Best 1s Lipo battery charger solutions

Best 1s lipo battery charger is the one that fits Your needs the most! In this article I will try to show all lipo charging options for 1s, so that You will be able to check what suits you best. 

Before going further consider:

-how many lipos

– what current

-mobile or stationary

-storage?

-safety

What are different 1s charging options?

1. Usually people start with Chargers included in different drone kits:

Pros:

• included “in the box”

Cons:

• charges only one battery at a time
• unsafe, often inaccurate. May results in overcharged batteries – fire hazard
• molex (who uses that?) or PH 2.0 only

2. Powerbank dongles charges up to 6 batteries at the same time, which is enough for most.

Pros:

• Ease of use
• low cost
• portability

cons:

• !no storage mode!
• no charge state information until charging is finished
• unsafe, often inaccurate. May results in overcharged batteries
• low cost often means low quality. Usb and ports crack out easily
• PH 2.0 only

Personaly used dongle like that for quite some time. Really loved dongle + powerbank solution portability. After some time the cons took over. I was annoyed that I am unable to put batteries in storage mode, often leaving batteries fully charged after flying. I can not stress enough how fast this kills those little batteries. I could not see how much charging time is left. So when I cracked (by accident) another dongle I have made research and found out about serial 1s charging:

3. Bought or self made dongle.

Pros:

• !STORAGE MODE! – finally!
• 6 batteries at the same time
• Able to plug different charged and discharged batteries at the same time. Safely!
• Always able to see present starte of charge and how much charging is left

Cons:

• Always forced to charge/discharge/storage all 6 batteries
• Needs RC charger and power source
• Messy cables hanging everywhere

Not sure what series vs parallel means?

And I was loving it! Storage mode. Finally. ohhh, what a pleasant change. It felt so good. Good enough to carry rc charger and power source with me when whooping outside. There was only one, small annoying thing. Charging time. Don’t get me wrong, if the state of charge within all batteries is the same all charges at the normal rate. Problem starts when you mix fully charged and discharged batteries (remember, you are forced to always use 6 batteries. Even if you don’t need to). Rc charger needs to “balance all” batteries to the same level of charge before it begins to do what you told the charger to do. Again, after some time it started to be a deal breaker.

That was when I thought that there has to be a better solution. First I though about jumper cable, just to be able to charge exactly enough batteries I need. Than I though about a custom designed PCB to get rid of messy cables hanging around. Doing my research again I found out that I am not the firs person who though about that 😂 (fractal ❤️).

4. CleanBoard Tiny – 1s serial charging board

Pros:

• !STORAGE MODE! – finally!
• 1-6 batteries. You choose with a jumper.
• Able to plug different charged and discharged batteries at the same time. Safely!
• Always able to see present starte of charge and how much charging is left
• Nice a neat layout – CleanBuild Style!

Cons:

• Needs RC charger and power source

This board brings 1s lipo charging to the next level. You can charge 1-6 batteries at the same time. You can choose how many lips do you charge with a jumper.

It is as accurate as your lipo charger, so in most cases much more accurate than cheap dongles.  

Because your using your rc lipo charger, you can choose how fast these lipo batteries will charge. 

This board uses serial batteries connection to the charger. This means that capacity does not add like in parallel charging. If you charge 6x 1s 300 mah lipo batteries, 0.3A is 1C. It is recommended to charge with 1C if you are not in a hurry. 

You might think now, might there be something even easier or even more convenient? Yes!

5. 4-way chargers:

Pros:

• All above and even more you can imagine

Cons:

• One and only – it is pricy…

If you liked my article please share it on you local Whoop county group, so more people would know about it.

If you liked my CleanBoard Tiny check the product page for more details: