Download - British Electric Flight Association

So what was new. Nothing I saw could
be described as revolutionary. The
charging of LiPos is where safety is being
given priority. “Astro” Bob Boucher has
developed the ‘Blinky’ cell balancer (see
page 23) and Kokam are charging each
cell in a series pack individually.
These two are tackling the problem from different angles although both require
each cell to have a tap to a terminal. Astro Flight Balancer is used with a charger
connected in the usual way and the balancer connected to a tap from each cell.
The circuitry looks continually at the voltage of each cell to three decimal points
and discharges the higher voltage cell(s) to reach equilibrium. Only a small number
have been made for test purposes but they should be available later this year.
With Kokam it is simply each cell being individually charged by a special charger.
The Kokam Balance Charger comes for 2 series and 3 series cells and detects
when each cell is full and shuts down the charge to an individual cell as it peaks.
A different charger is needed for 2S packs and 3S packs which makes the set up
rather expensive as they may not be suitable for other brands of LiPos. Personally
I am drawn towards the Astro gismo but before I can consider this I need to get my
3S LiPos tapped. Is this a job for a modeller or should it only be trusted to a
specialist? I look for guidance. (Editor: see my notes on page 24)
50
E.F.-U.K.
Beautifully built Antoinette about 6ft span.
Only a few seconds in the air before stalling