Can I charge lipos with a nimh charger?

[What's_nitro?]

Originally Posted by speed demon

Not looking to buy a charger since I have one already, I just don't have enough time to charge both batteries. Talked to a guy at work and he has a 15min timer that he can wire into the input side to shut it down. So two cranks of the dial and that will give me enough time to charge both. Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

Please don't tell me you expect to charge a LiPo in 15 minutes?!!?? THAT is a recipe for diaster, unless you are using A123 cells. LiPos MUST be charged at a 1C rate meaning 5000mAH charges at 5 amps and so on. Some newer high quality LiPos will accept a 2C charge, at most, while using a high-rate balancer. The absolute fastest you could charge a LiPo from a completely dead state to 100% charged would be about 40 minutes. That's assuming a 2C charge rate AND balancing while charging.

That said I completely disagree with the idea of using a NiCd/MH charger with Lithium cells. Adapter or not it isn't a smart idea.

[speed demon]

That's just it, it's not his lipo it's mine. He doesn't own one.

[speed demon]

Originally Posted by What's_nitro?

Please don't tell me you expect to charge a LiPo in 15 minutes?!!?? THAT is a recipe for diaster, unless you are using A123 cells. LiPos MUST be charged at a 1C rate meaning 5000mAH charges at 5 amps and so on. Some newer high quality LiPos will accept a 2C charge, at most, while using a high-rate balancer. The absolute fastest you could charge a LiPo from a completely dead state to 100% charged would be about 40 minutes. That's assuming a 2C charge rate AND balancing while charging.

That said I completely disagree with the idea of using a NiCd/MH charger with Lithium cells. Adapter or not it isn't a smart idea.

My first post says what I'm trying to accomplish.

[What's_nitro?]

What you're trying to accomplish amounts to a pint-sized armageddon. Tell me again that you can't fork out $150 for a cheap 3S-capable LiPo approved charger.

[speed demon]

Originally Posted by What's_nitro?

What you're trying to accomplish amounts to a pint-sized armageddon. Tell me again that you can't fork out $150 for a cheap 3S-capable LiPo approved charger.

I have a B5 charger which works great and have not had any problems. I just don't want to spend that much money for another one to charge a bat that my coworker will use. I'm willing to let he use my bat and charge it on my charger but I just don't have enough time to fully charge both.

[What's_nitro?]

Hmmm... Well I still think it's a baaadddd idea. But if he is too cheap to buy his own charger then I guess you/he need to buy one of those "adapters" and a balancer. At least if you use the adapter you can try blaming the manufacturer when something goes wrong....

[Arct1k]

You can get a nice Hyperion 5i A123 / lipo capable charger for $35 - this is the way to go...

[speed demon]

Well I thought alot about it and didn't use the nimh charger. I got my 4S1P today and went to charge it and it was only charging at 3.3amps. I setup it up to charge 5amps. That had me puzzled for awhile then I did some math and figured out my charger is only capable of 50watts. Now my coworker wants to buy my 3S bat, charger and power source. I might if I can find a 100+watt charger and another good power source. What do you guys suggest? My power source is one made for a computer but works well so I'll probably just get another one but I haven't found a good charger that can handle more then 100watts and have a AT or jst-xh balance port.