Dave did a vBlog on some lipo batteries he purchased from HobbyKing (the 5000 maH one). They had no PCB protection attached and they had a charge rating of 20C.
I loved the price of those batteries and was considering using them in a project but had second thoughts about doing my own protection PCB.
And then I read an educational article on Adafruit stating:
RC lithium ion batteries are meant for radio controlled cars, planes, UAVs, quad copters, etc. They are meant to give a lot of power at once, up to 20C and are designed to never 'cut off' so that the battery will be damaged instead of having the plane fall out of the sky.
Now this made me nervous about using the 20C in a small electronics project.
I am now considering buying the battery for $14.00 (1C with Protection PCB) instead of going the more cost effective route at $4.00 (20C and do-it-yourself protection ($4-$5))
Can anyone help with these two question:
1) Is 1C much better than 20C when dealing with hobby circuit projects?
2) Is it a bad idea to do your own protection and solder it onto the LiPo tabs?
you might save $5.00 between the two options.
Thank you.