Lipo problems

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celltakingc
If your cells are down to 2.1, then the LVC isn't working properly; it isn't enabled at all; or you have it set too low. There's no way a cell should get that low unless one of the three things above are occurring. Did you notice LVC kicking in before you checked the voltage?
Great point. I hope you setup up your Max 8 ESC properly in the settings. Never run an upgrade ESC without checking the parameters. A simple thing like incorrect LVC will ruin any Lipo. Check parameters. Timing, Punch etc. Failing to do this will have consequences. Not sure if this applies in your case.. I have Zeees here also. Far from my best lipos. But they still work with High IR's and poorly matched cells. Damage to the Balance leads cannot be overlooked. Carefully mount your balance plug when strapping in your Lipo. Many Bal leads fail instead, and the cells are still good. Not sure what applies in your case. If no voltage appears for a specific cell, could be Bal. lead issue. Internally within the pack. Or a damaged bal. wire(s). Been there. With a lipo testor, check total pack volts and compare to what the cells read. Should add up. If not. You have a dead Bal lead wire?:unsure: Charger will reject that lipo as it is supposed to do. Zeees don't have the best construction IMHO. They are budget lipos. But serve well enough for bashing use.
Some ideas.
:cool:

edit.

My worst Zeee is on its last leg. But still pushing it. Puffed up badly early on. I don't expect much from them at their pricepoint. They are made from low grade cells and poorly matched as well. But all lipos can be a mixed bag. care and feeding is most important. Even an expensive quality lipo can be abused beyond use rather quickly. Always storage charge them when not being used right after they are discharged. And never let them sit charged for a long while. Use them once charged. Sitting Full charged for several days is also bad

Cell 6 taking a dump. It was full charged and sitting but for 5 minutes. # 6 is slowly dying. With 8.2 Miliohms. # 2 is following.....
I probably have 30+ cycles on this pack.
If I get 50+ cycles out of any lipo before they start to peter out, perform poorly, I am happy. This Zeee is pretty much done though. Will become a bench pack untill it is too dangerous to keep around.

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As others stated, your ESC doesn't pick on a specific cell, therefore your ESC is fine.
Now, your gearing seems very high. I thought 15T was speed run gearing on a Kraton. 16 T would therefore be just above insane and that will kill your low C lipos in no time.
On Zeee, stay above 80C, the lower ones have arealC of roughly 15C. The 80C are in the 25C range.
 
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I've had this same problem with one or two packs. I re-crimped the balance leads and put new connectors on there and everything was fine again. Balance connectors can be a bit delicate and if you (just for example) unplug them by tugging on the leads, it can lead to connection issues. I'm sure the cells themselves are fine. Pick up one of these kits. It'll be some of the best $35 you ever spent.
https://amz.run/5uO8
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As others stated, your ESC doesn't pick on a specific cell, therefore your ESC is fine.
Now, your gearing seems very high. I thought 15T was speed run gearing on a Kraton. 16 T would therefore be just above insane and that will kill your low C lipos in no time.
On Zeee, stay above 80C, the lower ones have arealC of roughly 15C. The 80C are in the 25C range.
I run my Kraton on 15T, As long as your Fan setup and ESC fan are upgraded, I run no issues. Still Stock electrics. My Punch was lowered however. Needed to because of the poor C ratings of these Zeee packs.
 
I find it quite odd that only one cell per pack has dumped off.. The esc doesn't differentiate cells.. as far as the esc knows, it's one cell.. it just counts off cells based on total voltages...

A lvc that doesn't work isn't going to pick on one individual cell of the pack, it will drain them all.. so, something isn't adding up here.. what were the other cell voltages?

I could only get a reading off 1 of the lipos, 2.1, 3.8 and 3.8. The other lipos I couldn't get a reading because their cells completely died. I understand about how the lvc works and such but if the current draw is too high could that possibly "weed" out a weak cell so to speak?
 
I could only get a reading off 1 of the lipos, 2.1, 3.8 and 3.8. The other lipos I couldn't get a reading because their cells completely died. I understand about how the lvc works and such but if the current draw is too high could that possibly "weed" out a weak cell so to speak?
It's not the cell, it's the balance connector.
 
It's not the cell, it's the balance connector.
^ exactly the esc just sees the voltage on the main terminals/leads. You don't connect the balance lead to the esc, so it doesn't know individual cell voltage just overall voltage.
I could only get a reading off 1 of the lipos, 2.1, 3.8 and 3.8. The other lipos I couldn't get a reading because their cells completely died. I understand about how the lvc works and such but if the current draw is too high could that possibly "weed" out a weak cell so to speak?
You should be able to know real quick if you dropped a cell completely by plugging the main leads into your charger and seeing what voltage it is. If you get somewhere between 9v (3x 3.0v) and 12.6 volts (3x 4.2v) then you have all three cells still connected to the MAIN leads. Then if you connect the balance lead and it doesn't show all three then one of you're internal balance leads has disconnected from the cell. And that's why your chargers aren't picking it up.
 
I could only get a reading off 1 of the lipos, 2.1, 3.8 and 3.8. The other lipos I couldn't get a reading because their cells completely died. I understand about how the lvc works and such but if the current draw is too high could that possibly "weed" out a weak cell so to speak?
It's the bal. connector or leads. There would be a Voltage reading if the connector was in fact ok. No reading ( 0.00 volts) means a broken lead or Conn.
Could even be a short/broken Balance lead(s) within the lipo's case. Then it becomes micro surgery to the pack if you want to save it. Not for the faint of heart. Make sure to discharge the lipo to roughly 3.2-3.7 volts if you do open it up. Lipo is less volitile. Been there. But I found that it is not worth the time, effort and Liability of a fire.
Use a volt meter at the bal. conn. to determine which wire/pin outs are the issue. Then examine it closely. Replacing the connector is not hard to do. Some just buy the connector as pig tails and solder the wires after clipping the old connector off. Careful not dead short anything. One wire at a time is safest way. Sometimes easier than Crimping on a new JST connector only.
You can always clean up the JST Conn. first. See if that helps. Electrical contact spray is best. Careful. Might want to do this outside the house.
 
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It's the bal. connector or leads. There would be a Voltage reading if the connector was in fact ok. No reading means a broken lead or Conn.
Could even be a short/broken Balance lead(s) within the lipo's case. Then it becomes micro surgery to the pack if you want to save it. Not for the faint of heart. Make sure to discharge the lipo to roughly 3.2-3.7 volts if you do open it up. Lipo is less volitile. Been there. But I found that it is not worth the time, effort and Liability of a fire.
Use a volt meter at the bal. conn. to determine which wire/pin outs are the issue. Then examine it closely. Replacing the connector is not hard to do. Some just buy the connector as pig tails and solder the wires after clipping the old connector off. Careful not dead short anything. One wire at a time is safest way. Sometimes easier than Crimping on a new JST connector only.
You can always clean up the JST Conn. first. See if that helps. Electrical contact spray is best. Careful. Might want to do this outside the house.
It makes sense that there is a break somewhere in the balance leads but the same thing happening on 3 different lipos within a week? I guess some investigating with a bolt meter is in order here.
 
We all been through this.
Are these all the same lipo models. Zeee's?
Poorly made lipos happens this way at times. Being rough with the Balance connectors and leads also contributes to this. Also happens to ejected lipos and Very hard impacts. Be mindful how you mount the Balance lead connector when mounting the lipo in the tray. The most delicate part of any lipo.
Internally, soldering can come apart with the bal. leads at each cell. Even the exposed wires can break within the outer jacket. And not clearly visible.
Try connecting to the charger and wiggle the leads and connector.
See if you get an intermittent voltage reading on the questionable cell. What I do to narrow down where the "open" circuit is if that is the cause.
A digital volt meter should help you narrow down if it is just the JST Bal. Connector that needs to be replaced. Hopefully so. Best case scenario.
:cool:
 
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We all been through this.
Are these all the same lipo models. Zeee's?
Poorly made lipos happens this way at times. Being rough with the Balance connectors and leads also contributes to this. Also happens to ejected lipos and Very hard impacts. Be mindful how you mount the Balance lead connector when mounting the lipo in the tray. The most delicate part of any lipo.
Internally, soldering can come apart with the bal. leads at each cell. Even the exposed wires can break within the outer jacket. And not clearly visible.
Try connecting to the charger and wiggle the leads and connector.
See if you get an intermittent voltage reading on the questionable cell. What I do to narrow down where the "open" circuit is if that is the cause.
A digital volt meter should help you narrow down if it is just the JST Bal. Connector that needs to be replaced. Hopefully so. Best case scenario.
:cool:

Yeah, the 2 Zeee packs are 6000mah soft case lipos and the other pack was a gens-ace-r-spam 3s 5500mah hard case. I've always been tucking the balance leads under the velcro straps to minimise them flapping about. Been playing with the charger and under battery status it shows the 3 cells again (1.9, 3.6 and 3.6v) 9.1v total. Leaving the battery connected and switching to charge mode and it's right back at only picking up 2 cells. 😣
 
If your cells are down to 2.1, then the LVC isn't working properly; it isn't enabled at all; or you have it set too low. There's no way a cell should get that low unless one of the three things above are occurring. Did you notice LVC kicking in before you checked the voltage?
Great point. I hope you setup up your Max 8 ESC properly in the settings. Never run an upgrade ESC without checking the parameters. A simple thng like incorrect LVC will ruin any Lipo. Z
 
Great point. I hope you setup up your Max 8 ESC properly in the settings. Never run an upgrade ESC without checking the parameters. A simple thng like incorrect LVC will ruin any Lipo. Z

Yeah, I always check with the programming card, it's set to the intermediate value.
 
You've actually put this discussion around 'wiggle balance leads' to bed.
Just measure the voltage on the main leads, if the individual cells add up to what you get at the main leads, you do not have any wiring issues. In your math, 2.1+3.8+3.8 = 9.7V on the main leads (or 9.1 in the other). All your wires are perfectly ok.

My bet remains on running too hot of a setup with inferior lipos i.e. they are dead for a reason. Only takes 1 run to damage them.
 
You've actually put this discussion around 'wiggle balance leads' to bed.
Just measure the voltage on the main leads, if the individual cells add up to what you get at the main leads, you do not have any wiring issues. In your math, 2.1+3.8+3.8 = 9.7V on the main leads (or 9.1 in the other). All your wires are perfectly ok.

My bet remains on running too hot of a setup with inferior lipos i.e. they are dead for a reason. Only takes 1 run to damage them.

The set up of the rig seems ok, gearing not to tall, smaller wheels than stock, everything runs free, no binding. What I'm trying to figure out is can the ESC develop some kind of fault that can cause the current to spike? Has anyone else had a similar experience? It's an expensive item to replace when I'm not 100% sure why this happening.

At least this will be a valuable learning experience
 
Start with a fresh new Lipo. And cautiously watch how it runs.:unsure: Buy an inexpensive Lipo alarm to attach to the bal lead while running. This will help to find where LVC is supposed to cut in. For reference.
Like @jkflow stated. The main lead voltage should show what is going on. Simple math.
Are these all 3s bricks in 2 x3s config? or what??? 6s bricks? I never seen a Faulty ESC cause lipos to go bad, short of improper LVC settings.
Don't buy a Zeee for your next pack. I got the heebee jeebies and will not get another myself.
 
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