Serial Charging - or how to charge 36, 1S batteries with one charger

After my last article on parallel charging someone on facebook mentioned that they prefer serial charging.

Serial charging? Never heard of that.

Turns out this method is mainly used for 1S batteries, you basically build a 6S battery from six single 1S batteries and charge this constellation like you would charge a normal 6S battery. This is all done via a simple harness to which you plug in your 1S batteries in series.

You get them in different constellations like 3S where you can attach three 1S batteries or 6s where you can attach six 1S batteris.

When serial charging it is important, that you attach all the batteries the harness is made for (after all it is serial, when you leave one out, the circuit is open and none will be charged), that all the batteries you are charging have the same capacity but the voltage level may differ.

If you want to charge massive amounts of 1S batteries you can get multiple of those serial harnesses and a parallel charging board. With six of those serial 6S charging harnesses and a parallel charging board you can charge 36 1S batteries at once. You just have to make sure, that each of the 6S packs is within the voltage level described in the parallel charging article.

Technically this method can also be use for 2S or even 3S batteries, but there are no ready made harnesses available. Still - building your own is not to difficult and I might cover it in the future.

Chris is a Vienna based software developer. In his spare time he enjoys reviewing tech gear, ripping quads of all sizes and making stuff.

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