unbalanced battery cells

[m.mahdi_sh]

hello everone
i've got one of these zee 5200mah 80C 3s lipos from amazon.
at first the battery connector was a t-plug and my imax b6 charging cable had the same connector. so i charged the battery, disconnected the battery connector, replaced it with the IC5 for my granite, and used it with my car and everything was fine.
so after the first pack i hadn't access to my b6 charger so i used my b3 imax that charges with the balance port only, so i charged the battery a couple of time with the b3 and used it with the car
in the last week i wasn't going to use the battery and didn't use the b6 to charge it at storage mode, so i put the battery on the b3 a lil bit to set it at storage voltage(just a feeling that it may became the storage voltage with the time calculation).today i finally changed my cable connector to be able to charge the battery with the b6
now it seems that only 1 cell is charging(number 1)
it reaches to 4.2 but not the other 2
so i changed to balance mode, but again the voltage of no2 and no3 cell didn't go up
what should i do?

 

[Exc3l]

Did you connect the balance port during any of these charges? If they are out of balance your charger should have a balance mode. Also, what are the voltages of each cell?

 

[Jerry-rigged]

What are the voltages of the individual cells?

 

[m.mahdi_sh]

Did you connect the balance port during any of these charges? If they are out of balance your charger should have a balance mode.

yeah the b3 just have balance port
now i connected the balance cable to the balance port of b6
and the 2nd and 3rd cell aren't changing

What are the voltages of the individual cells?

4.2
3.9
4.00

 

[Exc3l]

yeah the b3 just have balance port
now i connected the balance cable to the balance port of b6
and the 2nd and 3rd cell aren't changing

4.2
3.9
4.00

Thats not tooo bad. But it on the Balance charge feature on ur charger.

 

[m.mahdi_sh]

Thats not tooo bad. But it on the Balance charge feature on ur charger.

i thought maybe a discharge process would be helpful, so the charger is discharging now!
a question about balance charging, if i put the charger on balance mode it charges with max amps near to 4.2 and then starts using the balance port(with lower amps)
or
it just uses the balance port for the whole charging process
(i mean how long should the balance charging take? 1.5(assuming normal mode takes 45 mins) hours or 4-5 hours?)

 

[Exc3l]

i thought maybe a discharge process would be helpful, so the charger is discharging now!
a question about balance charging, if i put the charger on balance mode it charges with max amps near to 4.2 and then starts using the balance port(with lower amps)
or
it just uses the balance port for the whole charging process
(i mean how long should the balance charging take? 1.5(assuming normal mode takes 45 mins) hours or 4-5 hours?)

If you discharge the battery all the way down to 9v (which is what the charger will do) you have to throw out the battery. Are you sure you didn't put it in storage?

 

[m.mahdi_sh]

If you discharge the battery all the way down to 9v (which is what the charger will do) you have to throw out the battery. Are you sure you didn't put it in storage?

Oh!
Yes i just wanted to take that 4.2 down a lil bit that if there's a glitch or smth on the chager it would do the charging again
I stopped discharging at 4(on the first cell), i then again put the charger on the balance mode, will give it more time to see what happens

 

[Jon NC RC]

Oh!
Yes i just wanted to take that 4.2 down a lil bit that if there's a glitch or smth on the chager it would do the charging again
I stopped discharging at 4(on the first cell), i then again put the charger on the balance mode, will give it more time to see what happens

In an article for crawlers, they were hot and heavy about do not charge through the balance port.....just fyi.....

Just trying to be hepeful, but I think the best investment a person can do along with their RC vehicle and decent batteries is a decent charger. There are a lot of clones of that B6 out there..... If you have an actual B6 it should be fairly decent. Some of the tests of the clones revealed that clones can be pretty crappy.

Not sure why the print here is now like this.

A decent charger should have storage charge function balance charge function and usually banana plugs for your cords. It doesn't have to be a $300 charger to be decent. Mine has all the features about and numerous readouts for each one of up to six cells and it was $110 on horizon hobby.

If you discharge the battery all the way down to 9v (which is what the charger will do) you have to throw out the battery. Are you sure you didn't put it in storage?

Has it thawed out up there yet?

 

[m.mahdi_sh]

In an article for crawlers, they were hot and heavy about do not charge through the balance port.....just fyi.....

Just trying to be hepeful, but I think the best investment a person can do along with their RC vehicle and decent batteries is a decent charger. There are a lot of clones of that B6 out there..... If you have an actual B6 it should be fairly decent. Some of the tests of the clones revealed that clones can be pretty crappy.

Not sure why the print here is now like this.

A decent charger should have storage charge function balance charge function and usually banana plugs for your cords. It doesn't have to be a $300 charger to be decent. Mine has all the features about and numerous readouts for each one of up to six cells and it was $110 on horizon hobby.

Has it thawed out up there yet?

i'm not sure if it's a crappy one or not but i have storage mode, balance mode, fast charge mode and normal mode for lipo and that banana clip and some other cables. it shows the voltages real time.

yeah i may have made a mistake using that b3 and just using the balance port to charge it
i will put the battery on balance mode and will give it more time to see what happens.

don't about thawing up, cause it's a hard case and the battery seems fine, just used it for a run.
i'll do the balance charge and report here the results for general info on the forum

 

[Jerry-rigged]

As you noticed, once one cell gets close to 4.2v, the charging slows down a lot. If the difference in cell voltage between the high cell and the rest is too much, the charger will time out (dig thru the settings, there should be a max charge time setting). you may try discharge - charge to storage - balance charge. This gives the charger two shots as getting the balance done, with less time in "fast charge" mode.


Also, when you shop for newer chargers, look for one that also has a "cycle" mode, and can tell you the IR (internal resistance) of the cells.

 

[Jon NC RC]

i'm not sure if it's a crappy one or not but i have storage mode, balance mode, fast charge mode and normal mode for lipo and that banana clip and some other cables. it shows the voltages real time.

yeah i may have made a mistake using that b3 and just using the balance port to charge it
i will put the battery on balance mode and will give it more time to see what happens.

don't about thawing up, cause it's a hard case and the battery seems fine, just used it for a run.
i'll do the balance charge and report here the results for general info on the forum

Good deal....hoping for the best....
Other than jumping my 12 lb Mojave and hitting myself in the head at 50 mph, the most potentially dangerous part of this hobby is messing around with those batteries....
If done properly then they are essentially safe.....

 

[m.mahdi_sh]

As you noticed, once one cell gets close to 4.2v, the charging slows down a lot. If the difference in cell voltage between the high cell and the rest is too much, the charger will time out (dig thru the settings, there should be a max charge time setting). you may try discharge - charge to storage - balance charge. This gives the charger two shots as getting the balance done, with less time in "fast charge" mode.


Also, when you shop for newer chargers, look for one that also has a "cycle" mode, and can tell you the IR (internal resistance) of the cells.

For future charger, i'll keep that in mind.
So the storage mode also balances the cells?
I'll do what u said, see what happens. Ty

Good deal....hoping for the best....
Other than jumping my 12 lb Mojave and hitting myself in the head at 50 mph, the most potentially dangerous part of this hobby is messing around with those batteries....
If done properly then they are essentially safe.....

u good?
Yes, i'm trying my best to keep the battery and related stuff in the safe zone, however i ended up unbalancing my cells

 

[Jon NC RC]

For future charger, i'll keep that in mind.
So the storage mode also balances the cells?
I'll do what u said, see what happens. Ty

u good?
Yes, i'm trying my best to keep the battery and related stuff in the safe zone, however i ended up unbalancing my cells

We learn as we go..... Just hearing the horror stories of what can happen with those batteries, and there is a gentleman on here who had a fire in his home because of them, I just don't want any part of that. Just a little safety regimen and a little knowledge goes a long way. Welcome and keep it safe and remember


Keep it fun

 

[m.mahdi_sh]

We learn as we go..... Just hearing the horror stories of what can happen with those batteries, and there is a gentleman on here who had a fire in his home because of them, I just don't want any part of that. Just a little safety regimen and a little knowledge goes a long way. Welcome and keep it safe and remember


Keep it fun

Will do, thanks

 

[m.mahdi_sh]

i'm back with a report!
so as i said my cells were at 4.2,4,4
and it was taking forever to balance them. i finally went through the charger's datasheet and found out that balance port output current is just 300 mA!!
so basically if u were to charge the whole 5200 3s battery it would have taken smth like 17 HOURS!
so i had to wait about 4-5 hours for the charger to balance those 0.2 V per cell(0.4 in total)

 

[Engin]

Hello all,
I am pretty new to all balancing, and unbalancing terms, and therefore please bear with me.

I try to charge with ISDT 608AC charger my Spektrum 3200mAh, 11.1 V, 3C batteries, and whenever I connect ( including) the balancer plug
I get a "perform unbalancing task?" message. As I read on other forums, I tried to plug with all sides and corners, and all connection possibilities of the balancer plug should be connected correctly but no change in the message.

When I plug my other Spektrum 2200mAh 3C battery it's charging so nothing is wrong with the charger.
Shall I scrap these 2 valuable batteries?

Thank you.

 

[RedOctobyr]

I'm new here, and don't have this charger, but I'm not new to chargers in general.

Some folks here apparently had this issue due to the balance connector being plugged in wrong:

https://www.reddit.com/r/diydrones/comments/j56mqb

I didn't find a lot of useful info in the manual I found for your charger. Could you maybe post some pictures? Like of the working-OK and not-working-OK balance connectors, and how they're being plugged in?

It sounds like the charger is not correctly seeing the balance leads. But it works with a different battery, so that's interesting. Maybe there is some damage to the Spektrum balance leads, somehow? Will those batteries charge OK on another charger, if one is available?

What are the voltages of each cell? I wonder if perhaps the bad batteries have a cell which is below 3V? That will sometimes trigger safety precautions, when charging LiPo batteries. If you don't have a cell checker, or another charger which can display voltages, then you can carefully check cell voltages using a multimeter set to measure DC volts. And very carefully measuring the balance connector, across adjacent wires, if your probe can fit in somewhere on the connector to touch the wires or connectors. Like measuring wire 1 to 2, then 2 to 3, etc. Do NOT allow the bare multimeter probes to touch each other while you do this, or you will short out the LiPo cell! Which is Bad News.

 

[Engin]

Thank you @RedOctobyr
While I was searching on the net I also came across the same information as you posted above. He solved his problem by correcting the plug position of the balancer plug.

I suspect my both balancer plugs are - somehow- damaged as they show no voltage. I plugged in another battery and as you can see from the pics and it shows the voltage for each cell.

But when I plug the other battery (3200 mAh) the same way as the previous there is no info.

Thank you again and happy new year to all of you.

 

[SrC]

Hello all,
I am pretty new to all balancing, and unbalancing terms, and therefore please bear with me.

I try to charge with ISDT 608AC charger my Spektrum 3200mAh, 11.1 V, 3C batteries, and whenever I connect ( including) the balancer plug
I get a "perform unbalancing task?" message. As I read on other forums, I tried to plug with all sides and corners, and all connection possibilities of the balancer plug should be connected correctly but no change in the message.

When I plug my other Spektrum 2200mAh 3C battery it's charging so nothing is wrong with the charger.
Shall I scrap these 2 valuable batteries?

Thank you.

The rather expensive Smart lipos tend to have issues. HH might warranty them with a receipt. You are not alone with this issue . Seen it elsewhere with others, as you have.
They are Not valuable if they are damaged, and can even be dangerous. Always balance charge ANY lipo. Try the warranty route. Shame to waste money like that. Is what it is. I think Dumb Lipos are best.