Pretty sure I just fried my iCharger

[JasumX]

I'm almost certain I know the answer to this already, but I need confirmation before my brain will actually accept it.

The charger is an iCharger 206B and the battery is a 6s 3000mah 30C.

I finished charging a battery using my parallel charging board, and was about to switch to a different charging cable to charge some other batteries. What I did was unplug the para board before unplugging the battery (bonehead move). One of the plugs from the board (with the battery connected) touched a pin on one of the balance connectors (not the 6s connector) of the charger

Now when I plug a battery into the 6s balance connector or the para board while attached to the charger I get a balance error, and no voltage shows up for the 2nd cell of the battery. I tried with multiple batteries and get the same result.

Is this at all fixable? The charger is only a week old, and this would be a very expensive lesson if not

[Slyster]

That does not sound good. Sorry to hear that... there is a TON of current in those big lipos when they short.... Where did you buy the charger?

[JasumX]

progressiverc

I really don't expect them to replace it thought. Not for my mistake :-/

[Slyster]

You never know. Maybe Dave can repair it too?

[JasumX]

Worth a shot i suppose. I've never talked to Dave, but i hear good things.

Thanks for the idea i'll give him a call tomorrow.

[Slyster]

Let us know how it all turns out.

[Gregor99]

Originally Posted by JasumX

One of the plugs from the board (with the battery connected) touched a pin on one of the balance connectors (not the 6s connector) of the charger

If I'm reading this correctly the 4mm bullet sparked against a balance connector on the paraboard and not the charger. If that is the case, you most likely burned a trace on underside of the paraboard. Some have been able to repair them, or you could replace just the board without replacing the charger.

[JasumX]

Unfortunately it is worse than that... The 4mm plug sparked against one of the balance connectors on the charger itself.



I would bet that it was most likely the cell 2 connector since it is very close to the main power plugs, and the symptoms seem to suggest that as well.

I tried plugging the battery balance connector straight into the charger too, and was getting the same error. Hopefully Dave will have some good news for me later this morning. If not, I'll chalk it up to a very expensive lesson I guess.

[JasumX]

I just talked to David and he believes it is most likely a burned trace on the 2s balance connector. If he's right (I really hope he is) a dab of solder should do the trick. I'll check it out tonight and report the results.

[JasumX]

Sigh... I took the charger apart and was unable to see any traces that looked bad. I used a volt meter and found that pin 3 (3rd pin toward the center of the balance port from the negative (right) side) on the balance ports for 6s 4s and 3s appear to have no connection to the negative power lead. I am by no means an electrician, but I'm guessing the damage is internal on the riser board where the balance plugs sit.

I'm going to have a friend at work take a look at it to see what he can see, but not a lot of hope left at this point.

On the bright side (there almost always is one) the charger will still charge and discharge batteries! It just won't balance them... At least I have 1 more charger that I can use in between balance charges.

I'm ordering a 306b and will be immediately covering the extra balance ports with electrical tape (or something) to keep by foolish fingers away from them.

[Slyster]

You will love the 306b.

[TJinGuy]

What I did was unplug the para board before unplugging the battery (bonehead move). One of the plugs from the board (with the battery connected) touched a pin on one of the balance connectors (not the 6s connector) of the charger

I have done exactly this and it was an easy fix for me. The pin it touched got hot and pushed through the connector, unsoldering it some. I opened up the case, pushed the pin back through and resoldered it. All better. You might be able to fix it. Otherwise I would talk to Dave and see if he can help you.

Hopefully it was a lesson learned in any case