Batteries Weird battery issue

trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
Ok last night I was charging packs to fly with last night, as I was charging my Align 6s pack for the Dominator, the alarm went off because of an error! That error was my voltage being exceeded on the battery. The battery on my Thunder Power Super Charger 1010c was showing 24.4 volts!!!!! I shut it down checked voltage with my voltage checker and it was showing 4.10 per cell but a total voltage of 24.4 volts! WTH?
I know the battery is not going to be used again, but why is it doing this? I probably only have 6 cycles on this battery that was bought new.
 
RandyDSok

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
I've seen a similar error ( on a different charger ) when the number of cells was incorrectly selected.
 
trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
This read 24 volts (supposed to be 22.2 total voltage on a 6s battery....2 different chargers and a battery checker all getting that reading?? I don't think it is all chargers and the checker all screwing up...
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
22.2 volts is the nominal voltage. LiPo batteries have a max voltage per cell of 4.2 volts DC which would total 25.2 volts DC for a 6S pack.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
4.081 volts per cell is what that calculates out to. I'm not seeing the issue here. ,
 
RandyDSok

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
I'll second what Tony said... with 4.2v the full charge of a cell... and yours reading 4.081 per cell average ... there is not a problem with the batteries.

- - - Updated - - -

... not that you wouldn't believe Tony... just as a second person to state the same info
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
I figured out what he was saying. His chargers showed an over volt with those readings. Two chargers did this on the same pack. I think there is an issue with the pack.
 
Smoggie

Smoggie

Well-Known Member
Sorry, I dont see any issue here other than a bogus error on the charger.

A 'healthy' 6s battery can show total resting voltage anywhere between about 20v and 25.2V (3.3 to 4.2V per cell). 24.4V is perfectly ok, no cause for concern whatsoever.

The cause of the error could be a few things:
  • Faulty charger
  • Bad connection/broken wire on the balance lead
  • Setup error in charger programming
  • Misinterpreting of error message (might be input voltage error?)
  • Just a freak unexplained charger error never to be repeated
 
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trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
Yeah, I had forgot about a fully charged 6s being 25.2 lol, but I think I have an issue with the balance leads on it because the error popped up on both chargers. Something funky going on inside the battery...
 
Admiral

Admiral

Well-Known Member
My 2 cents worth, the battery appears to be OK, I would put it in the Helicopter and use it and then start again with a discharged battery.
Fly with the canopy off in case of a problem.
 
murankar

murankar

Staff member
Okay so to check to see if there is an issue with the balance lead try this.

Meter the negative and the wire right next to it. See what voltage you get and wright it down or remember it. Next move both probes one pin to the right (with the negative on the left). Same thing and wright it down or remember it. Then move it down one more pin and repeat. This should give you the individual cell voltages if the wires are good. Now to get a reading of all the cells meter the negative and the very last pin. Here is the hard part, try and wiggle the wires while you meter it.
 
trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
I just hovered it down to around 3.85 per cell, seemed to work fine, not warm or anything, wondering if there is some sort of internal issue with the balance leads. I'll stick it on a charger to see how it does when I can watch it real good to see what goes on with it.
 
murankar

murankar

Staff member
its possible the issue could be in the balance board. You would have to do a continuity check to see if there is a break on the wires or traces. Now the down side to this is that it wont detect a fracture, it will only tell you if the wire or trace is not broke. If the balance leads are in the charger then you will have a problem with doing a continuity check. Unless you know electronics to find the balance circuit.
 
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trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
If it is its on 2 different boards, I'll just put it on the charger again and monitor it through the whole cycle see what it does.
If it works then I'll just be sure to watch it carefully when I charge it, if it don't I'll ship it to Tony so he can make it blow up and film it for a safety video...hehe
 
murankar

murankar

Staff member
So you tried 2 different boards. That takes out the variable of the boards being bad. The next thing is the leads. Test those and see what happens. If everything turns out fine on that test then one of two things; either you have a fractured wire somewhere or the chargers are faulty. I thinking a fracture. Fractures are just as bad as a complete break. What sucks is that you would never know it was fractured. I ran into this all the time with my army job. We would have cables that would pass continuity check all day long and twice on Sunday. Once we used them to transmit a signal they were garbage.
 
Smoggie

Smoggie

Well-Known Member
Those balance leads do cause a lot of issues. The thin wires are prone to cracking internally or pulling away where they solder onto the battery. It's easy to short and burn the pins on the plugs when you plug them into a balance board too.
 
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