Battery issues?

[Tayrob]

So the past two times i've taken my Honcho out i've managed to kill my battery in a little over an hour,where as before it would take almost twice as long to die.All the electronics and motor are stock and the battery is a Venom 4100mah,2s lipo.Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

-Thanks!

[happymachinist]

How old is the battery? How many cycles on it? Do you store at 3.85 volts when your done an leave it fully charged for no more than 2 days? Charge as soon as possible when below 3.4 volts? Has your driving style changed? Everything on the drivetrain free and not binding up? What kind of charger are you using? Need more info.


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[happymachinist]

Oh and is it cold out where you are vs your other experiences? Lipos don't last as long in the frigid cold.


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[Tayrob]

Sorry,probably should have said a bit more about it...
Anyway,battery is a little over a month old and has 7 or 8 cycles on it.It gets stored at whatever voltage my lipo cutoff leaves it at,which I don't know what voltage that is,never stays fully charged for more than about 4 hours,and I charge it before I use it which is every Tuesday and Friday.

My driving style has changed a bit,I tend to use bursts of throttle more now,rather than jus straight slow speed stuff.Drivechain is all moving easily and the charger I have is a Radient Primal.

[happymachinist]

As in lipo cuttoff built in the the esc? If so that's too low for storage. You need to find a way to bring them back up to 3.85V a cell before you put them away. It's very hard on the packs to leave them drained so low. What kind of charger are you using?


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[Trubble]

Originally Posted by happymachinist

What kind of charger are you using?

Originally Posted by Tayrob

and the charger I have is a Radient Primal.

If you have no idea what your LVC is set to, I would look into something like a Hyperion EOS battery checker (identical looking knock-off units are available, or some external balancers/LVAs will display individual cell voltages) to see what each cell is at when you quit running. Could just be one cell has gotten weaker from being stored at too low a voltage and it just no longer has the mAh to keep up with the other cell.

At any rate, if you're running the AE-2 ESC, you may be doing yourself a favor by investing in a CastleLink and finding out what your LVC is at and perhaps bumping it up a bit.

Or at the very minumum, after you run, throw your batt on charge for about 15-20 mins, and then stop it manually. But as hazardous as over-discharging LiPos is, I just can't imagine an excuse for not knowing what's going on LVC-wise.

[Tayrob]

Sounds like that's more than likely what is happening.
Looks like i'll be investing in a new battery and a voltage meter...you live and you learn,I guess.
Thanks for helping a newbie out.

[happymachinist]

I might suggest one of these. Plugs into the power tab of your lipo. There's a button on top to set what voltage the alarm will sound. $4 off eBay.



You could also use it to help you get to storage voltage. Do some testing to find out how long your charger takes to get to storage voltage and double check with this little guy.


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[Tayrob]

I was looking at similar stuff today seems like this Team Integy LiPo Voltage Checker w/Warning Alarm [INTC23212] | Electric Accessories - A Main Hobbies is pretty close to what you have there?

[happymachinist]

It is pretty close. From what I read on the a main site the alarm is set at 3.3V where as mine is adjustable. 3.3V is too low IMO. It will work but it would be better for your batteries to sound the alarm at a higher voltage.

That being said it should display what voltage each cell is at but it would be a PITA to stop to read it all the time.


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[Tayrob]

I'll look around and see if I can find the one you've got,cause like you said that would suck to stop and look at from time to time.

[happymachinist]

Search low voltage alarm on eBay. There's a handful of different options. I paid $3.50 a piece I think but they were from Hong Kong and I wasn't in a hurry.

This one is reasonable and should take long to get to you ;)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-8S-2in1-RC...item46098e95ad


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[Tayrob]

Thanks for the link!
Gonna pick up a couple of those and a new battery.
Thanks again!

[happymachinist]

That's what we're here for.


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