out of balance lipo
 

hey guys. i just recently bought two 3s 5000mah 30C Zippy Flightmax Lipos. i charged them when they came in and ran one of them in my brushless e-revo a bit. not even 5 minutes. and i put them away and a week later the voltages on one of my batteries read C1: 3.84 C2: 4.18 C3:4.19. is this normal? i am discharging it on my charger right now and im going to recharge and balance them

did you check the voltages when you charged them?...

for zippy yes it is normal sometimes. sometimes measurements are off as my volmeter was going crazy but LBA10 balanced the pack in less then 15 minutes.

I would charge them at a low rate, like .3 amp and balance at the same time. It will take a while but when the pack is fully charged, make sure it is in balance and then let it sit overnight. If one cell drops voltage quicker than the others, you have a weak cell. Not a big deal if you charge the pack then run it soon after, but always make sure your packs are in balance before you run them. You could also give it a light run (not alot of hard acell or braking and moderate speed for a few mins) then measure the voltages of the cells and see if one is lower than the others.

Or you could charge the cells one by one..

after charging the first time the voltages all read 4.20 and how do you charge the cells one at a time. this is my first lipo and im not confident enough to tear it down just yet

You'd have to connect to the proper cell in the balance tap. If you do this, you'll be limited to ~1.5A max because of the size of the wires and connector pins.