Electrifly charging problem

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Steve - 12 Nov 2006 06:01 GMT

I have a few Electrifly batteries and have 2 different lipo chargers
for them, an Electrifly and a Hobbico. I noticed on one of the
batteries that I just got that it will charge for awhile (15 min) and
then the charger will start beeping and giving me the error that there
is no battery attached. All my other batteries, using the same
chargers, properly report that they are charged and don't give me the
same error. I found a second one that started doing this after I'd
flown in a couple times.

It seems to me that's it's the charging circuit that's the problem
and not the battery itself. Has anyone had this happen to them before?
Any idea what's going on? Is there a problem with my charger(s) that
is going to gradually kill all my batteries? I'm guessing the "cure"
is the send them back to Electrifly and see what they say about it.

Thanks,
Steve

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Jonno - 12 Nov 2006 10:58 GMT

> I have a few Electrifly batteries and have 2 different lipo chargers
> for them, an Electrifly and a Hobbico. I noticed on one of the
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> Thanks,
> Steve

Is it getting hot and the thermal cutout (on the battery if fitted)
going open circuit?
That would explain the message and the reason for the error.

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Steve - 13 Nov 2006 23:52 GMT

> Is it getting hot and the thermal cutout (on the battery if fitted)
> going open circuit?
> That would explain the message and the reason for the error.

It's not even warm to the touch, and I'm charing them at less than
1/2 C. It'll take about 10 minutes for the battery to do it the first
time, but each time after that it will do it instantly. If I leave it
for a week or two it'll take a few minutes for the first time again. I
was thinking that it was just giving the wrong "message" when fully
charged but it's not getting quite to full (but almost...).

>check the input voltage to your charger. If your car battery, for example,
>isn't OVER 12V you'll get this error also.

I'm using a 12v power supply (which is probably really 13.8 v) but
I'm using 2 chargers with a total of 6 batteries being charged at once
(the Elecrifly charger does 4, the Hobbico does 2). No matter where I
move the suspect batteries they error out, while all the others charge
just fine.

It baffling to me, the only thing I can think of is the charging
circuit is defective and it's time to send them back. The fact thats
it's happened to me twice, and I can't find any other posts on the
topic, seen to dispute that though. That's scheduled for the end of
the week if I don't come up with something else first....

Thanks,
Steve

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mkirsch1@rochester.rr.com - 14 Nov 2006 17:07 GMT

> It baffling to me, the only thing I can think of is the charging
> circuit is defective and it's time to send them back. The fact thats
> it's happened to me twice, and I can't find any other posts on the
> topic, seen to dispute that though. That's scheduled for the end of
> the week if I don't come up with something else first....

Steve,

Two batteries out of your collection have problems, yet you're saying
that the batteries are ok, but SIX separate charging circuits on two
different units are bad??? That makes no sense.

Nope, its those two packs. Get a digital multimeter, set on Volts, and
measure the voltage of those two packs. I'll bet that they've been
drawn down below 3.0 Volts per cell.

The fact that it's happened twice... I'd look at your airplane. It
could be drawing more Amps than the battery can hanldle. Your ESC could
be set improperly, or is misdetecting the cell count and allowing the
battery to go too low.

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Jim Slaughter - 12 Nov 2006 21:29 GMT

check the input voltage to your charger. If your car battery, for example,
isn't OVER 12V you'll get this error also.

> I have a few Electrifly batteries and have 2 different lipo chargers
> for them, an Electrifly and a Hobbico. I noticed on one of the
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> Thanks,
> Steve

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G-Dawg - 14 Nov 2006 02:10 GMT

> I have a few Electrifly batteries and have 2 different lipo chargers
> for them, an Electrifly and a Hobbico. I noticed on one of the
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> Thanks,
> Steve

I am sure you know what you are doing but... These are lipo batteries you're
talking about... What's the voltage getting down to? Below 3 volts per cell,
they may no longer take a charge.

I am sure I'm stating the obvious but figured I would mention it.

-Gary

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Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Air Models / November 2006

Electrifly charging problem