Is my Flux Lipo cutoff working or not?
 

I just got done with my first long bash session with my Savage Flux and damn, these batteries were empty!

I'm pretty dang sure I had the Auto lipo off cause just all of a sudden the car just basically stopped running cept for a few short bursts of power so I went ahead it shut it off as I figured that was the end of them. Was that caused by the ESC cutting the power randomly because the voltage was low or something else?

But after looking at the amount of mAh put back in the battery, I'm wondering if the Autolipo is on. I went ahead and went through the entire programming procedure with the transmitter and said "YES" to Auto lipo but now im worried...

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../emptybats.jpg

Was the voltage over 3v per cell (6v) when you put the lipo on the charger? I do not use the auto lipo feature, as I do not trust it, plus I like to have a 3.2v per cell setting to protect the lipos should they go out of balance. I am guessing that you do not have a castle link? I would cough up the 20 bucks and get one. What you described sounds like the lvc cutting power.

Uhh, I think the voltage was still over 7v when I put the battery on the charger, but I forgot to take a look at it. No I don't have the castle link, im flat broke right now. :neutral: And Castle is charging $25 for them, unless you know of another place.

Someone here stated that once you remove the batteries from a load, the voltage jumps up a bit.

Yeah, the lipos will recover voltage a bit after they sit. Sounds like you are ok. Did the MMM make 4 beeps when you switched it on? It should do its arming tone, then beep 4 times (to indicate 4 cells) if you have the auto lipo set correctly. It is a shame that hpi did not include a castle link with the flux...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it beeps 4 times after the initial Doo dee doo and then it does another doo dee doo.

I guess im confused, is voltage not directly related to mAh capacity? Everywhere on the web it ALWAYS states don't go below 3.0V for LiPo's but it says nothing about the lowest % of capacity to use or don't use. Some guys say you should never have less then 10% of the packs capacity left. Well I obviously went below that according the charger.

Well, I JUST checked and sure enough it does the first little "Bee bee ooP " Then beep, beep, beep, beep, 4 times then another fast "Bee bee bee oop"

Yes and no. AS the MAH drops the voltage drops. Putting almost 6000 mah back into a 6000 mah pack is not an issue. You mainly want to know what the voltage is per cell when it stops. If you are below 6v on a 2s pack I would be a little concerned.

Just to give you a quick example for reassurance I have my LVC set at 3.1 volts per cell. When I hit the cutoff on my 3s packs and put them on the charge they usually read 9.6 volts. It also routinely puts almost 5350 mah back into my 5350 mah pack.

As well as voltage if you start putting well over 6000 mah back into those packs I would be concerned. While the voltage may read over 6 the cells could well be out of balance which is critical as well. However seeing as you have a blancer and a good charger, I think you are well in the clear. This was just more an FYI type thing.

Last thing to note is that it is obvious you are using quality cells, which is another major factor. If these were maxamps or some other brand known to be lesser quality you may would have room for some concern.

To add to what Texas said the cells listed capacity (mah) is often less than what they actually hold. If you discharge them below 3v per cell you could get more capacity out of them (nt advised!). I ran a neu 5s 5000 pack yesterday and it was with a quark esc that has a 3v per cell lvc. I put 4935mah back into the pack after it hit the lvc. So you should be fine. You can put the lvc up to 3.2v per cell, I like to run that, especially since you are running 2 packs in series, and you may have some cell variance between the 2 packs.

You might want to invest in the Castle link anyways! Its a really handy thing to have when changing setting or updating the ESC....