[A RC Dude]

Wow, should have found this thread sooner!

I've been thinking it'd be ideal to have a plug in for the balance plug into the ESC. This would allow the ESC to monitor the voltage per cell and cut off as soon as the lowest cell reaches the programed voltage. This would prevent packs from killing cells when they drift apart over time and allow the cut off to be set lower for more run time. Plus the full (full-er) cycle would help prevent the crystals from building up in the battery over time, helping them last and behave better. Every LiPo I have thrown away (witch is a lot) has been because the cells would get so far out of balance that one cell would die way before the car cut off (I have had up to a .5 volt difference in cells).

I realize this would probably bring the production cost up slightly and make the ESC slightly larger, but I know I'd buy it for sure to stop worrying about ruining batteries... But with the whole digital age and 3-4.2 volts per cell, a microprocessor should be able to read that voltage hardwired onto a pin safely. Maybe this has already been tried, maybe not, but I would have thought this would already be on the market.

I apologize if this has already been mentioned, I'm on a tight-ish schedule and out of town right now.