[NSRCA-discussion] LI-IO packs

[joddino at socal.rr.com]

---- Scott McHarg <scmcharg at gmail.com> wrote: 
> Morning y'all,
> 
> I've spoken to a few people about charging Lithium Ion packs but we did not
> arrive at a definitive answer.  I need to understand what the best solution
> (besides buying another charger) is for my situation.
> 
> I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the Cellpro 10XP.  Usually,
> it's me giving the help but I'm not sure what to do here.  Here's the
> scenario:
> 
>  Cellpro 10XP Multi-Chemistry Charger.  The User Manual and everything
> about the charger says that it can charge the ION packs.  So, I go to
> program a preset for this but in the software, there is nothing that says
> anything about ION packs.  There is LiPo, Pb, A123, Ni-Cd, and Nickel
> Metal.  I have some ION 7.4V 5200mah packs that I need to charge and a
> 2600mah pack for the ignition on a 42% Edge 540.  The packs are made of 4
> cells but are wired so that they are only 2 (2 in series, 2 in parallel)
> cells.  As close as I can tell, I should select the LiPo 2sU (2 cell
> unbalanced) but I don't want to make a mistake.  Someone told me that would
> be OK and another said that if you program the charger by the charger
> instead of the software, there is an ION setting but I haven't confirmed
> that yet as it was late last night when I was checking.
> 
> Anyone have any idea what to do to charge these packs?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -- 
> *Scott A. McHarg*
> Sr. Systems Engineer - Infrastructure

If they are lithium-ion cells they should be charged to 4.2 volts per cell or 8.4 volts for a 2s pack.  Lithium polymer cells are lithium ion and are charged the same.  My Cellpro charger charges to 4.204 volts per cell when set for LiPo packs and that is what should be used for Lithium ion.  The Lithium ion cells generally have higher internal resistance and therefore can not be discharged or charged at high rates.  I use one C max.  

Jim O