help, my fp batteries are puffing

[Bigheligeek]

Help!!!!

I've just found that three of my Flight Power batteries are puffing and i am pissed.
I'm using a FP balancer with a swallow advance ac/dc charger.

The batteries range from 4 months to two months old.

I dont know what the hell is going on, all my other batteries, kong power, ewatts, esky are not puffing and they are older.

I never let it discharge more than 2 bars on the balancer (those who are familiar with that balancer), but when i charge them i go all the way to its cuts off and stops charging. (with the 80% rule, do you cut the charger off when charging, if so what amps do i stop it at, i think it cuts off at about .1amps i also never go below 80% discharge.

I am thinking of not buying FP anymore and going with kong power, they advertise you can abuse them and they wont puff?,

The batteries apart from puffing haven't lost any power.

also can the balancer be faulty and how can i tell, also has anyone used these balancers cause on occasions when charging it will be halfway through the charge and start beeping reading open circuit?,

i only charge the battery and then try and fly within a day or two i dont keep it charged for long term.

can someone please help me? it will be very much appreciated.

I fly a trex 450, hurricane 550 and ep 100

[istandalone]

the ones that are only two months old, you have a shot at getting them replaced or at the least a 50% discount on new ones when you send in the old ones. the packs that are more then 90 days old fp might give you a 20% credit on new ones. the good thing about those kong power packs (aside from the weight and size) is that they are toted to be 50% off replacements for life, i think. i'm currently abusing two of the 2200's and we'll see how long they last.

[Bigheligeek]

thanks for your reply,

i've been checking out my balancer, i have two fp balancers, after a few days the batts go back to normal and today i charged it up using one of the balancers that i think is good, there was no puff and after flying there was no puff.

i'm hoping its the balancer that it stuff, on occasions when chargeing, it will finish charging but one of the cells wont come up with a green light and sometimes charging the green light will pulse with one of the cells and then the charger cuts off saying open circuit.

has anyone else had the same problem with these balancer?

[robmoney]

You might need to check too see if your setup, motor, pinion, belt tension etc. is not putting undue stress on the packs...

Sometimes these packs will slightly puff however it is in the wrapping, not the cells themselves...

If they return to normal, then that is probably the case.

Always charge at 1C or less, live by the 80% rule, and between trips to the field/flying keep the batteries in a discharged state. This helps overall life as well as the packs fly a little stronger fresh off a charge!

:)

[WillJames]

FP packs have a 1 year warranty with unconditional 90 day to the original purchaser. I would contact FPUSA, but as was suggested, you may want to try a data logger on your setup to check out your motor and ESC just to be on the safe side.

[frebou]

I would think you are not completely charging your FP. those balancer will interrupt the charge process if your charger is not lowering the amps fast enough while charging. Leaving you with a not-fully-charged pack.

I have 2 schulze charger and one of them is doing this to me. It lets the voltage rise too high for the FP balancer taste so he cuts the charge process (open circuit).

If I take this pack and "finish it" on my other charger, it goes up another 300-500 mAh!!

Considering you are running a not fully charged pack and calculating 80% from what you put back, you could certainly be over draining them.

How much mAh are you putting back in those pack? Have you any way of getting this information from your charger?

[RobinJames]

I would think you are not completely charging your FP. those balancer will interrupt the charge process if your charger is not lowering the amps fast enough while charging. Leaving you with a not-fully-charged pack.

I have 2 schulze charger and one of them is doing this to me. It lets the voltage rise too high for the FP balancer taste so he cuts the charge process (open circuit).

If I take this pack and "finish it" on my other charger, it goes up another 300-500 mAh!!

Considering you are running a not fully charged pack and calculating 80% from what you put back, you could certainly be over draining them.

How much mAh are you putting back in those pack? Have you any way of getting this information from your charger?

Very good possibility.

Over amping of packs can cause what you are describing, but if you have cheap packs that are not puffed, you more than likely ran the FP cells to low in voltage. The FP and TP packs both have HUGE amp delivery design with wide busses and good wire. It is potentially not anything to do with your heli or setup as stated above.

Dropping input voltage or a faulty V-Balance could also cause the packs to false peak. How much any given charger false peaks under dropping input voltage varies a lot between chargers but is a factor to consider if you charge off a battery. Also if the charger is out of calibration it can exaggerate the condition.

If there is a difference between the two V-Balancers, maybe the one that cuts the charge first is not fully charging the packs. I am sure FP will replace it.

You obviously know Frebou that the FP packs are engineered and matched for the highest voltage they can get. This means they are less tolerant to over discharge (Low voltage), probably in my experience to less than 3.4 or so a cell is the rule I use for me. I have no problem getting well over 100++ cycles.

Those first T-REX 600 EVO 20 Packs that Dan is talking about he got from me and they had at least 50 to 70+ HARD 600E/NEU cycles on them before he got them.

Another general rule of thumb is that If you set your timer to keep the FP packs from going low enough to give a wrong cell count on say a 1010/210V then you will do pretty good with FP. I mean that immediately when you finish flying, your pack temps should be 125 or less and you can put the pack on charge on the 1010/210V and it will not have to go into initial charging mode, it just goes straight to charging. This will make your FP packs last as long as they can. If your FP packs are hotter than about 120-130 then you are probably flying a little to long.

*Note - This is WillJames on Robin's machine, sorry.

[Bigheligeek]

yeah look, i dont know, i first thought it was my balancer but i had another go with the batteries and they puffed again.

its tempremental, sometimes i charge the batteries and it will be ok, but a few hours later i'll come back and it will be puffed without doing anything to them. i take it for a fly to discharge, there still puffed but after a few days they go down again.

i fly both a t-rex 450 with a scale bodie so no 3d and a hurricane 550 which i do 3d with.

one of the packs puffed after flying the hurricane, after a couple of days it was normal again, i have since used it in my t-rex twice and it hasn't puffed up again.

my other three packs puff sometimes after flying and sometimes after charging. i was going to throw them out because of possible fire, but i have hung onto them because sometimes there ok.

the swallow charger only tells you the total voltage and i have never flown them to esc cutoff, the swallow charger will cut off at about 0.10 amps.

i havent tried to measure current draw with a flight logger because i dont know how, but it seems all my problems started when i got the t-rex, i have check the pinion and the belt tension but i am having problems with the belt keeps on running off at the gear at the rear so i changed to a rubber belt, the t-rex doesn't have the balls i thought it would also, i had a belt cp prior and that seemed to be a little bit more punch

do anyone know what the best charger for FP are?

thank for everyones assistance

[robmoney]

Call Steve Rogers at FP. He is the warranty / service tech and a very nice guy too! 919-741-6310

See what his thoughts are on your problem.

He is a Trex 600 flyer so he knows these batteries very well!

[Hooch]

My 2 cents worth here as I am new to this. TREX450SEv2 using FP EVO25 2170's. I got the Hyperion EOS0606i AC/DC Charger/Discharger with Integrated LBA Balancer. Only got this last month in Hong Kong and I havn't seen it yet in OZ where I live. I believe it is the new version. Its all too easy and gives you all the info as it charges.

Running TREX norm hovering for 8 minutes (just learning!!) and then when I recharge I'm putting approx 1700 mAH back into the pack (80% rule) at 1C (ie: 2150mAH) After 8 minutes flying pack volts are 3.8 generally and after charge 4.21 (12.65 total). All perfectly balanced and it auto stops once fully charged, but keeps disc/charg slowly until you disconnect.

I hope I am doing the right thing. No puffy packs yet ( I am measuring them!!)

Hooch.

[ChasHeliCop]

............. but when i charge them i go all the way to its cuts off and stops charging. (with the 80% rule, do you cut the charger off when charging, if so what amps do i stop it at, i think it cuts off at about .1amps i also never go below 80% discharge..............

Maybe I read this wrong, but...........The 80% discharge rule is for discharging / flying a fully charged pack, not cutting off the charger at 80%. A fully charged Lipo is 4.2v/cell. Your charger isn't capable of giving you the mAh put back into your packs, but the accurate way to measure the usage of your lipo.

[CoronaL]

wondering if your powersupply or charger is creating alot of ripple in the current your packs and or balancer is recieving. Ripple is BAD and can cause alot of damage in PC components, which I'm basing this from past PC friend componets/experience. Just a guess, but I'm considering getting a company I work with to market a cleaner 12v/13.8v powersupply and some LiPos :)
FMA direct has me sold on their chargers!!!!