Battery charging problems

[Goodge]

Hello all,

I've been flying a Blade CP+ for a while now, and recently moved up to a Blade 400. Unfortunately I'm have a problem with the stock 1.8A charger that comes with it. I'm using the 3A eflite AC adapter to supply power. The problem is that when I plug my battery into the charger (this started after my first flight), it seems to charge up to about 12.5V, and never further. Therefore, it never ends up turning to the "done" status lights. Every few flights, it will reach the full amount and finish charging, but this is rare.

I've tried using another (friends) stock 1.8A charger, and another 3A AC adapter as the power source, neither of these seemed to have any effect. Charging (and flying) another 1800mah eflite pack seemed to be working perfectly. This leads me to believe that the problem here is the battery is defective. So, EFlite is sending me a replacement pack.

However, tonight the other 1800mah pack I've been flying failed to charge up fully as well. This is the first time it's done it, but it's also cutting off at about 12.5V.

Is anyone else experiancing this, and/or have any idea what the problem could be? The problem seems to come and go. The first pack to have this problem seems to "finish" charging about 50% of the time, but never goes much past 12.54V. I'm correct that the "full" capacity should be 12.6V, right?

Just to add, these packs have never been crashed (all landings have been flawless), and I've never gone more than 5 minutes on either pack (as I'm still getting use to the new heli and don't wanna fall out of the sky) so I can't imagine I've overdischarged them. Thank you for any assistance.

[heliMark]

does the stock eflite charger display voltage or are you using a voltmenter, I know a lot of chargers include the tritons and even my tp1010c(a great charger) read a little low on my voltmeter, it could be innacuracies in teh voltmeter or the chargers just being programed to play it safe and not risk charging too high, perhaps others with the stock eflite charger can share their experience, however if it comes off the charge at 12.5 or 12.54 it is pretty darn full and really shouldn't be a problem, just fly for 10 or 20 seconds less than you usually do if you are concerned about over drawing the pack :thumbup:

other than that you should be fine to just keep flying and charging

M3

[MaxKool]

Ill tell you ive had 2 stock eflite batteries, and on both ive had to resolder and bypass the overcharge protection board. It wouldnt let one cell read properly. Once I bypassed it I had no problems. In your case it could be the same problem, What are you using to get the 12.55v reading? Most multimeters arnt bang on to the .01 volts. So I wouldnt worry about it to much. Seriously .05 volts isnt gonna make ANY differance in your flight.

One quick thing, did you have to send the battery back to horizon before they sent you the new one or did they just offer to send you another one?

[SeaComms]

I charged up the stock battery on the stock charger once - it was way out of balance when complete, so I hooked it up to my Imax B6 and disharged it a little then recharged it, now its spot on.

Havent used the stock charger since.....

Oh, and I bounced around the backyard hovering (poorly) for just over 10 minutes, and only put 1300ma back into the pack.

12 minutes on the 2200ma pack and put 1560ma into it.

[Goodge]

No, the stock charger doesn't show the voltage. I monitor it with a multimeter on the EC3 connector. However, the other battery that does charge properly goes up to 12.6V as expected (as do my 7 lipos for my Blade CP+). My concern is less with flight time, than the fact that the charger doesn't turn off once it's done so I know it's ready. It's almost as if 0.1V of one of the cells is broken. And I would expect the charger to balance the cells, but it never seems to reach that part.

Concerning flight time, I'm glad to hear it lasts much longer. I need to get a lipo alarm so I know when to bring it in. I'm just trying to be extra careful so I don't run out of juice far away and crash. Speaking of which, I crashed today, $90 in parts to order (if I can even find some servo gears).

[MaxKool]

Read the individual cell voltages on the charging tap and post them.

You need to try a "real" charger. The stock ones can be crap, ive had to take 1 cx2 one back and one blade400 one back.... So now they just collect dust, I dont trust them anymore..

[otto975d]

they have the servos

http://www.rchover.com/e_flight_400

[LockMD]

Agreed, get a "REAL" charger, I suggest CellPro4s from FMA direct.

[skigolfmike]

initially, I got a Triton JR and an Equinox balancer. That did better than the stock charger. Then I got a TP610C. This thing is amazing. I can charge batteries at 2C and I have safely brought back cells from below 3.0V/cell. (It has a program for that) The built in balancer has connectors for TP/FP and E-Flite connector on the breadboard. Charges up to 6 cells. A lot of neat features.

[Goodge]

they have the servos

http://www.rchover.com/e_flight_400
Not anymore, I just bought the lot of them :)

I haven't charged any of the batteries up since my crash, so I don't know how they're doing now. I just like the idea of having a bunch of cheap chargers to get the job done fast. I think I'll probably get a better charger to put in rotation once I have some money kicking around.