Charging multiple packs

Three Quick questions for you -

• If I want to charge more than one Lipo pack at a time - say 2x 3s 2200mah packs. If I wire them up in parallel - would I still charge at 3S or 6S? also if normal charge for one pack was at say 2amp, would I need to double it to 4amp

• Can anyone point me in the direction of a decent balance board adapter to be able to balance charge my packs. My turnigy accucell charger only has single balance ports of various sizes on the side!

• I presume you need to parallel charge packs of the same cell count but can you parallel charge multiple packs of different mah rating? How would this effect the input ampage?

Cheers for your help, just getting sick of charging lipos one at a time for hours on end!

1. Parallel charging can be done, the packs should be the same number of cells (eg two 3s packs) but the capacities can be different. They should, however, be in a similar state of (dis)charge. If you connect a nearly charged pack to a discharged pack, you can get some hefty currents flowing between the two as the voltages equalise. If you connect two 3s packs in parallel, you treat them as a bigger 3s pack and definately NOT a 6s pack for charging.

2. errrr,, not sure on this one sorry. I don't tend to balance charge every charge, I do them approximately 1 in every 3 charges or so. You could try somewhere like giantcod though, they might have something suitable?

3. Yep, as per answer one. When you connect packs in parallel, the pack cell count and voltage (eg 3s - 11.1v) stays the same, but the capacity is the sum of both packs. So if you connected two 2s packs together in parallel, one with a capacity of 3000mAh, and the other with a capacity of 2400mAh, then the pack effectively becomes a 2s, 5400mAh pack, and can be charged as such.

HTH
Andy

Cheers for the come back andy and thanks for the info! - got to solder up some charge leads anyway so in no major rush - will have a good look around for balance boards on the old Cod!