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Looking for a IR lipo meter up to 6S


Adrian Smith 1
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Posted by Gordon Tarling on 22/11/2018 18:12:59:

This one is the best of the lot, it's not cheap, but is very accurate.

I have one of those but I bought it direct from Wayne Giles and it was a lot cheaper than that. It is a little fiddly to use but is accurate ... and reveals how far out battery 'C' ratings are (lower than claimed, of course).

Geoff

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You could use an ordinary wattmeter. Run the battery a bit first to get away from the steeper part of the discharge curve. connect the wattmeter and note the voltage. Give the motor full throttle and note the new voltage and current when at full or any steady speed. The internal resistance = (original voltage -running voltage)/running current.

There are also these cheap meters that work, but I think you might need a load resistor.

**LINK**

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Thanks for your input so far, gents. All food for thought. I think firstly, if I was going to pay £50+ for the right piece of gear I like the look of the Revolectrix IR meter as featured in this December's RCME article (and also in February this year's issue) However, do you think I can find a UK seller? Nah! Unless you guys know better.

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I bought the Wayne Giles meter from Hobbyking, I consider it the best money I have spent on the hobby in a very long time, apart from IR of the whole pack you can test it cells IR, it also displays the max continuous amps that you can pull from a pack. I now have all my packs labelled with the actual discharge C rating and the Max amps and I have been getting better performance form my models as a result as I can see at a glance which packs can deliver the amps required by the model. It's amazing how no high C discharge packs (60C plus) I have tested come anywhere near their stated discharge rate, most are half or less and most low C (20 C) are very close or in some cases more then the stated discharge rate. All my packs are now performing at their best for longer as none are being pushed beyond their limits.

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I did research before buying the Wayne Giles and compared it to the Revolectrix which was only available from a supplier in California at the time, I did like the look of it but decided on the Wayne Giles and have been very happy with it, another club member bought one at the same time and is very happy as well.

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According to the RCGroups topic on IR that Wayne Giles posts on, the Revolectrix meter is a reverse engineered version of the WG meter, using the proper measurement method. I have an iCharger 4010 and the higher spec ichargers are reckoned to be very good, better than most but perhaps not as accurate as the WG. The results I get for IR, when put into the WG calculation for effective C rating give 10 to 15 C for packs claiming 30C.

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Posted by PatMc on 22/11/2018 23:28:02:

I think Wayne Giles stopped making them several months ago.

Perhaps longer than that. I think I had one of the last if not actually the last one he had. He even changed the battery connector for me (to an XT60). I don't use it often because my iCharger gives IR of each cell which is close to accurate and a useful indicator of battery/cell quality.

Geoff

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C rating is manufacturer flim flam and means nothing beyond advertising waffle.

Say you buy a 60C lipo. That's 60x capacity in discharge current before what happens? Lipo needs a gentle waft of cooling? Motor runs with 2.78% less power than expected? Insulation around connector melts? Lipo explosively vents flames toward operator's face?

Presumably the IR meters have a useful and substantial definition of what their 'effective C' means?

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Well here is what I found. I know this is all fairly obvious to the more scientific of you, but as a physics "drop out" I am still on the learning curve!.

The first lipo is a Hacker 6S

p1050526.jpg

The second is a Turnigy 6S

p1050527.jpg

The last one is an Overlander 6S which I know for sure that a couple times, in windy conditions, the juice depletion was more than I would have liked - around 3.3-3.4 volts per cell.

p1050528.jpg

Not sure what all these readings mean, but am I right in saying the lower the reading the more healthy the battery is?

Edited By Adrian Smith 1 on 23/11/2018 12:33:11

Edited By Adrian Smith 1 on 23/11/2018 12:33:53

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