Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Nige52]

I have a B5 Lipo Charger/Balancer, it charges the batteries up fine BUT I'm now finding that a lot of my battery packs need balancing, so it seems the balancer part doesn't work too well.
I have read that a simple stand alone Lipo balancer will do the job, but even though I've scoured the net I can't get an idea of which one to go for. Could somebody recommend me a reasonably priced balancer that can handle 2 -4 cell packs? The type I want is the one that discharges the cell that is higher than the others, if you know what I mean, bringing that cell down to the level of the others....

Cheers
Nige

[Chameo]

Hi Nige,

I'm little confused... how can a Lipo be charged fine when it isn't well balanced? How did you notice that your battery pack aren't balanced right? Did you measure the voltage on each cell? Is it always the same cell which has the wrong voltage?


I'm still using a cheap Lipo charger from an RTR set and it's working well, but it's for 2-3 cell packs only.

Chameo

[wibplus]

I use the Bantam E-Station balancer / watt meter. Balances LiPos very well indeed.     
Got it from a local hobby shop.   

[Nige52]

What I meant was, the charger itself works, it charges the batteries. BUT, it's the balancer side that doesn't work, or seem to.
I have a cell voltage meter, from HK about £3 which tells me the cells are unbalanced, ie:
1. 4.20
2. 3.96
3. 3.77
Yesterday I bought a Fusion Balancer 6s from a Midlands hobby shop. The jury is still out on it's worthiness, I'll let you know the outcome but at the moment, I am NOT impressed.

[DaveB]

Nige
I use a Flight power v balance to charge my lipo's it can be used independently to balance the cells after charging on a standard charger or used in conjunction with the charger.
Dave

[Nige52]

Well, after playing about with 4 unbalanced batteries, I can now comment on the one I bought, the Fusion 6s from Logic.
My initial impression was not good, the instructions, although in English only told you you what the Balancer did and what it was capable of, not how to go about using it, in other words, not very good for newbies.
For some unknown reason, the balancer discharged the first battery equally, then turned itself off. Meaning that the individual cells were still out of balance. You know those feelings you get when you have bought a white elephant and wished you hadn't? Well I got them after repeatedly trying to balance that same battery and the thing kept going into standby mode,
Deciding to phone the shop and ask for my money back, I did so, but the response was on the lines of, bring it back and we'll contact the manufacturers for their advice, I couldn't get a straight answer from the shop owner although I asked him 5 times if he would refund my money as the unit was not working as it should, he would make a good politician....I was about to go into a 'Goods not fit for purpose' routine but thought to leave it be, for the time being. Any shop worthy of being recommended for their customer service would have immediately offered me my money back if I were not satisfied, I know now who I will NOT buy anything from again.....
I persevered with the unit, this time I connected some batteries that were only mildly unbalanced...it worked! Hmmm. Attempting yet again with the first battery, I realised that the lights were still blinking away after a minute or so and the unit hadn't gone into standby mode this time. I decided to disconnect it and make a note of the individual cell voltages, I then reconnected it and continued the discharge. After an hour, I again took a note of the cells voltages and realised that it appeared to be reducing the high cell......Eureka! I repeated this procedure every hour for 10 hours, yes 10 hours! Until the levels in all 3 cells were pretty much level at 3.72, 3.72, 3.73. I then charged the battery at 1a till full at 12.6v and all the cells were equal!
I have no idea just why the unit wouldn't work properly to begin with, as a fault in something like this usually doesn't rectify itself, a glitch maybe? But now I'm on my 3rd hopefully successful balance...fingers crossed.

Hope this helps someone,
Nige

[grasshopper]

I have a 'battery doctor' http://www.cmldistribution.co.uk/cml_product.php?productId=0000003637

that I use occassionally to balance my cells and it is a long drawn out affair as the discharge current is quite low. I now discharge them in the model until the battery protector kicks in and then stick it on the battery doc' - then balance charge them using my Venom (expensive earlier version of imaxB6) charger at 1C rate.

Despite their hesitation over offering a refund, the model shop had supplied goods that you didn't know how to use and were probably correct in offering to investigate if 'fit for purpose' and if you'd possibly damaged goods - not that were immediately faulty from new! ...humble pie taste any good?

[Nige52]

I knew perfectly well how to use it as it only has 2 options and I don't eat humble pie when I know I'm right. It wouldn't function at all to begin with, turning itself off and not doing the job. Just why it decided to work afterwards is anybodies guess and there are no more options to get wrong.
As a trader myself, if someone is not happy with the goods I supply, I offer them a refund, that way I stand a chance of getting future business and keeping a good name, unlike some. 

[AlisterL]

I have read, somewhere, that if the individual cells are too far apart in voltages that sometimes balancing wont work - they have to be normalised somehow - maybe that is what your balancer was sort of doing...

But I could be miles off with that too :)