Battery jumping

Hi all, I've seen several people refer to forcing a lithium battery "back from the dead" with a charger like the iMax B6.

I'm curious what the requirements are for that, and what setting on the charger to use.

My case is the little battery that goes with the Jolly Logic units. They were "new" to replace batteries in old Altimeter twos but ran down over winter. Now they won't charge via the USB port.

https://www.jollylogic.com/products/rechargeable-battery/

Just wondering if there is a chance I can "boost" them with the B6 or if I'm out of luck on these.

For the record, John has been incredible with customer support and I''ll buy more from him if needed, just thought I'd check with the experts here first

I think that the concern is that a lithium battery that has been discharged below 2.8 volts per cell, likely experienced permanent cell damage. What voltage does the battery measure?

I thought about doing it a while ago & found this article on doing it but it they are so cheap, why bother?
https://www.instructables.com/id/Restoring-over-discharged-LiPo-Lithium-Polymer-bat/

Forcing a damaged lithium battery can be done. Depending on the additional chemistry (ion, polymer, manganese, ect...) there's a good chance of fire or an extreme hot gas discharge. You can charge it thru the discharge connector on NiCd or NiMH at a close voltage like 7.2v for a 7.4v lipo for a few minutes to hopefully bring the overall charge above 2.8 or 3v and then plug on your balance plug and charge on the proper profile. I've seen it work as many times as I've seen fire shoot out of a charging bag so I wouldn't recommend trying. Buy new batteries and give them a storage charge before you put them up for the winter.

Ok, thanks for the warning. One was measuring 0.7 volts, the other wouldn't give a reading.

These get soldered into the unit, and charge via USB, so I can't get them on my balance charger. Might have to give up on using these if the batteries don't last.

You can use a very low power nimh charge to “bring lipo’s back” but keep in mind that if any cell is below 3volts, the cell has irreparable damage, and will always be a faulty pack. It may be something that I would consider using as a ground station battery, but I wouldn’t risk a rocket to a pack like that, especially with how cheap lipos are these days. If you do choose to do a nimh trickle charge, please do it outside or somewhere that if you have a fire, you don’t burn down your house, and remember to monitor the battery and switch it back to lipo mode once the cells reach about 3.5volts so that the charger cuts off voltage at the proper limit.

No worries, while I'm intreagued by fire I have no desire to risk anything. These batteries are shot, I'll get new ones if I use the units again.

John has (or had) a replacement battery service for the first-generation devices that aren’t designed for user battery replacement as the current generation ones are: https://www.jollylogic.com/products/battery-repair-service/

I wouldn’t try very hard to recover tiny single-cell li-poly’s like those in older AltimeterOne/Two.

I only use my older versions of AltimeterOne/Two occasionally any more and have had mixed results with getting them to charge after long periods of disuse.

Our batteries have protection circuits that isolate the batteries when they are shorted, or run too low (so they will fault and read 0V). You can't "jolt" them, they are protected. You can only damage the circuits, if anything.

If charging them doesn't restore them to normal range (3.00-4.17 volts), then:

"He's dead, Jim."

Recharge your lithium-ion devices occasionally, even if you're not using them.