$180.00 up in smoke in 5 flights. What's wrong here?

[triniheli]

$180.00 up in smoke in 5 flights. What's wrong here?

What can cause this type of problem?

I got 2 batteries - 1 stock Align 11.1 2100mah and 1 true power with the same specs. The true power battery is a bit swollen and when I charge it, it is only lasting about 1 minute. Then my align lipo just stopped working.

I'm charging these lipos with a triton jr charger. I plug them in and press enter and the charger detects the battery and then begins charging. It beeps when the charging is done. AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG HERE??

I've never over discharged the batteries and i let them cool before charging. Could it be my charger? I'm confused. Need help here guys...

[Rafael23cc]

I'm charging these lipos with a triton jr charger. I plug them in and press enter and the charger detects the battery and then begins charging. It beeps when the charging is done. AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG HERE??



I am not familiar with the Triton JR, but on my Triton 2 I had to tell the charger what kind of batteries they were (NiCd, NiMh, or LiPo) then I had to enter the voltage and capacity. Then I connect the balancer to the battery EVERY time I charge them.

That's what I do. 6 months on 3 packs and no problems yet.

Rafael

[triniheli]

well with the triton jr there's a feature where the charger detects the battery. The display indicates the type of battery and capacity etc. All of which are correct and the battery then begins charging.

Any other suggestions??

[Jermo]

are you balancing the cells? I'm not familiar with the Triton Jr.

[triniheli]

never balanced the cells. can i use the eflite blade cpp balancer?

[FearNot]

you need a balancer that balances 3S cells ...

If you have never balanced the packs that might have killed them

matt

[ZX11]

If you have never balanced the packs that might have killed them



It would take more than five flights to kill Lipo due to not balancing. I would bet the charger isn't fully charging them. Two batteries dying that fast would make me suspect the charger or your settings on the charger. Try to have someone else charge the batts with their charger and see if they start working again.

[peterob]

According to the manual you have to set the capacity and voltage of the pack before the charge.

[Rafael23cc]

4 people and 12 hours later, the summary of this entire thread looks extremely familiar to the second entry on the thread.

Again, if you did not tell the charger these 3 things...
1. type of battery
2. voltage
3. capacity
...you are lucky that you still have a house, car, a sport and possibly your life.

Lipos are very dangerous if mis-treated. Charging them without balancing, or just letting the charger do "its thing" is mistreating a lipo battery. DO NOT become a statistic and do things the right way.

Rafael

[HeliDan]

well with the triton jr there's a feature where the charger detects the battery. The display indicates the type of battery and capacity etc. All of which are correct and the battery then begins charging.

Any other suggestions??

I can almost understand it being able to sense voltage, and maybe cell count, but how in the heck could it sense charge rate?? It cannot know the capacity......

[creightoncarr]

The Triton Jr. only detects pack capacity and voltage in NiMH/NiCd charge modes AFAIK. In the LiPo charge mode you have to manually input that information. If the charger is detecting these settings then it sounds like you are in the wrong charge mode.

[thefig781]

...of all Align Li-po battery packs. At the first sign of malfunction, ie...,
puffing, low power, charging problems, etc. Isolate the offending pack
immediately, preferrably in a fire proof metal container ( the larger
the better ). Now go to your closet and take out the .44 automag or
.50 cal Desert Eagle that you've been showing off to all your gun
collector friends, load it with that cheap ammo you got at the last gun
show. Aim very carefully from a safe distance and give that Li-po a
decent send off! Ignore the complaints of gunfire from the neighbors
while you sit back and watch the pretty flames! :bomb:

Jim

P.S. Yes, I know and I hope you know, this is just poking fun at Align
lipos. We all know they make a wonderful product! :roll: ( Read
Target ) LOL

[Mercuriell]

It would take more than five flights to kill Lipo due to not balancing

You can kill a lipo on the first charge if its badly out of synch and you don't balance it - one of my brand new Align 4400 6S packs was 0.44V down on one cell and charging it up to spec voltage (22.2V) and then discharging it to 20% capacity would likely overdischarge the low cell and puff it - happened to me :arggg:

[Jermo]

over charge just one cell in a pack or over discharge one and you'll eat a pack first time out.