Turnigy won't balance
 

I have 2 3s 5000 mAH 20-30C Turnigy lipos and recently one of them no longer works with my balancer (Hyperion LBA10). It flashes on both the A123 and LiPo lights indicating an error. I thought one of the wires had come loose from the cell so I removed the heatshrink over the ends of the cells and all the solder joints are fine. Did I maybe break the wire strands inside one of the balance wires?

i rekcon you'd be right...they have pretty flopy ballance wires and may have snapped internaly

I had a pack that I didn't use for a while. It wouldn't balance and wouldn't charge either. I found that the voltage had dropped below 3v/cell, and some safety mechanisms in the balancer&charger wouldn't blance/charge the pack.

Hi Unsullied,

I recently had an issue with the same Lipo. The truck was running and it simply shut down.

There is a solder trace on the board the tabs are soldered to, that jumpers one lead from the center cell, over to the outside cell. That trace had a very narrow spot in it that blew out. It couldn't take the amps.

A few minutes with a soldering iron fixed that and she's good as new.

The wires are made of very flexible silicone wire. Hmmm.........could be a broken wire.

Get yourself one of those cheap volt meters and see what voltage the cells are setting at.

It could be that one of the cells is below 3.0 volts and the balancer is refusing to work with it.

If the cell is 0.0 volts, then it's done. but let's say one is setting at 2.5 volts. Charge that cell slowly until it gets above 3.0 volts, then your charging setup will work with it.

Just keep a close eye on the pack and make sure it balances correctly.

I hope this helps.

If all the cells voltages are in check, then the problem might be the balance plug ?

I and several friends have had problems with various packs balance plugs, they just refuse to make a connection with charger/balancer.
The fix is soldering on a new balance plug.

The new plugs w/wire can be found at MaxCramps for 1.99 E.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...y/DSC00003.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r.../DSC000042.jpg

Problem solved, thanks for the help sike!

Yeah, I heard the 3s (and maybe 2s?) packs had that weak trace problem. Glad you got it sorted out!

Thanks. It's an easy fix but still odd that they blow out like that.

Yeah a little odd.

I would rather they blow there though. When they do that, I wonder how many amps it takes? LOL

On mine, I just built it up bigger than it was before.

I'm glad you got it fixed. :yes:

I checked the gearing I was using on 6s with Brian's calc...you think 90 MPH with tire ballooning might pull enough amps to blow that solder joint? :lol: It's nice to have a fuse of sorts in the battery, I suppose.

Yep, that'll do it. LOL

The cells must be tough.

I was running 5S

E Revo, Medusa 36-60-1500kv geared 22/40.

Overgeared a tad too.

This is a very common zippy problem. Fixed a bunch of these back when I did lipo repair.

I defend these Turnigy cells quite often, they're very good for the price!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTaGfyQv4Ck[/YOUTUBE]

I went 12 minutes geared for 90 MPH before I stopped due to motor heat. MMM's fan was on after about 30 seconds and even after letting it sit idle for ~30 seconds after the run it was still on. I temped the lipos at 105 degrees. Lots of speed, lots of punch, ran cool, and took the abuse like champs. I'm definitely buying more.

You reall can't beat them for the price...I have 8 of different cells and voltages, still going strong after a lot of abuse

Guys, i think i may have the same problem. Just got a balancer today, chucked it on & wouldnt balance. I will remove the heatshrink on the end, but what can i use to reseal the end over, i dont have big/wide enough heatshrink. I really want to get this thing balanced so i can use it for sundays racing....