Brand new 4s battery balanced?

[Cryogenius]

Hi guys.
How can a brand new battery this unbalanced? This is its first charge? It didn't even get to 16.8v? Charged at 5A took 75mins

Absima Power Tank Lipo 14.8V.-60C 6200 Hardcase (XT90-Plug)

What you guys reckon?

 

[SrC]

How well balanced were they right out the package uncharged???
Before the first charge?
Most important indicator of quality of that brand/pack. Should have 3.8v/cell minimum out the box if they are fresh, not old stock sitting for example in inventory for over a year. Or just Old cells purchased by the OE Pack brand. Should have no more than 5 milliohms of Internal Resistance per cell. Give or take. Definitely should be in the single digits when New.
Cheap lipos can be this way. They tend to come with lower grade cells not well matched to each other.( to save $$) Been there. Doesn't mean that it won't work well enough for basic bashing applications.
More importantly, what was the Internal resistance out the box. And also after the first charge at Full Capacity?
Get yourself a Lipo checker, that also does IR reads. Indispensable.
I use this to check new Lipos out the box, and if bad, I warranty or get a return ASAP.
Been there with several lipos. All brands and types, expensive ones or cheap brands.
It happens.
Also, if the Lipo Pack has a Very Strong sweet smell to them, I return them. The construction is poor and Lith Polymer is not sealed well enough IMHO. It has a strong sweet smell. Proper construction seals them from the air.

 

[Engineer]

You can charge at 1C (6.2A). Did you charger time out before it finished charging/balancing the pack?

 

[21STalion]

I find the charger and even the battery checker all give somewhat inconsistent results in terms of IR and even just cell voltage

Check the voltage on three different device's, why is it different?

 

[Engineer]

I find the charger and even the battery checker all give somewhat inconsistent results in terms of IR and even just cell voltage

Check the voltage on three different device's, why is it different?

Just my two cents - these aren't really devices designed for accurate and precise bench measurements. I'm sure whatever spec there is (if there even is one) is pretty loose. Depending on which method they use to measure IR. a load/resistor has tolerance and I'm sure they're not spec'ing components with tight tolerances. Even good bench equipment needs to go through testing/cal on a regular basis to ensure that it delivers accurate results.

 

[SrC]

Agree different readings and all. Varying.
What you need to evaluate is that the cells are consistent with each other from one to the next, whatever they actually read is not that important. And use different devices to measure. DVM, A Lipo Testor and the Charger. Some devices don't read well down to .001.

 

[Hector_Fisher]

Hi guys.
How can a brand new battery this unbalanced? This is its first charge? It didn't even get to 16.8v? Charged at 5A took 75mins

Absima Power Tank Lipo 14.8V.-60C 6200 Hardcase (XT90-Plug)

What you guys reckon?

View attachment 219772

View attachment 219773

Which mode are you using to charge? It looks like you are using charge (CHG) mode instead of balance (BAL) mode. The manual for that charger says that CHG mode is for charging without the balance leads. Meaning it will charge but won't balance the cells even if you have the balance lead attached. Looks like you need to use BAL mode.

Just my two cents - these aren't really devices designed for accurate and precise bench measurements. I'm sure whatever spec there is (if there even is one) is pretty loose. Depending on which method they use to measure IR. a load/resistor has tolerance and I'm sure they're not spec'ing components with tight tolerances. Even good bench equipment needs to go through testing/cal on a regular basis to ensure that it delivers accurate results.

Agreed. Reading voltage down to only a millivolt (or only 0.02 volts) is not that great. Most cheap multimeters read down to the thousandth volt. So that might be contributing to the issue here. However, even if calibrated off, the charger should charge until it thinks cells are balanced--if it's running in a balance charge mode. My suspicion is that this was regular "charge" mode.

The only other thought i have is that the IR on the pack cells are super far off and it's taking a long time to balance so it times out.

OP, you could also try measuring the IR of the packs and seeing if they are way off.

 

[jkflow]

This looks like a clone of my oldest charger. Good but slow.

Good news all is well.

Reality check. This is a 50W charger and will top out at 3A (power divided by volt 50/16)
That is 0.5C, charge time is normal at that level.
You have to use the Balance mode to charge, this will further extend your time. Below 2h is nominal in this setup and that is your normal.
You can set the charger to any higher current level but it will top out at its power limit.
I still use this for small lipos, if you want shorter durations you need a better charger. 100W minimum for your specific application.

I believe this charger also has a timeout setting, make sure it's above 2h.

 

[SrC]

Two Line Display chargers such as this one is old school for the most part. Needing to specify Charge vs Balance Charge. Like my SkyRC B6 AC v2.
Newer chargers will always balance at the end of the Charge cycle by default. Like my HM D6 Duo Pro
Balance charging at the end of the charge cycle always drops the amps accordingly at a slower rate, while all the cells balance out. Usually the last 20 minutes or so, give or take at a capable 1C rate, is where the cells are balancing.
OP needs to read the manual well.

This looks like a clone of my oldest charger. Good but slow.

Good news all is well.

Reality check. This is a 50W charger and will top out at 3A (power divided by volt 50/16)
That is 0.5C, charge time is normal at that level.
You have to use the Balance mode to charge, this will further extend your time. Below 2h is nominal in this setup and that is your normal.
You can set the charger to any higher current level but it will top out at its power limit.
I still use this for small lipos, if you want shorter durations you need a better charger. 100W minimum for your specific application.

I believe this charger also has a timeout setting, make sure it's above 2h.

Yeah most 2 line display chargers have Time-Out setting you can change.

 

[21STalion]

When I got my gens-ace-r-spam racing batteries. They are in a. 2x 2 cell configuration (hump packs)

Bought four packs same time and glad I did because two were matched at about 10 ohms and the other two are 20 ohms. All brand new.

Would be a shame to have gotten a mismatched pair but glad I could match them.

 

[olds97_lss]

Which mode are you using to charge? It looks like you are using charge (CHG) mode instead of balance (BAL) mode. The manual for that charger says that CHG mode is for charging without the balance leads. Meaning it will charge but won't balance the cells even if you have the balance lead attached. Looks like you need to use BAL mode.

I missed it in my first once through of the manual... why do they even have "CHARGE" as an option under lipo?

First couple of lines on page 16, then the rest of the page is telling you about balance charge.
https://guidessimo.com/document/956244/core-rc-uac-50-instruction-manual-28.html

 

[jkflow]

This is based one of the very early Lipo capable charges. Way back when, the balance charging was a new thing and not very widespread, hence the 2 modes. CHG will be faster as it does not balance, and it was all about 'fast charging' back in the days.

Charge algorithm is horrid, and they are hopelessly outdated, yet they sell them as new.

 

[SrC]

I missed it in my first once through of the manual... why do they even have "CHARGE" as an option under lipo?

First couple of lines on page 16, then the rest of the page is telling you about balance charge.
https://guidessimo.com/document/956244/core-rc-uac-50-instruction-manual-28.html

Older 2 line display chargers had Charge and Balance Charge, because with Early RC Lipo introduction/adoption, Lipo packs did not come with Balance leads.
So these older Legacy Technology chargers had the Charge Only Mode. You can't balance a lipo pack that has NO Bal Leads.
It is imperative/ safest that you always Balance Charge Balance lead equipped Lipos. The hard rule these days.
Only exception to this these days, might be charging a 1S (single cell) Lipo pack.