Charger Problem
 

Im having this weird issue with my Bantam BC6-10 when charging lipos in balance mode (which I do every time) it seems that recently over the last couple of weeks my charger never seems to finish a balance cylce. It will charge/balance the batteries normally and drop charge amps as it goes but once the battery gets to 8.40 volts and the cells to approx 4.2 volts each it basically keeps on going trying to balance at like .1-.5 amps or so for hours at a time it never seems to finish. I have tried this will 3 different 2s (2 orions and a thunder power) batteries and a 3s (zippy) and same result it never finishes the charge cycle, which it alway used to do. Any ideas on what might cause this, I couldnt see any setting that I might have messed up on it.

Curious, never had that with my normal BC6... Try charging the packs at a slightly lower current maybe so that the cells can even out more durig the charge, or, if you cycle through the display towards the end of the charge (~1 hour assuming a 1c charge rate), take a look at the individual cell voltages. If they are all 4.19-4.2v and staying there pretty much, just stop the charge manually; just check the mah thats been pumped back in, should be about 80-90% of the packs rated capacity.

As for the real reason for the problem... pass :neutral:

I haven't tried charging at lower amps to see if it evens out and shuts off propely then. I have been just stopping it when I see the charge amps basically down to nothing and the MAH showing that the part is full. But over the last couple of days it has gotten worse at being able to balance I think something is def. messed up because now it really seems to have trouble getting Cell 1 balanced on every pack I have...Hard to believe cell 1 is messed up on all my packs.

I am going to try charging a pack tonight with a separate balancer and see what happens. If it charges fine I guess my charger is shot. :(

Could be a loose or dirty contact on the balancer lead/adaptor board somewhere- time to break out the.... brasso? :lol:

Neil thanks for the tips I did a web search and found that dirty contacts can be a problem with the bc6 chargers so I have cleaned them up and it seems to be working better but still doesnt seem to finish a charge cycle :whip:, however it is at least fully balancing both cells up to 4.20 volts, I can live with that for now. Might have to look into getting a different charger in the future.

UPDATE: Well cleaning the contacts on the charger worked for like 3 charges and its back to its same tricks. I tried cleaning them again, even using a little sandpaper to clean any dirt/corrosion of them them and no go, cell one is always showing less volts than the other cells and the charge cycle still won't complete. Looks like im going to need a new charger.

Have you tested the batteries to see if they are out of balance with a volt meter?

I haven't actually tested the cells, but I will do that.

Interestingly enough today I charged up a bunch of packs we used on Sunday in the slashes and low and behold the charger is working fine. It talkes about an hour to charge and completes the cycle perfectly.

This is really weird as the packs are the same and the charger hasn't been moved or touched since last week. :whip::whip:

The gremlins got bored and moved out... Good riddance! :lol:

Well it seems maybe the gremlins just went out for dinner or something because I tried one more pack last night and it wouldnt finish charging and of course cell one had a lower voltage than cell 2. I will measure voltages and try another pack tonight again.....:diablo:

You must have displeased the BL Gods...

Actually I think I have pissed off the BL Gods since I have been running most of these packs in my stock brushed Slash, they must not be happy with me. I'll have to get the BL truggy, VTA T/C, W/GT pan car or Hyper Mini STe out to appease them or perhaps throw a brushless setup into the SC10 I have sitting at my mailbox.