LBA10 balancer defect?

Hi!

Today It was the first time I charged my Flightmax 5000mAh 5S 30C battery. While I was charging the LEDS 1,2,3 and 5 were constantly on and number 4 was only off. Is this right? Or is the LBA10 defect or just the LED? After I charged it I measured up the voltage of each cell which was around 4.2V, which is good, right? But how can I check if the balancer is still doing his job good or if the LED is only deffective?
And another question; what does a balancer exactly? Does it take away amps from the battery or does it put amps in the battery? (Sorry I'ma noob at balancers...)

Thanks,

Patrick

[BrianG]

I've found the LBA to be very sensitive to ANY imbalance. Try measuring down to the 10ths of a volt. If one LED is not lit, that is the low cell and the lit ones are the ones actually balancing (bringing down the low cells).

And a balancer works by discharging the high cell(s) to the level of the lowest cell. The discharge rate is usually pretty low (100-300mA), so if there is a bad imbalance, bring the charge rate down to 100mA. Otherwise, the high cells could hit above the 4.2v/cell mark before the low cell has a chance to catch up.

Hmmm... I'm balancing right now without charging at the same time. But I'm balancing for 1,5 hours and it's still; led number 1,2,3,5 are constantly blinking and number 4 is off. I'm getting scaried for that LiPo TBH

EDIT: Or is the 4th cell of LiPo defect? I dont think so because the total battery voltage after charging is 21.007 volt and it did his job good yesterday.

[suicideneil]

If you can manually check the voltage of each cell, either with one of those plug in checkers (that go to the balance plug) or a digital multimeter, that should tell you of any imbalance or dead/weak cell. Check for dirt on the balance plug pins also, that can throw the reading off.