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=charging+lipo+batteries
and....https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=connecting+electric+rc+plane+motor+to+esc
Looking forward to flight reports.
Shug

Ok more help please. I connected a battery up to the charger shown above with the power source shown above around 2.5 hours ago. The charger showed all 3 cells at around 40-45%. It is now showing 80,80 and 85 and these numbers haven't changed in the last half hour. It seems to have stopped at this level.

Any ideas what is going on?

Thanks William. I unplugged everything and left it a while then started again. It is now saying 94,94 and 98. I noticed when I did that that the plug connector is very loose so maybe it had worked itself out. Am I right in saying that if the power is unplugged the charger will then just monitor the battery without charging and maybe still try to rebalance? That might explain why it was still showing a reading even though it wasn't going up??

If the plug is loose, check to see if you've got one that's a better fit.  I believe that your 12V power supply came with a bunch (they call them "power tips") -- I would look at the power cable that came with the charger (the one with the alligator clips) and see if it matches any of your other plugs better.

Make sure you get the + & - part right.

If that doesn't seem to be working, just try different tips in the hole in the battery charger to see if one fits better.

This is what I've got now??

Confused.com

Cheers Tim. It says 100 3 times so that will have to do.
I'm getting a new charger. Couldn't be bothered with this nonsense.

Will do John. I was very surprised most don't come with a power supply. But you live and learn.
I have seen some that come with AC/DC built in. Seems like a much more simple option to me. Are there any drawbacks to that?

Here's the two chargers we suggest to our customers. Both work on AC at home and DC at the field. They each have balance and storage modes. The B6AC will charge one battery and costs $39.99 while the Quattro will charge 4 batteries at once and costs $189.99.

Hi William. Some great points and very well put!!

I've been advised to go for an iMax B6AC V2 professional charger by a local guy so I've ordered one of those. I agree with what you said 100%. I was advised from the start to get the best charger I could afford but as one was included in the power package I stupidly ignored that.

Had my first flights in 38 years yesterday and it was exhilarating. And freightening. The club chairman took me out on a dual handle and let me loose before I knew it. I was told to fly level but ended up doing a loop (by accident) and I have no idea how I did it.

Makes me appreciate appreciate even more when I see you guys do the schedule like it is second nature.

Think I'm hooked!

Thanks Chris!

Luckily I do line maths. I work in finance so I would need to! But I always confused my amps/watts/volts etc etc when at school. And it seems I still do.

My new charger has arrived but unfortunately the good old British weather has taken over for the past week so I haven't had the chance to use the charger or the clown. My local club meets on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons but it has been rained off since last weekend. So I just sit here, looking at my shiny new model, and imagine it flying.

Maybe that's the best way to keep it in one piece! Lol