balance leads/wires on lipo. live?

[istandalone]

another dumb newbie question....are the balance leads on a lipo pack "live" like the deans discharge leads? like if i'm soldering a new balance connector is there a risk for a short? on a three cell pack, there are four wires. one for each cell and a ground. if the two of the cell wires touch, is that shorting the pack?

[int2str]

are the balance leads on a lipo pack "live" like the deans discharge leads? like if i'm soldering a new balance connector is there a risk for a short?

Yes.

on a three cell pack, there are four wires. one for each cell and a ground. if the two of the cell wires touch, is that shorting the pack?

If the three "non ground" wires touch, there is no problem. No circuit is being completed. If any of the cell leads touch the ground wire, you have a short.

[Pinecone]

1) Correct, they are always live.

2) NO. Each pair of wires connect to each pole of one cell. The cells are wired in series, so each balance wire is connected to the connection between two adjacent cells.

So if you number the wires 1 - 4 with 4 being the ground.

1 is the Pack Positive and Cell 1 Positive
2 is Cell 1 Negative and Cell 2 Positive
3 is Cell 2 Negative and Cell 3 Positive
4 is Cell 4 Negative and Pack Negative.

Touch ANY two wires and you are shorting one or more cells.

[istandalone]

i thought so. another question. for my bec (which i might not use anyway) i got two electrifly 2cell 2100mah lipos...that have deans ultra for esc connection and tp style balance leads. now, if i ever don't want to or can't use my balancing charger, i can charge them in series through the deans connector, right? i don't have to use the balance to charge, right?

[Pinecone]

Yes you can. But you should balance them every so often.