cazanova
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I have a 3S soft pack that has one cell that charges faster than the other two. My charger stops charging once that cell reaches full voltage. Is there any thing I can do? Should I stop using this battery?
3S Battery Charging issue
- Thread starter cazanova
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RCBro80
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What charger are you using? Are you using 'balance' charge mode? It's not uncommon for certain cells to charge or drain faster than others (especially with older, weakened batteries) but your charger should continue to charge the other cells, using the balance lead to 'drain' the cell that has already reached 4.2V, until they are all balanced at 4.2V
y noT
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Does your charger have a balance feature? If so use it to charge when going to run it. Fast charge is not the best, and if not using the battery past 5-7 days store charge. And never run the battery till completely dead. You could ruin the battery in the long run. Also if running back to back, let the battery. Cool off before charging to run again. If not tha TV can also ruin the life of the battery.
jkflow
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This 
If possible, take a picture of your setup and post it.
Your charger has a 'balance' mode. Read the manual and use that mode for charging.
If that is still not fixing it, my guess would be a bad charger.
If possible, take a picture of your setup and post it.
Your charger has a 'balance' mode. Read the manual and use that mode for charging.
If that is still not fixing it, my guess would be a bad charger.
RCBro80
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I'm fairly certain the charger pushes current into the battery via the main leads and draws from the individual cells via the balance leads (at a lower current of course, due to the wire gauge).
Here is one explanation: "... most chargers follow a two set process. The first process (constant current) is when a constant current is applied (at the rate you specified) and keeps that current flowing into the battery until a certain voltage is reached. After this threshold the charger will switch to constant voltage mode where the charger will vary the current to make sure all of the cells have the same voltage (the balancing step). As the cells get close to the maximum charge of 4.2V the current will drop slower until eventually stopping at 4.2V per cell"
Here is one explanation: "... most chargers follow a two set process. The first process (constant current) is when a constant current is applied (at the rate you specified) and keeps that current flowing into the battery until a certain voltage is reached. After this threshold the charger will switch to constant voltage mode where the charger will vary the current to make sure all of the cells have the same voltage (the balancing step). As the cells get close to the maximum charge of 4.2V the current will drop slower until eventually stopping at 4.2V per cell"
jkflow
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Assuming you plug in both the main leads and the balance plug (should by default).
The main charge is going through the power leads but towards the end of the cycle the charger switches modes and balances the cells via the balance wires.
Honestly, my guess is a bad charger or do you have a safety time limit set and it shuts off while it tries to balance?
The main charge is going through the power leads but towards the end of the cycle the charger switches modes and balances the cells via the balance wires.
Honestly, my guess is a bad charger or do you have a safety time limit set and it shuts off while it tries to balance?
Fallguy
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Does your charger have a balance only mode? I'd try to balance the cells first then try charging again.
After balancing if it does it again, balance again and try a friend's charger or take it to a local hobby store and ask them to try charging on their charger. You could have a bad cell but I'm not ruling out a charger problem either.
jkflow
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Whatever you , do not run with this Lipo. The max difference between cells should be ~ 0.05V under load and you are way off.
cazanova
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What would be the harm in using this in a car? I could see a potential issue with charging it, but not discharging other than shorter run times.
Doesn't the ESC just see a voltage being available and then regulates the current flow until the voltage gets to the cutoff level and then stops the current flow?
Doesn't the ESC just see a voltage being available and then regulates the current flow until the voltage gets to the cutoff level and then stops the current flow?
jkflow
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Yup, good to go.
issue is you would have killed the lowest cell before Lvc would have kicked in.
issue is you would have killed the lowest cell before Lvc would have kicked in.
