How to choose RC lipo battery?

With the development of participation in playing aeromodelling, hobbyist has paid more and more attention on the selection of the RC lipo battery. For the selection of the RC lipo battery, it carries on the explanation mainly from two aspects of battery's voltage and capacity:

1. Voltage of battery

Its voltage should be the same or a bit higher than the voltage of electric motor.

2. Capacity of battery

Unit of the battery capacity is AH, and there is the larger capacity and the larger size under the same voltage. For example, the electric motor has the working current of 10A and the voltage of 12V, which is 10A*12V= 120W. If equipped with the 12V/10AH batteries, the electric motor can work for an hour. If the rated working current of the 120W/12V DC motor is about 10A, its battery capacity is 40Wh when it works as the maximum power of 120W for 20 minutes, and the capacity required for the battery pack is about 12V4Ah, and the equipped lithium battery is power-type battery.

Structure of lithium battery

Usually, lithium batteries have two common types of shape, including cylinder shape and square shape. It is used the helical coiling structure as the internal of battery, and made intervals between the positive and negative electrodes by a kind of polyethylene film isolation material with high intricacy and strong permeability. The positive electrode is the current collector composed of lithium cobalt oxide and aluminum foil, and the negative electrode is the current collector composed of graphitized carbon material and copper foil. Battery is filled with organic electrolyte solution, and installed with safety valve and PTC components, in order to protect the battery from damage in abnormal conditions and when the output is short-circuited.

Why is lithium battery so popular?

1. High voltage and light weight features of lithium battery

The average voltage of a single battery can reach 3.7V or 3.2V. If customer requires the battery with the qualified voltage, lithium battery is the best choice as it can be composed of a lithium battery pack easily and provide convenient and efficient access to improve the voltage of lithium battery.

2. Compared with other battery, lithium battery has higher capacity and density

Lipo battery has high energy storage density, at present, density of the common used battery can reach 450-620Wh/kg, which is 5-7 times higher than the lead-acid battery. In addition, pollution is one of the most important problems considered when people prefer to use lithium battery.

3. Large capacity and long life

The weight of a single lithium battery is about 5-6 times of the lead-acid battery. Although there are less differences in weight between the lithium battery and polymer lithium battery, people prefer to choose the lithium battery as its capacity and life.

The service life of a single lithium battery can be above 6 years and even 9 years if nothing goes wrong. The normal quantity of use is more than 1000 times, if there are no accidents, it can be used beyond 1500 times.

4. Low self-discharge and no memory effect

Lithium battery is equipped with protection plate during the production, which can make the lithium battery have an effect of over-charge and discharge. As lithium batteries have high power tolerance, lithium batteries used for electric vehicle can produce high-performance charge and discharge of 15-30C for the high-strength acceleration performance in starting of the electric vehicle.
source: http://www.genstattu.com/blog/how-to-choose-rc-lipo-battery/