ruined battery??

[uclabruins89]

Finished a crawl the other night with no problems, got home and plugged my battery (Traxxas 3s 5000 mah) into my voltage checker to see how much I used, it said:

3s, all: 15.8, No.1 3.97, No.2 0.00, No.3 11.8

Is the battery ruined, or what? I was using it fine that night and no issues came up.

[Trubble]

What are you using for a voltage checker, and are you absolutely positive you didn't plug the balance tap into the checker upside down?

[uclabruins89]

didn't plug in the wrong way, been using the checker for months for racing and everything, think maybe a connection got bad in the battery somehow. The voltage checker is made by Eflite. I'll use my harbor freight voltage meter right now let you know one sec

[uclabruins89]

Yeah using my multimeter on the battery connector gives 11.7 V. The voltage checker plugs into the balance plug, so i think some sort of connection for cell 2 has broken inside, so probably a ruined battery =\ i wont be able to balance charge

[Trubble]

Do you know enough about balance connectors to go through and check each cell individually? (with your VOM)

[uclabruins89]

Originally Posted by Trubble

Do you know enough about balance connectors to go through and check each cell individually? (with your VOM)

Not too sure, checked black to the other 3 wires in the balance plug:

wire 1: 3.9v
wire 2: 0
wire 3: 11.7v

[Trubble]

What are the colors you have for balance wires? (in order)
One red and three blacks?
Or one red then yellow, white, and black?

[uclabruins89]

Red, then blue, then yellow, then black.

[Charlie-III]

Your pack sounds fine, it's the little wire for cell 2 that has an issue.

If you're careful, you can re-solder it. Keep in mind, most of those connections are done with "lead free" solder, thus a higher melting point.

[Trubble]

Originally Posted by uclabruins89

Red, then blue, then yellow, then black.

Okay then, Red on your vom to red, and black on your vom to blue should be 3.7ish or so.

Red on your vom to blue, and black on your vom to yellow should be 3.7ish or so.

And red on your vom to yellow, black on your vom to black should be 3.7ish or so.

That'd measure the individual cells, and if you have a bad wire, I'd guess two of those will come up 'goose eggs'.

Next try,
red on your vom to red in your balance tap, and black on your vom to yellow. that should be about 7.4ish or so.

red on your vom to blue, and black on your vom to black should be about 7.4ish or so.

if you have a bad wire, one of those two won't work right.


Since your checker gave you a reading for cell 1 but not for cell two, I'm getting the feeling your yellow wire is on the fritz. If you get the above voltages checked, post 'em up.




.

[JokersWild]

Sounds like balance plug is toast..... Drop on charger without balance. If it charges up run it till it dies.... Don't worry about balancing it..... Batteries are more cheap now then they were years ago...... Buy more..... Run till it dies. I've had same thing happen before but then again I have stacks of batteries.

[Calderwood]

Originally Posted by JokersWild

Don't worry about balancing it..... Batteries are more cheap now then they were years ago......

But houses aren't.

[JokersWild]

Originally Posted by nigels_world

But houses aren't.

And not balancing it isn't going to burn down the house. Not all chargers have balancers..... And not all lipos came with a balance plug in the beginning. But Hell its a lot safer than dinking around inside the pack to fix a balance wire using a soldering iron....... Tit for tat not balancing is quite a bit safer.

So balancing is just that.... Balancing the cells.....