Many people grapple with charging lipo questions, How To Store Lipo Batteries or dispose of used lipo batteries. In the following article, Staaker will provide you with that information.
Why You Need to Care About Drone Battery Safety
It’s vital not to overlook drone safety. Many pilots’ homes have burnt down because of erroneous drone safety measures.
I’d go as far as to state that everybody flying in this hobby for a couple of years will know a minimum of one individual who had their house burn down or had a close call as a consequence of a LiPo battery malfunction. Nurk FPV’s video below shows what happens when a lithium battery fails.
It’s safe to state that nobody wants this to occur inside their home or in the area. By implementing drone safety measures into your LiPo charging and charging, the harm resulting from a charger or battery malfunction will be minimized.
Why Can a LiPo Battery Fail?
Before I proceed to drone safety precautions, it’s necessary first to understand what’s occurring when a LiPo battery fails. The three major battery failure modes are overcharging, over-discharging, and cell damage.
1. Overcharging
When a LiPo battery is overcharged, the battery’s anode becomes plated with lithium metal, and the cathode produces carbon dioxide. The battery’s pressure increases as more gas are produced before the outer surface of the LiPo drops and vents gas.
LiPo venting is generally accompanied by fires that contribute to the whole battery ruining itself. Overcharging can be avoided by charging LiPo batteries into a maximum of 4.2 volts per cell (or even 4.35V for lithium-ion high voltage packs) and charging in a secure current setting. I suggest that a 1C charge rate.
Read also: Best Drone Battery Charger
2. Over Discharging
When fast discharged in scenarios like a drone race, then a LiPo battery will heat up. If the surplus current is drawn out of the battery, causing it to overheat, gasses will form within the battery.
Like overcharging, if gas forms and the LiPo pops, it will generally vent with fires. In case a LiPo is discharged under its said C-rating, there should not typically be a security problem (unless, as happens sometimes, LiPo producers lie about the C-rating of the batteries).
The picture below shows a puffed LiPo later it had been discharged in a hurry. Luckily, insufficient gas was produced to burst the battery life.
3. Damage
Different layers of a LiPo cell are split using a thin plastic film. Whether this movie is punctured and the batteries’ anodes and cathodes short outside may also lead to the battery going into a thermal runaway state.
Smartphone battery programmers have spent countless following the Galaxy Note 7 episode to minimize battery failures due to harm. Even though a severe effect can induce a LiPo to neglect, battery fires seldom happen at race events.
Regardless of this, pilots and event organizers ensure that you employ security precautions to guarantee a high amount of drone safety.
Security Precautions
There a significant number of security precautions you can take to guarantee drone safety. Listed below are the most significant precautions.
1. Charging Location
When charging your batteries, then it’s exceedingly essential to control them in a place clear of flammable things and substances. Familiar charging places comprise garages/sheds with concrete flooring and fresh fireplaces.
It’s also an intelligent drone safety precaution to control any batteries from high-value items like automobiles, tools, or drone gear. My charging place of choice is really on the concrete floor in my drop. Though my charging place is comparatively secure, I track my batteries throughout the charging process.
2. Battery Monitoring
We’ve got been in that situation before, leaving the batteries to control unattended. It believes that they’ll be fine. While this is the case most of the moment, it takes merely one unfortunate occasion for your drone safety to flip on its mind. Because of this, I advocate continuously monitoring your batteries and storing them near you.
Here is the most crucial of drone safety measures as a fast reaction time to some failing LiPo may be the difference between losing one battery package or your whole residence. If you become aware of a charging LiPo puffing, smoking, or catching fire, then you should make an effort to unplug the charger from its energy supply if it’s safe to do so.
See more: Best Drones For Long Battery Life
3. Fire Extinguisher
Following on from battery observation, acquiring a way of extinguishing a battery firing is a brilliant idea. I suggest buying a fire extinguisher and keeping it close to your LiPo charging installment (although not too close as you wish to get it in case a LiPo catches on fire).
A LiPo battery is called a form B liquid flame on account of the inner gel/liquid electrolyte solution. Therefore, to extinguish a kind B flame, an ABC/ABE kind dry chemical fire extinguisher should be used.
Additional procedures to extinguish a LiPo flame include using carbon dioxide (CO2), a foam extinguisher, or sodium bicarbonate. Pictured below is your ABE dry chemical fire extinguisher utilized at my regional drone club.
4. LiPo Charging Bags
To minimize the possible harm in the LiPo fire, charging bags are an economical and efficient alternative. Charging bags don’t readily burn as they’re produced from a flame-resistant material.
I recommend storing LiPo batteries in charging luggage no matter if the packs have been stored billed or hauled. Charging bags are also essential when traveling airplanes using LiPo batteries.
If a LiPo fire happens, the charging bag should include the flame; nevertheless, it will still port dangerous battery gasses that you shouldn’t inhale. The movie under Buddy RC shows the effectiveness of a LiPo bag.
5. Charging Safe
LiPo charging safes are much more potent than LiPo luggage to contain a battery fire. While charging safes are somewhat more expensive than charging luggage, I’d say that their drone battery security growth validates the cost.
Ideally, it would help if you used a LiPo secure for charging and house storage combined with a LiPo tote for battery transport when moving flying.
My personal favorite charging secure is your Batt-Safe, which may hold many batteries and integrates venting holes into the plan. Venting holes are significant as an airtight secure could burst from the strain of these LiPo battery gasses discharged during a battery failure. The movie below in Michael Niggel shows the effectiveness of a LiPo secure.
Read also: Best Long Range Drones
6. Homemade Charging Safe
If you’d like to create your own charging secure, I suggest using a powder-coated steel enclosure. Walmart has a vast array of toolboxes in numerous sizes, preferably. The powder coat acts as a layer of insulating material between the bolts and the toolbox.
After buying the box, all that’s left to do is drill a tiny hole and put in a rubber grommet so that charging wires can be fed to the box. Commercially available charging safes are usually safer than homemade safes; nevertheless, any drone safety is far better than no drone safety.
7. Charger Quality
Among the most significant preventative drone safety measures would be to buy top-quality chargers.
Premium quality electronic equipment will fail less frequently than more affordable products and rather frequently have more effective failsafe mechanisms set up to prevent catastrophic collapse. ISDT is my favorite brand of chargers, yet anything offered by GetFPV should be a high-quality product.
8. Tracking Battery Condition
There are lots of ways of determining the state of the battery. By merely flying using a LiPo, an innovative pilot will have the ability to determine the status roughly.
Following a flight, you might even use a battery or charger checker to observe just how closely matched every cell’s voltage is. When there’s a 0.1 volt or increased cell voltage difference, the battery might be nearing the end of its lifetime.
My favorite technique is to utilize the battery internal resistance checker in my ISDT charger (pictured below). A fantastic excellent battery is going to have an internal resistance lower than ten milliohms each mobile. When the inner resistance surpasses 20 milliohms, I shall usually retire from rushing.
9. LiPo Disposal
To properly dispose of a LiPo, the most effective alternative would be to discharge the package utilizing a battery charger and then to join the electricity lead to some 12V incandescent light bulb for many hours.
This will make sure that the LiPo is discharged to 0V. As impressive as the fireball seems, it isn’t sensible to eliminate a LiPo by puncturing or damaging it.
When the LiPo was discharged completely, it’s best to cover the battery terminals and choose the package to your battery recycling facility to decrease the overall environmental effect.
LiPo Battery Charges
- Constantly use a charger made for LiPo batteries.
- LiPo batteries must be charged no more than 4.2 volts per cellphone.
- LiPo batteries must be charged within a temperature of 32F to 120F. Charging batteries out of this range can cause extreme warmth, leakage, and cell damage.
- Always charge your batteries on a fireproof surface such as cement, steel, rock, glass, etc…
- Don’t charge your Lithium Polymer batteries over 1C.
- Don’t charge batteries near flammable products.
- Don’t charge your battery unattended.
- Don’t charge your battery inside your car while driving.
- Please don’t charge a Lithium Polymer battery when it bloated up or down up.
- When a battery begins to swell or balloon, then stop the charging process and disconnect the battery. Put the battery onto a nonflammable secure container and watch it for 15 minutes.
- In the event of a fire, don’t extinguish with water. Use a fire extinguisher or sand.
How To Store Lipo Batteries
- Keep your batteries from the reach of children.
- Don’t impair a Lithium Polymer battery to less than 3.0 volts per cellphone.
- Don’t puncture your LiPo battery life.
- Don’t permit the negative and positive battery direct touch.
- Don’t embarrass your LiPo battery
- Water and LiPo batteries do not get too nicely.
- LiPo batteries must be kept in a non-flammable container involving 40F to 80F rather than in direct sunshine.
- Make sure that there aren’t any sharp things that can track your batteries.
- Store away from the metallic things, which may lead to a short circuit of their terminals.
Conclusion
Safety is always the top concern. Take care when storing Lipo batteries. Follow our instructions to ensure the safety of you, your battery, and save money.
