Astroflight 109 HELP

[BrianG]

Not necessarily. A balancer works by applying a small load, typically between 50mA and 150mA, on the higher voltage cells. This slowly discharges those cells. If you have 5Ah cells, it could take a loooooong time to discharge the high voltage cell(s) since you are discharging high capacity cells with a very small current. The greater the difference in voltage, the longer it will take.

Simply charging can cause a small imbalance. If you charged a pack that already had an imbalance, it could only get worse after then end of the charge. That's why it's a good idea to balance while charging.

BTW: Why can't you balance while charging on the 109? Do you have a link that explains why? I'm quite curious.

To get the pack back to full balance quicker, you could charge each individual cell at 2A or less through the balancer leads. This will make each cell 4.2v. Then let the pack sit for a while for the cells to settle down, and then attach the balancer. This process may require some special adaptor cables or something and requires that you know exactly what you are doing.