Li-ion battery care confusion
Trailradar
Posts: 131
Below this guide after dotted line is my confusion over battery care. You may just want to skip to that and read from there. Who needs Sudoko when you have li-ion battery guides!!!!!
Below is the Lupine battery care guide (can be applied pretty much to all li-ion batteries )
The Dos and Don'ts: WHAT TO DO
Store your battery in a cool place: Such a cool place could be the cellar or any other cool room. If there is no cool room available, you may also use the fridge to store your rechargeable batteries. In this case you will need an airtight box to protect your battery from condensed water.
Tap your battery’s full potential:: Charge your battery only when it is almost empty. Charging the battery after every short-time use will shorten its life span.
Charge your battery at room temperature: If your battery is „deep-frozen“ after the tour, give it some time to adapt to room temperature.
The Dos and Don'ts: What NOT to do
Do not discharge your battery before charging:: In contrast to other types of batteries, the LiIon battery’s life span will not increase when being discharged before charging. Discharging the battery before charging is only useful in order to measure the remaining battery capacity.
Do not try to „push“ your battery (i.e. to connect it to the charger for some minutes before the tour when it is already charged).
Do not deep discharge your battery: In case the PCS has switched off the light bulb, please do not try to switch your lamp on again using the discharged battery. Please charge it or change it!
Do not charge your battery below 0°C: Give your battery some time to adapt to room temperature before charging.
Do not charge your battery aboth 40°C: Give your battery some time to adapt to room temperature before charging.
Do not expose your battery to enormous heat : For example, do not leave your battery exposed to direct sunlight or in a car in the blazing sun. Heat will cause a very rapid and irretrievable loss of capacity!
Do not use the wrong type of charger: Li-Ion batteries need a special charger which uses exactly the right charging current and the correct progress of stress. Lupine rechargeable batteries do have a protective circuit (PCB); however, for charging your battery you will always need a LiIon charger. For batteries without such a protective circuit, there is even fire and explosion hazard!
Short circuit: In case a short circuit occurs, unprotected LiIon cells will be irretievably damaged. Lupine rechargeable batteries, however, have a protective circuit (PCB) which turns off the electricity before the cells can be damaged. Then the battery needs to be “re-activated” (see “Lupine Tricks”).
Confusing the two pole plug connectors when connecting battery and charger: This may happen with the Twin Charger only. The protective circuit (PCB) will immediately deactivate the Lupine battery to prevent damage.
Storing the battery when not used
If you use your battery only at certain times and seasons, please make sure to store it according to the following hints. Then you can extend its life span and tap to its full potential!
A Li-Ion battery will irretrievably lose some of its capacity if it is not stored correctly (however, the loss of some of the charge is perfectly normal). The goal is to prevent battery damage and to be able to use the full capacity in the next season.
Storing the battery for a longer period of time: Store the battery at approx. 50% charge in a cool room (e.g. the cellar) or in an air-tight casing in the fridge (not the freezer!).
For a storage period of no more than 6 months, there is no danger of deep discharge. If you want to store your battery for a longer time, we recommend to charge it once a year. After the storage period, charge your battery as usual. It is then ready for use - no special treatments required. However, to measure the remaining capacity, you might want to do a complete charge cycle - i.e. to discharge and then completely charge your battery with the charger. The charger then shows the remaining capacity (only the Micro Charger is not able to show that).
By the way: Some say that any LiIon battery is dead after 3 years. This is not true! A Li-Ion battery does lose some of its capacity, but if treated correctly, it can last much longer than 3 years.
Regeneration
A Li-Ion battery does not need regereration after periods of storage. After charging, it is ready to use.
A weak LiIon battery cannot be regenerated. The loss of capacity is permanent. The battery needs to be exchanged.
Measuring the battery capacity
With the help of ChargerOne you can easily measure the remaining capacity of your battery by discharging it completely. The amount of charging shown on the display corresponds to the battery capacity.
Important hint: As regards LiIon batteries, you should not waste a whole charge cycle for measuring the capacity. It is sensible to measure the capacity when the battery is almost empty anyway (e.g. after a tour).
More interesting facts
In short, some additional facts that you maybe didn’t know or that were mentioned only briefly above:
* Li-Ion batteries are very cold-resistant, up to -10°C there is little loss of capacity (approx. 5% at 0°C) and very little self discharge (approx. 3% in the first month after charging).
* The more charging cycles a battery has experienced, the voltage level of the battery during discharge declines. Therefore, the yellow LED of the PCS of an older battery lights up earlier than that of a newer one.
* Li-Ion batteries do not suffer from the notorious memory effect.
* Lost capacity cannot be restored. It is even counterproductive to try to “reanimate” the battery by charging and discharging it. The battery will only lose more capacity.
* Li-Ion batteries keep losing some of their capacity continuously, even when they are not in use. This phenomenon is normal and cannot be prevented, only slowed down. There are some negative factors that impair the battery capacity, such as: heat, enormous discharging currents, storing the fully charged battery in too warm places. Deep discharging and overcharging will be prevented by the protective circuit (PCB).
* Fully discharging the LiIon battery with every cycle will shorten its life span a little. So if the battery was not fully discharged on the tour, you should not discharge it before charging.
* You should avoid discharging to less than 2,75V per cell (5,5V as regards the 2-cell Lupine), and you must not discharge a cell beneath 2,5V (5V as regards the 2-cell Lupine). Discharging beneath the advised voltages will shorten the battery’s life span. In addition, chargers have difficulties in charging a deep discharged LiIon battery. The protective circuit of the Lupine batteries deactivates the voltage from discharging beneath 5,5V.
* Some battery packs do not contain such protective circuits. This can be very dangerous since there is fire and explosion hazard. Be careful with such batteries!
* Li-Ion cells contain circuits which in case of short circuit and overpressure will disrupt the current and destroy the cells.
* Li-Ion batteries must not be overcharged. The charging voltage must be adhered to exactly.
* Efficiency of charging is nearly 100%. So the capacity charged into an empty battery amounts almost exactly to the remaining capacity.
I have highlighted the above guide with yellow because their is some confusion over battery care.
Point 1:
The above guide states:
Tap your battery’s full potential:: Charge your battery only when it is almost empty. Charging the battery after every short-time use will shorten its life span.
This is a fair point: The battery last for arguements sake 3hrs on full beam (from full charge). Then just plug battery in to charger and do full charge. Simple. It just gets more complicated if you keep switching between different modes (i.e day 1 = 1hrs ride switching between medium beam and flashing)
day 2 and 3 = same again.
Point 2:
Do not discharge your battery before charging:: In contrast to other types of batteries, the LiIon battery’s life span will not increase when being discharged before charging. Discharging the battery before charging is only useful in order to measure the remaining battery capacity.
To my knowledge this contrasts/conflicts with point 1. If you use various modes over different days how are you supposed to charge the battery up if you cant charge battery after short ride OR you cant discharge it then do a charge?
point 3:
By the way: Some say that any LiIon battery is dead after 3 years. This is not true! A Li-Ion battery does lose some of its capacity, but if treated correctly, it can last much longer than 3 years.
No the battery is dead after 300-400 perfect discharges and charges. Although getting perfect charge everytime seems damn near impossible (considering all the elements in the equation) So maybe if the guide has been tweaked slightly it will only last 200 charges. So if you use one 2-3 times per week then it might last 1-2 years. Okay a £40 battery lasting this time is not too bad (could be as much as £20 per year or 15pence per full charge (based on my calculations).
So according to my estimates no the the battery is not dead after 3yrs but maybe 2 years, or less. I mean how do they get those calculations? No teveryone will be able to look after the battery to its potential with so many parameters.
point 4:
Li-Ion batteries do not suffer from the notorious memory effect.
This is complete hogwash! It does suffer memeory effect but in different context. For example (there is many) it will remember wether or not you did a charge after only using the battery for half its capacity. It will rememever if you put in fridge or not (hopefully I wont pour it on my cornflakes when I go to get the milk). basically it will remember all dos and donts of the guide
point 5:
Fully discharging the LiIon battery with every cycle will shorten its life span a little. So if the battery was not fully discharged on the tour, you should not discharge it before charging.
so when are you supposed to charge the f*****g thing? can't do full discharge, cant do charge after half use.
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Comments
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Point 1: It can be a bit of a pain if you're switching between modes, as you acknowledge. No real problem here though.
Point 2: It's referring to a full discharge. With NiCad batteries, putting a partially charged battery on to charge will reduce its capacity (the 'memory effect'). This doesn't happen to Li-Ion batteries. They don't like top-up charges though, so just use it until it's below, say, half capacity and charge it without a problem.
Point 3: Depends on the use of your Li-Ion batteries. The one in my phone goes through a charge/discharge cycle every week. If it has a life of 200 cycles, this gives a life of roughly 4 years. If I was charging it twice a week, then yes, it would give a 2 year life. Many mountain bikers will use their lights for the once a week night ride, so this is possible what it's referring to.
Point 4: They don't. See point 2 for what the memory effect actually is. NiCad batteries need to be FULLY discharged before charging to avoid losing capacity. Li-Ions don't. Therefore, they don't suffer from the memory effect.
Point 5: Do it between half and full use, then it'll be perfect for years.0 -
whyamihere wrote:Point 5: Do it between half and full use, then it'll be perfect for years.
Tap your battery’s full potential:: Charge your battery only when it is almost empty. Charging the battery after every short-time use will shorten its life span.
The guide says dont charge betwen half and full use. It also says dont charge after a discarge. So how are you supposed to know when to charge it up unless you keep using battery till almost dead. But then how long will an almost dead battery last for? 10mins, 30mins? 1hr?0 -
Ah, stuff that. Honestly, regular charging will be fine as long as it's below half. The lower the better, but as long as you're below half the effect won't be worth considering.0
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whyamihere wrote:Point 2: It's referring to a full discharge. With NiCad batteries, putting a partially charged battery on to charge will reduce its capacity (the 'memory effect'). This doesn't happen to Li-Ion batteries. They don't like top-up charges though, so just use it until it's below, say, half capacity and charge it without a problem.
you see the battery does remember - it remembers you did a top up or full discarge. it remembers if you put in fridge or not, it remembers if you you stored it for a period of time at half or full charge. if the battery did not suffer 'memory effect' it would be able to run well no matter if you followed the guide or not. Inmy opinion they have the guide because the battery remembers what you did with it during its relationship with you (if you can call it a relationjship) - if you abuse the battery it will remember, probably not nightmares, but it will remember, thats my two cents worth anyway.
On the other hand, I maybe just getting worked up over nothing, although it does seem a little hard to follow the tips, dos and donts, consider there is so many different durations of light on lengths during one charge and different modes which you can switch between on your rides.
I mean they say it could last bewteen 300-400 charges, yeah perfect charges, with perfect recharges, perfect temperatures and perfect everthing else too. Mind you as stated before I wont complain if I get 200 full charges at £40 a battery. I just dont like it when you get official literature from these light companies trying to mislead you and distorting the facts - what were they politicans in a previous life? Who are they to 'massage' the battery life span? I would like it more if they just gave the facts. I can handle 200 charges, hell even 150 charges but to lie for the sake of a sales pitch gets on my nerves.0
