Just Received Safe 40A ParaBoard V3 - XH with EC3

[dpinvidic]

I just got two of these from EPBuddy ($26 ea.).
I like them. The great thing is that each balance connector is fused with a auto-reset fuse (Poly fuse). Last week I had a brain fart, and plugged in a balance connector backwards, burnt up three copper traces on my unfused para board.

These new boards can only charge 4 batt. at once, but they can be daisychained.
So for $50 I can now charge up to 8 batts. The board from Progressive RC is also nice, but it is $65 and does charge 6 batts.
I think these are much safer than the plain parallel charging cables whic have zero protection against wrong connections.

Dan

[satgod]

you are right
sooner or later everyone makes that mistake and unfused something is going up in smoke

[Corona]

I also purchased one of these Para boards from EpBuddy with my PL6.

However you need to be aware the Polyfuses only offer protection between a single battery connected the wrong way round and the PL6, if you connect 2 or more packs to the Para Board and connect any one of those packs the wrong way round the smoke will still leak out fast, the fuses won't offer any protection from that fault condition!

And as most of us know, once you let the smoke leak out, it's difficult to get it back in :-)

[dpinvidic]

[QUOTE=Corona;4122979
However you need to be aware the Polyfuses only offer protection between a single battery connected the wrong way round and the PL6, if you connect 2 or more packs to the Para Board and connect any one of those packs the wrong way round the smoke will still leak out fast, the fuses won't offer any protection from that fault condition!
QUOTE]

Sorry, but this is not correct. The fuses are there to protect the board when you plug in more than one battery, and one is backwards.

First, we must understand that the only problem that can happen is a reverse connection. If I plug in a 3s ballance connecter into a 5s balance plug, and the key slots are on the same side, no problem.even if pin-1 goes to pin-3, as long as the plug is not reversed, each wire is still 3.2v more positive than the lower number pin.

Now notice on the EP board as there seems to be three fuses per connector set. We might first ask "How come we don't see 1 polyfuse per pin".
The best way to explain it is an example of the power leads for a car radio. You only need a fuse in one wire so that when it blows, it opens the circuit. No need to put a fuse in both wires. So on the paraboard, they placed the fuses on alternating pins (and different pins for the groups of balance connectors).
They can do this becasue they are only protecting agains reversed plugs. And when you reverse a plug, there will be one polyfuse in each circuit path between the two batteries. When the polyfuse opens, the circuit is opened and no smoke.

Don't know if I explained this very well, but all of the batteries are protected.

Dan

[satgod]

the main leads are all fused so any over current condition will trip the fuse(s)

but if you hook up a balance lead backwards that is a different story all together

you might laugh at this but i've seen it done

[dpinvidic]

Originally Posted by satgod

the main leads are all fused so any over current condition will trip the fuse(s)

but if you hook up a balance lead backwards that is a different story all together

you might laugh at this but i've seen it done

There are also Polyfuses on the balance connections. They automatically reset, and protect the board if you plug in a balance connector backwards.
Which I have done in the morning before I had my coffee

Dan