Lipo balance problems

[TBuggy]

Ok I'll try that next. Thanks.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, if its way off your charger may time out before the battery is actually done as well. Most chargers have a timed setting for safety reasons and balancing a battery that is way off with a typical balance board will take some time.

If you wanted to there are ways to balance batteries that are way off by only charging one cell at a time until they are close enough to throw on your regular balance board to complete the charge.
Check this video out;

 

[AJH387]

Like I mentioned in a previous post, if its way off your charger may time out before the battery is actually done as well. Most chargers have a timed setting for safety reasons and balancing a battery that is way off with a typical balance board will take some time.

If you wanted to there are ways to balance batteries that are way off by only charging one cell at a time until they are close enough to throw on your regular balance board to complete the charge.
Check this video out;

Awesome, thanks for the info.
My friend offered to lend me his charger to help in the process. As mentioned, my charger is not great to begin with but has been useful so far. But for something like this, I may try his out and see if I can get it fixed.

 

[AJH387]

Just an update. I discharged the battery, slowly at a certain voltage cut-off (i forget what we set it at). It ended up taking like 6 hours and balanced out. I then was able to charge and run it in the car and everything checked out. So I will keep an eye on it but it seems like I might be ok. Just wanted to let everyone know and also thank everyone for helping.

 

[TBuggy]

Just keep balance charging it.

 

[Mongoose]

I’ve got something going on with one of my packs.

Running 5S, one 3S and one 2S together. I have up’d my LVC to 3.4 on my MMX but after my run today my 3S pack cells were 3.66-3.67-3.66 and my 2S pack cells were 3.16-3.19 and I hit LVC.

You guys have any idea why my 2S pack is dumping faster than my 3S pack?

 

[TBuggy]

Maybe a stupid question but are they the same mah?

 

[Mongoose]

Yep, both are 7600mah and balance out good.

 

[RC_User]

Kind of duplicate posting here from the 'battery charger' thread but it pertains to balancing and I wanted to share my kinda of weird experience yesterday. It seems that some chargers don't do a great job at balancing. with mine, never have all 4 cells been exactly the same 4.20v charge when done.
The biggest pain is It takes like 2 hours to balance after it reaches around 4.1v charging, which is ridiculous. Yesterday I stopped it before it was completely done balancing all 4 cells and the charger said cell 2 was 4.20v. my little voltage checker said it was 4.23v. I stuck my fluke RMS meter on it for an accurate reading and it said 4.22v. I immediately discharged it back to 3.8v.
I've got a new charger on the way, hopefully it will balance faster and more accurately...

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

Kind of duplicate posting here from the 'battery charger' thread but it pertains to balancing and I wanted to share my kinda of weird experience yesterday. It seems that some chargers don't do a great job at balancing. with mine, never have all 4 cells been exactly the same 4.20v charge when done.
The biggest pain is It takes like 2 hours to balance after it reaches around 4.1v charging, which is ridiculous. Yesterday I stopped it before it was completely done balancing all 4 cells and the charger said cell 2 was 4.20v. my little voltage checker said it was 4.23v. I stuck my fluke RMS meter on it for an accurate reading and it said 4.22v. I immediately discharged it back to 3.8v.
I've got a new charger on the way, hopefully it will balance faster and more accurately...

What charger did you have and what charger do you have coming?

From what I saw the current drain for LiPo balancing is that stat to look at for quick balancing. My Hitec X2 700 is rated at 800mAh per cell while my Hitec X4 Plus is 300mAh per cell and it is night and day difference in balancing times.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2791505-RCGroups-Review-of-the-Hitec-X2-700

 

[RC_User]

What charger did you have and what charger do you have coming?

From what I saw the current drain for LiPo balancing is that stat to look at for quick balancing. My Hitec X2 700 is rated at 800mAh per cell while my Hitec X4 Plus is 300mAh per cell and it is night and day difference in balancing times.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2791505-RCGroups-Review-of-the-Hitec-X2-700

ah great to know, I was wondering what that lipo balancing drain meant. so the higher number means faster balancing, makes sense. i have to wonder why some are so low then, perhaps for balancing smaller cells... really it should vary depending on the mah of the cells in my opinion...

i have some old turnigy 400w charger that i should have replaced years ago. the balance is probably 100mah. it sucks.

I was actually strongly considering the HRC44270 - Hitec X2 AC Plus Black Edition ... i'd love to have that bluetooth feature so i can check progress w/o having to walk 10 steps, ha ha.

I have a Revolectrix GT8 showing up today. problem is i'm still dependent on my cheap turnigy power supply since it's DC only, so i'm not sure if i want to keep that thing or order up the Hitec instead... i've read the Revolectrix are supposedly excellent quality but I can't seem to find those balancing current details in the manual... http://www.revolectrix.com/support_docs/item_1496.pdf (same as the GT500 just does higher W) i see on page 21 it says: Often, the last few millivolts of balancing take a very long time and do not significantly improve overall pack charge or performance.

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

ah great to know, I was wondering what that lipo balancing drain meant. so the higher number means faster balancing, makes sense. i have to wonder why some are so low then, perhaps for balancing smaller cells... really it should vary depending on the mah of the cells in my opinion...

i have some old turnigy 400w charger that i should have replaced years ago. the balance is probably 100mah. it sucks.

I was actually strongly considering the HRC44270 - Hitec X2 AC Plus Black Edition ... i'd love to have that bluetooth feature so i can check progress w/o having to walk 10 steps, ha ha.

I have a Revolectrix GT8 showing up today. problem is i'm still dependent on my cheap turnigy power supply since it's DC only, so i'm not sure if i want to keep that thing or order up the Hitec instead... i've read the Revolectrix are supposedly excellent quality but I can't seem to find those balancing current details in the manual... http://www.revolectrix.com/support_docs/item_1496.pdf (same as the GT500 just does higher W) i see on page 21 it says: Often, the last few millivolts of balancing take a very long time and do not significantly improve overall pack charge or performance.

I found this Turnigy charger and it has 200mAh balance current. The lowest I've seen on any currently produced charger is 300mAh. I don't have any experience with Revolectix but have heard a bunch of good things about them.

Between the 100 watt Hitec and the 800 watt Revolectrix, myself, hands down would go with the Revolectrix. After having a 1400 watt high powered DC charger I would personally never go back to dealing with 100 and 200 watt AC chargers. But that's me and everybody is different.

 

[RC_User]

I found this Turnigy charger and it has 200mAh balance current. The lowest I've seen on any currently produced charger is 300mAh. I don't have any experience with Revolectix but have heard a bunch of good things about them.

Between the 100 watt Hitec and the 800 watt Revolectrix, myself, hands down would go with the Revolectrix. After having a 1400 watt high powered DC charger I would personally never go back to dealing with 100 and 200 watt AC chargers. But that's me and everybody is different.

What do you see as the benefits of a high wattage charger for someone whom will never use over 100w? just better features on the more expensive chargers? better performance? I used to use small basic 5a max chargers in the past and had no issues with them but of course they also had next to no adjustability. I like that the Hitec (really SKYRC apparently) would be a lot more convenient with the built-in power supply and bluetooth app and still probably way better than my HK charger, but I wanted to get something a bit higher wattage for other charging uses, but honestly for my simple RC needs the Hitec would probably do the job just fine for me, that's why i'm kind of on the fence still. I kind of forgot about the fact that I was still going to be stuck with the HK power supply too and didn't budget that in, it's only 540W...
What kind of DC power supply do you recommend? I know next to nada about them.

pretty sure my HK charger kicks way down to 100mah when balancing. on the display that is what it shows (0.1a) when balancing, but since it seems to also measure inaccurately and charge too high (it showed 4.20v when my meter read 4.22) i don't want to use it any more for that reason either... i'll probably throw it in a box or just chuck the thing.

As far as the 800w Revo, not sure i'll ever need more than a couple hundred watts really but it's nice to have when the rare need arises. my HK power supply is only 540w... not sure how many watts a car battery is good for?
ahh usps slacking again, the Revo isn't showing up until tomorrow.

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

This is the power supply that I have. It doesn't fully power my 1400 watt charger, but it's more than I need.

https://www.smc-racing.net/index.php?route=product/product&path=141&product_id=459

I do parallel charging so I charge six 5000mah batteries off of each port at a time at 30 amps. Besides parallel charging, the higher powered chargers normally also have higher discharge rates so a storage charge from full capacity doesn't take 2 hours. When doing 4s and 6s batteries the higher powered chargers really shine. They can charge a 6s 5000mah battery at 5 amps without breaking a sweat.

Some people don't like dealing with the power supply, and that's fine, but I don't mind it at all.

Also, with DC, if the power supply fails you can easily get a new power supply. With an ac charger if the power supply fails you either need to get a new charger or an external power supply.