Batteries How far to discharge a battery

[murankar]

Now that makes me think a bit. If the charger removes power does the mah counter go down, or does it stay the same?

The reason for the question is that if the mah (on the screen) does not go down on discharge then when the power is replaced you may end up with a false mah reading on the screen. This could show more mah being replaced.

 

[Lee]

As the battery charges, if one cell charges faster than the other, the balancer doesn't take the mah out of the battery, it allows the charge from the high cell to be distributed to the lower cells. So the Mah should give a true reading of the battery capacity. I rudimentary visual would be those stacks of champagne glasses that the guy pours in to the top one and when its full it flows into the others, but obviously the battery doesn't allow one cell to charge completely before distributing to the other cells.
Some more expensive chargers like the Powerlab 6 or 8 charge each cell separately with in the battery. this allow it to keep a better eye on the health of the Battery, and do a better job of balancing them.

 

[RandyDSok]

As the battery charges, if one cell charges faster than the other, the balancer doesn't take the mah out of the battery, it allows the charge from the high cell to be distributed to the lower cells.

That is not what I observe on the charger I use... and if that is what was happening, it wouldn't explain a battery taking more MAH than it is rated at when only 70-80% of the total MAH was removed.

 

[murankar]

On my charger I have an mah limit set at 2200 mah. So no matter what my batteries will on go that far.

 

[Lee]

That is not what I observe on the charger I use... and if that is what was happening, it wouldn't explain a battery taking more MAH than it is rated at when only 70-80% of the total MAH was removed.

It could be because a lot of batteries have a higher capacity than they specify on the sticker.

 

[Tony]

This is turning into another charger war. Plain and simple, when flying, don't discharge past about 3.4vpc, for storage, 3.8vpc.

 

[murankar]

Everything electronic is labeled lower than what it can handle. Just like cpu's in a computer, they all can outperform the list rated speed. The ratings are there to inform the consumer what the product can do under normal operation.

 

[Slobberdog]

Sorry all, did not think this would go this way, lots of good info now, I think I understand.