I have been watching videos one after another…I was extremely intimidated about sticking loose wires into the balance port. Your method using the servo cable put my mind at ease quite a bit. Obviously, care still had to be taken, but I did finally manage. Thank you.
Thank you so much for making this video. I had a 4s Lipo and the balance was just completely messed up. Cell 1 was reading 4.20, cell 2 was reading 4.23, cell 3 was reading 4.20, and cell 4 was 4.05. Got it all back to normal again and I’ll t works great
Hi, this will seems weird question but you say at first you have to always put the black ground of the servo wire into the black on the lipo connector. Then you move it up so the black is not connected to the black anymore. Even when you charge the black is in the yellow and the red with the red. Doesn't that give voltage on both of you servo wire from coming from both of cell wires ..i'm confused ;-)
Start with the ground on the ground wire (Cell 1). When you move to the next hole on the balance lead you will only be measuring voltage on Cell 2. Just follow the video. It works.
Perfect. life saver, thanks. I built a 4x li-ion pack for my quad, but didn't check the cell levels first. One was at 4.1 and the rest at 3.7. The Turnigy balance charge would not fix the balance,, just pushed this one cell up to 5 volts! I put it on my ISDT disharge and the 3 cells went to 3./7 and the one back to 4.1 lol. So I just happened to have a charg lead with futaba plug on it so didn't even need to gerry rig to do this NiMH discharge trick. Seems to be working! so easy (but I still put the pack in a lipo safe for the discharge)
Thanks for the video and very good tips. I did the mod to the ESC extension cable and confirm it can even work as a balance charge cable for proprietary batteries I've managed to balance charge a 1500mah 2s on 1500ma current with no issues. Since it's an ESC cable it should handle at least 3A
If u did a discharge on 1 of the other cells 1st just to c what the battery sag is then u could set the charger up to discharge the highest cell with that voltage and cut out all the head work
Question for you, since you seem to know quite a bit about batteries. I have a 3S battery (one of two) that I used to power my 6S RC car. The car is designed to run on either two 3S batteries or one 6s battery. Anyway on one of my 3S batteries the yellow wire for my balancer has become disconnected (it broke) and I can no longer use the balancing station or charge my battery using balance charge. My question is does that mean that this battery pack is garbage now? Or can I just charge it without balancing it. I won’t be able to monitor the individual cells, however I know to turn the power off when it gets to 12.6 V For the three cells. Are the balance charging gadgets required or just recommended?
What will happen over time is the cells will become more and more out of balance as you use them. As the IR delta among the cells increases, those cells with higher IR will end a cycle with lower voltage. Think of 3 cups of water. The cell with high IR is the most empty cup at the end of the cycle. Now when you charge your pack up again, the other two cells will hit peak voltage before the high IR cell meaning you'll have two cups overflowing and one cup not filled up. This problem gets worse and worse for each cycle. Given the volatile nature of LiPo batteries, I would not suggest continuing to charge without using the balance lead. I *always* balance charge LiPo batteries. When you say the yellow lead broke, is there a reason you can't fix it? You could always buy a balance lead extension and splice (solder) it on the battery balance lead.
RC Video Reviews, Yeah, it broke at the innermost portion, or the part closest to the battery itself. I was thinking about soldering it in fact I even tried but then I was worried that I was going to Sauter to cells together or something worse, electrocute myself, so I just gave up on it. I do plan on picking up a new one I just was thinking maybe I can get three or four cycles out of it. Which from what you’re saying sounds like it shouldn’t be a problem, but for sure I plan to get a new battery.
@@EastTactics Again, I would advise balance charging only. If you can't measure the voltage on one cell you run the risk of overcharging the broken cell.
Interesting video. I'm thinking you could you set each cell for the storage charge of a single cell, that way the you would "self calibrate" each cell to 3.8 volts without having to having to take the effect of current draw into account. It won't matter as its the same device is doing the same discharge to a known/set datum point so the cells should be perfectly balanced at storage voltage. Just a thought.
405line yeah there are probably a half dozen ways to skin this cat. The main thing I wanted to do is to get the voltage within a few hundredths of a volt per cell. Showing the physical pins and connections was important for this video too.
Get a FrSky FLVVS plugs into the balance port of your battery and it shows the voltage of each cell as well as voltage of your pack. Plug it into the sPort on a FrSky rx and your Open TX radio can display the overvall voltage as well as the voltage on the lowest cell. Once you discover the sensor.
Yeah, I've been using those for years. Even did a video on the FBVS-01: ruclips.net/video/e7hrncbqXew/видео.html Not everybody uses FrSky though. Good tip, thanks for sharing.
I've always done pretty much the same except hooking it up via the xt60 connector and leaving the balance plug disconnected. I also don't discharge, using NIMH function only run it until the pack voltage gets up enough to get picked up on lipo balance setting on charger. Admittedly your way is probably safer but if you monitor everything you have no problems like I've had for several years using this method
Yeah, if you're keeping an eye on it, it doesn't matter what profile you use. Just know your battery chemistry limits and I would probably avoid any kind of NiMH delta peak/trickle charging with lithium. Just get the voltage back to a healthy state and start using a lithium profile with a balance lead.
@@RCVideoReviews thank you for the quick reply, that is pretty much what I do currently but thank you for adding the information for anybody else that may read my comment
On my BD6 charger I can discharge a single cell under the Lipo Discharge (or storage) settings. In that case do you know if it is better to do that or to use the NiMh method instead ?
If you have high resistance in the cables, you will read lower voltage at the charger then at the battery cell, because there will be some voltage over the resistance in the cable. Pulling more ampere from the battery, will give you more voltage on the cable, and even more error in the reading. At least that is what I would guess is the reason. You might want to check the resistance in the battery cell too. You could also use the battery charger and charge each cell individually as 1S. Then they will be balanced, but it will take longer time to charge.
If the balance leads from the board to the charger are all equidistant (and they are), then the resistance will be equal and the relative delta in voltage will remain equal. Amperage is delivered via the mains, not the balance port--at least on multi-cell charging. I can pull the battery off the board and measure direct--multi-meter or balancer and expect to see a similar result as on the charger. In any case, I don't bother with this process unless some device--which I trust--tells me the pack is out of balance.
@@RCVideoReviews (do you remember what you did in this video? That is for ordinary balanced charging, not discharge/charge one cell in the pack at a time as in the video. OR do we misunderstand each others?) I was talking about the resistance in the wires will introduce a resistance drop when you dischage through those balance monitoring wires, like you do in the video. That could be the reason you measure one voltage at the charger and one higher at the cell. And as with all resistors, as you draw more current, the voltage drop will be larger over the wires (resistors). And MCModelsReviews used the balance wires to charge the cells that are lower then the others. That is why he did the adapter. Not to drain one cell that have higher voltage, like you did. But it work that way too though. But if you want to charge all cells at higher current, then you need better wires then the balance leads, that is why you have the main wires. That is why you USUALLY not charge/discharge through those. And yes, you should not regularly charge or discharge cells with this technique unless it is needed. One should use the ordinary balanced charger, where the balance wires are used to monitor, and when needed discharge cells that are a bit over charged (with about 0.1 volt) down to spec, until all cells are charged. But as you used this technique to discharge one cell, you can also use this technique to CHARGE the other cells that are behind in charging, one at a time.
@@AndersJackson Got it. Yes, we absolutely misunderstood each other. You are 100% correct - This should only be used on a case by case basis. The amperage should be kept to the lowest level to get the job done. I thought you were making reference to the voltage drop being different as measured from the voltmeter directly vs. from the charger. That's where my mind went when I started reading your comment. Yes, you definitely can use this technique to charge or discharge. Honestly, as long as you keep the amps under control, and your charger allows adjustments to cutoff + or -, then it's a matter of preference. Thanks for clarifying and participating, J
Im having the same issue with my 6s Turnigy battery and I'm charging/discharging each individual cell to get it back to normal. Its a good little trick if your careful!!
Well voltage in a parallel circuit is the same. The current is different. In a series configuration the voltage is different but the current is the same.
Hi man, I'm learning a lot from you, thanks for everything, I have a question you might find stupid but Its a real question for me , I would appreciate your help, I want to know in which way I'm spending more electricity when charging lipo batteries please? for example let say I want to charge (12) 4S 1500 mah batteries and I have a 200w 12A charger with 2 spot for charging ( like isdt D2 charger ) I can charge all 12 batteries at once by using parallel charging in just one hour,, also I can charge them one by one and each take one hour in parallel charging the fans of charger blow all the time , but if I charge them one by one the fan just work few minute once in a while, I like to know in which way I'm using more electricity ? thanks a lot
This is a great idea! Ive been discharging my packs with a custom connector attached to the main leads and a 12v light bulb. Now I can discharge an individual cell with your custom connector attached to the balance plug and a 12v light bulb.
Omg look at all those packs!!! Do you store them like that or put them in a fire safe storage bin? Also how come the balance charge wouldn't balance it out when charging? Just curious. Thanks
I store them out in the open. These days on a shelf below the bench. Most of the time the charger will balance but when a cell gets far out of whack the chargers sometimes just give up.
Chris Watson Most of what I use are 2200 3 and 4s. I use 4000 5s for big balsa planes and 6s 5000 for the 70mm EDF. Most of the green multi stars are for some sort of fpv plane.
Hello I am new to the world of lipos and my 4s battery shows readings of 4.10, 4.05, 4.17 and 4.03. (I checked with a lipo battery cutoff buzzer) I currently do not have a balance charger but you mentioned that this method should not be used often. Can you enlighten me on why and please suggest other methods for balancing my cells.
I currently use the hotRC 3s /4s charger which is not a balance charger. However if I am able to get the battery back in balance. Can I continue using this charger or do I need to get a balance charger
Alright thank you. It appears the hotRC charger I was using is supposedly a balance charger so I tried charging the battery again until it showed battery Full indication However I ended with 4.18, 4.19, 4.28 and 4.15
thank you for the video , in my case i have one of the cells is less than the other two (3s lipo) what would you suggest , do i have to discharge the two other cells or try to charge the cell that have less voltage , thankyou
I've seen checkers like that with balancing capabilities, but I've never been able to figure out how to get it into balance mode. I'll try the holding down the type button for a few seconds. Thanks for sharing.
Jakob Hovman I tried it. Mine doesn’t beep but it does start cycling through the cells. I have a pack that is .015 out. I’ll let it run on that for a while. I get the impression if this is balancing it’s going to take a long time because I don’t see anything on this device that can create much amp draw.
You have a point...I have no amp measurement of this either...Let it run all night, if you have time. Good luck...I will set up a amp test circuit next week.
So after 12 hours, all it did was lower all three cells evenly. The min/max value stayed the same through 0.15v discharge. I don't believe it balances or discharges by design. I believe it discharges solely because the battery powers the display. In any event, I wouldn't advise leaving it plugged-in unattended.
@RC Video Reviews Hi and good afternoon, I got a question, I am trying to discharge two cells on a 3s lipo, I did make the cable to do it, here is the lipo cells: 1s 48% - 3.850v, 2s 73% - 3.980v, 3s 69% - 3.958v, I set on my charger Nimh and discharge, also I set discharge to 0.3a, I click discharge, but straight away I get the following problem straight away: DICHARGE COMPLETE: CUT-OFF voltage 3.85v, please help.
2200s seem to be problematic. I have went through 3 eflites. My 1300 years old work great and large 6s ar 3 years old stay in balance. Thanks for the vide
So On my 2s lipo you have 3 sensor wires. The black is ground and the other 2 represent each of the 2 cells. Would I not always need to use the black ground and a wire from the cell that I want to effect? It looks like in the video that you are ignoring ground. What am I missing here?
That's not how series connections work. If you keep one lead on the initial ground, the voltage accumulates as you move from one wire to the next. If you move both wires together, you measure the voltage of the cell between ground and positive. Try it, you'll see.
I purchased three new turnigy 1500mah batteries in 2015 and NEVER charged them. Forgot about them..just found them. Should I just charged them and see what happens? Will they just be no good now?
Hey, why does my balance charger storage charge above 3.7 V (it says 3,7) and doesn't fix the difference in volts. One cell is 3,74 and the highest one is 3,78 V. I have the imax b6 ac charger.
@@RCVideoReviews ok thanks, it seems to storage charge to 3,85 V is this good? Does it look at other things too? Because it has voltage meters and could easily fix the lower cells.
Thanks for the vid. I have a 3s zop lipo that has a high third cell. Currently 3.84. 3.85.... And 4.02😢 it's like it pulls more from the other two cells
Ok... So I just hooked a tester and all cells came up as 3.87. Is it possible that my little lipo tester is bad. I bought one from a hobby store for cheap.
EvHexRC 1 thank you. I'm glad you found the video helpful. I've been collecting them for quite some time. I've had to retire a number of them as well. Hobbyking has great pricing on lipos.
RC Video Reviews If/when you have to retire more lipos, I'd love to have em so I could blow em up (in a controlled environment) and tell everyone about your channel!
As long as you're using a quality balance charger and you balance charge every time there's nothing else you can do. The reality is materials are imperfect. Slight variations from cell to cell result in changes to IR which changes the rate at which voltage is added and removed from cells resulting in unbalanced cells. Back when I raced off-road electric we used to discharge our packs on a rack that formed a +/- circuit with a flashlight bulb for each cell. You'd screw down the terminals for each cell and wait for the bulbs to ALMOST go out. Then you'd unscrew that one cell until each cell was disconnected. Then we'd charge them up with no balance lead. The theory at the time was if the cups all have the same amount of water in them when you start pouring more water in, then they'd be at the same level when the cutoff algorithm turned the charge off. Of course that doesn't account for per cell resistance during the charge.
@@DrDiff952 When I raced offroad electric, I had a bulb balancer. We'd put our 6 cell packs in that thing, screw down the taps on each cell to get the bulbs lit, then unscrew each cell when the bulb was almost out.
Hi, I have 2 new ones the same I haven’t uses them for a while and now I have just tried them and the voltage metre won’t read them and my plane is only Reading 2 cells but still giving power just not as much, just wondering are they broken now Thanks
Your voltage meter should be able to read the voltage especially if they are providing power to the plane. You need to get a voltage reading off the packs. Have you tried to balance charge them?
@@RCVideoReviews the voltage meter is reading them now it’s says no1 0.00 no2 8.61 no3 7.23 all 15.8 and just keeps changing and no I haven’t tried to balance charge them
@@dannycooper1574 Something isn't right. If you have individual Lipo cells reading 8.61 you would probably be on fire. If I were you, I would seek some help from someone experienced handling these batteries. What you're telling me indicates you have a hardware fault.
I`m also doing this but then I found a way to `force` my charger to balance properly (when I have the time tho) I charge until the lowest cell is over/at 3.85 ( storage ) then use storage mode, it is discharging at 0.1A whatever the setting is when discharging close to 3.85V but it works, it keeps the cells from falling under 3.85V and bring the others down.
Its a great solution to get around the out of balance issue thanks , but what i don't get is why they go out of balance with a balance charger? Defeats the objective of having balance chargers
They don’t go out of balance on the charger, they go out during discharge. Just yesterday I put a balance checker on a pack while running a prop test and saw cell number 4 at 3.76 while cells 1-3 were at 3.83. It has to do with internal resistance. When one cell’s IR changes from the others it causes this. I think if a cell gets too far out of whack the balance charger just gives up. I’ve seen this happen on known good chargers too.
Did the same thing, then balance charge at a very slow setting. They all look good at 4.20v, but when I run the battery one cell discharges quicker than the other cells. ???
Perhaps. The point of the video is simply to demonstrate a method to adjust the voltage of a single cell in a multi-cell setup. Since this was a new pack, I took the opportunity to show how it could be done. As with many things RC, there is usually more than one way to solve a problem.
If there is a clear voltage difference under load from one end of your leads to the other, that indicates you have a lead(s) with excessive resistance (bad connection(s), bad wire). This is likely why your cell was so far off. If your charging lead(s) to one cell has excessive resistance it will throw off the balance charging by overcharging that cell because the charger is reading incorrect voltage lower than reality.
@@RCVideoReviews If you are continuing to manually balance charge your pack then the issue will be eliminated. Since you did not include any followup to your original posting I cannot diagnose it. If you are no longer getting significant voltage difference now when measuring each cell under load (stay well under what the wires can handle), then it may be a fluke in manufacture or charge cycle. Test each cell individually under load (500mA or so depending on lead awg). You should know in a few minutes if one cell has a bad connection/wire on the balance leads or not. Compare that to the main power lead. Good luck.
@@derf_the_mule1405 The point of the video wasn't to diagnose how the battery got there, it was to show options for when it did. If it mattered enough, I would have diagnosed the issue. I appreciate that you're sharing some ideas though. Keep them coming!
I've got a brand new battery that's crazy out of balance. The first cell is 5.8v the second is 4.6v and the third is 2.3v. My balance charger wouldn't charge it and i can't return it to the seller. Anyone got any idea?
I have an issue i dont why all my lipo 5 packs 4s charge not reach to 4.20v. only cell no2 reach 4.18v. others 4.05v. i need discharge it to 4.18 to 4.05 and start back charge balance?
@@RCVideoReviews everytime i do balance charge. 1 more question, after use battery, is that correct i do direct storage mode 3.85v if will not use it anymore. Or i need to discharge (
@@manvsfoodfpv I'm not 100% sure I understand your question but I'll put it this way: It doesn't matter how you discharge to storage voltage as long as you get there. I personally store LiPos at 3.80v/cell. Nearly 100% of new packs I've received came at 3.75v/cell. The common suggestion is 3.85v/cell. So I think anywhere between 3.75v and 3.85v is probably ok. My personal practice as of now is that I don't charge a battery until I need it and at the end of a flight session, all packs go back to 3.80v/cell. Now, if I'm out flying and take a charged battery from 4.2 to 3.95v and plan to use that battery again during that flight session, I don't mind leaving it at 3.95v until I recharge it. If I'm NOT going to use it again in that flight session, I discharge down to 3.80v/cell.
It depends on how badly out of balance the battery is and what kind of IR you have between cells. If you're using Lipo batteries, you should ALWAYS balance charge them though.
hi sir, how about lipo that its balance getting reduce? any method to fix or restore it? for example from 2.2 mah 3s lipo reduce to 1.X mah. thanks in advance.:)
If I understand your question correctly it sounds like you want to know if there's a way to recover a pack that doesn't hold the charge indicated by it's manufactured capacity. Have you verified that all cells have the same starting point? i.e. 3.75v/cell? If one cell starts high, say 3.9v and the other two are 3.75v your balance charger may not cover that much of a delta and will stop charging when the 3.9v cell reaches 4.2v while the remaining cells are still 4.05v each which would manifest itself as an under capacity charge. Voltage is the key here. Start at 3.75 to 3.85v/cell (3.85v is the common storage voltage for LiPo) and make sure all cells are at the starting voltage. Balance charge to 4.2v.
my 4s battery has this one cell thst is easily get discharge... everytime i charge it it will reach 4.20 just like the other 3 but when i use it on my boat, the first cell will hit 3.40v while my other 3 is still in 3.70v mark, what should i do?
Hello. can you help me please with some advice? how do I keep my batteries in order not to lose their capacity? even if I put them on the shelf to 50% (lipo storage) some of them lose their capacity when they load them ... for example from 2500mah I still have 1200. I tried to discharge them and charge them again many times believing that this cycle will resurrect them but without success. some of them or puffed and used 2-3 times. I'm new to rc, and even if I really like it's expensive to buy batteries. please help me.
You can't stop them from losing capacity. Over time (discharge cycles) all batteries lose capacity as their internal resistance increases. The best you can do is: 1) Always balance charge. 2) Never charge lipos above 4.2v/cell 3) Never discharge lipos below 20% - Although I prefer never to go below about 3.7v/cell 4) Store them at 3.85v/cell 5) Understand the C Rating of the pack. If you have a 2200 30c, that means you can discharge at 66amps. No more. 6) Do not charge at a higher C rating than the manufacturer recommends. Honestly, just charge at 1c for longevity. Even following the guidelines above, your batteries will still puff, they will still go soft, and you will still have to replace them. To keep your sanity, just consider batteries as a consumable much like nitro guys who have to buy fuel for their planes.
I understand that in time after many discharge cycles I lose my capacity but I have batteries which have been used up to 5 times and when I do not use I do not charge them completely, I set charger to lipo storige and then charge only when I want to I use (charge them with the real b6 charger, I took care not to buy fake) what I do not know is if the moment I want to charge the batteries I must first discharge them or I can set the charger directly on the lipo balance. Thank you very much
@@penacatalin7630 From the storage state of 3.85v/cell you can go directly to balance charge. You can go directly to balance charge from any level of discharge without causing damage. If the batteries are puffing and internal resistance is increasing after just 5 cycles, I would switch battery brands. I've had good luck with Turnigy Lipos from Hobby King.
I got that, I was just wondering why you thought discharging the one high cell was better than trying a balance charge first. I'll be curious to see if your method worked in the long run. I've had some luck with a low rate balance charge to recover weak cells.
Sir my 3s lipo pack is showin 4.7 overall volts but when I am checkin single cell volts its showin 3.7, 3.7, 4.4 . Sir can you help me with this problem??
You should not see 4.4v on a lipo cell. 4.2 is the max. 3.7 and 3.7 are ok. I would use a multi-meter and check voltage on the main leads 1st to make sure it's 11.8v. If it shows 4.7 on the mains you need to dispose of that battery. If a multi-meter shows 11.8v or thereabouts on the mains, then use your meter and check individual cells on the balance leads--do not use a hobby voltage checker. Use a meter. Let me know what you find out.
Yeah, if you're getting 4.7 on a multimeter off the main leads you need to dispose of that battery. Anything below 9.9 on a Lipo is not good. If you have a 4.7v cell that's even worse.
I don't understand your question. You should use voltage values in lieu of percentages. If you're using a balance charger, the balance charger will charge to peak voltage.
@@arasykeysha then you probably have an IR issue. Resistance on one cell is higher than the others. That cannot really be solved as far as I know. When that happens to my packs, I retire them.
@@arasykeysha Sure it's still usable. What will wind up happening is the lower voltage cell (the one with the higher IR) will drain faster. It'll hit the cell minimum faster meaning you won't get the same flight time. It will probably not deliver the same amperage as the lower IR cells. So you'll feel that in power development throughout the flight.
So you're saying your cells are 1.86v, 5.037v, and 3.785v? And it's LiPo? Return it. The safe range for LiPo is 3.5 - 4.2v. All cells ideally should be within 1/100th of a volt. 1866mv (1.866v) and 5037mv (5.037v) are not good for LiPo cells.
okay..i have a 3s 2200..with one cell at 3.95 3.97 and 3.96...but my balance charger doesnt have a discharge function...how can i bring the 2 cells down?
Personally, I wouldn't worry about that small of a gap. But if you want to get them perfect, first get a charger that can discharge, calibrate it, then follow the steps shown in the video. If you want to brute force it, connect some sort of load (like a light bulb) to the two pins for each high cell. But you'll have to keep disconnecting the load to check progress.
@@RCVideoReviews thats exactly what i was thinkn too...i have an decent sized old brushed motor..and was contemplating on runnin it like 30 secs and then checkin it...then rinse and repeat until i got the two cells down to 3.95
@@RCVideoReviews soo...i chose the brute force method..all went well and all 3 are sitting at 3.95...i must say...im a bit surprised at how much time it took runnin my motor..to get the numbers down to where i needed em..id estimate a good minute to minute n half per cell
I just went out to check that, and yes, that works too. Discharge on 1s and the charger isn't looking for a balance connector. So the pin header can be connected to mains with no balance connection to the charger and it did start discharging using the LiPo profile.
The charger was on load so the battery voltage jumps to 3.7 v from 3.6 v after stopping the charger. I've been facing some opposite situation here. After my battery reaches to 4.2 v/ cell it gets to 4.1 v/cell. Basically from 25.2 v to 24.7 v. Can someone help me with reason!!😅😅
I am new to this subject but I thought the charger shown has a balancing feature which discharges the higher charged cells allowing when charging resumes the lower charged cell to catch up. Couldn't you just put it in the charger go through the actions of charging and let the balancing feature take care of it like it should have from the beginning. Ken
Sometimes the Delta is just too high. The battery in this video had only ever been balance charged and storage discharged yet it still got that far out of whack. The video shows how to deal with an out of spec situation that the charger isn't correcting.
with all of those batteries and charging going on I would get those concrete sheet rock type boards and line the wall behind it and the floor just for extra precaution.
Good idea. I've had a relatively large-scale overhaul on how I charge batteries after I built my field box though. All of them get charged and discharged at the field now.
Well, you dont need to do all that complicated stuff. I had the same exact problem with one of my lipo yesterday. I charged it at 0,5 amp and the charger did the job by bringing the two cell at the same voltage.
WEll finally it didnty work out sorry. I did try your trick but after i discharged the the cell with higher voltage to 3.7 volts, the other cell did show .9 volts :(
It doesnt surprise me your having issues with out of balance batteries because of how your charging with that parallel charge port. IMO that is a dangerous setup. The whole point of a balance charger is to charge each cell separate of the others in a multi cell setup. When your charging 4 packs in parallel its only reading an average of all the cells on 4 packs your under and over charging cells doing this. Sure it saves time but imo lipos are risky and charging at the rate your charging at (i think you said 8 amps) ide say your lucky you havnt had a major issue so far. If i were to charge like that ide have temp probes on each pack. This is just my opinion ive been around rechargable batteries since the red sanyo nicad batteries in the 80s till now but imo the only safe way to charge in parallel is if all the cells in the packs were matched using a machine that charges/discharges and measures the internal resistance during the process. The cells will drift apart over time from use the batteries in the center suffer the most because they are in the center of the heat the better they stay cool the more cycles you can get out of them. Its your equipment you can do what you want but it just seems risky to me is all. When i first read about how lipos uses a balance port thi is so they dont have to "match" batteries any more they can just throw packs together some cells slightly weaker and some stronger the charger does all the work. Another issue i can see is if any of the 4 packs in the parallel charge is not at the same discharge state pack 1 80% pack 2 at 70% pack 3 at 75 the pack 1 will over charge before pack 2 is even close to being done.
Bullcrap. Nothing wrong with charging in parallel and it has nothing to do with why this particular battery had an issue. The tech and physics of parallel charging are well known and understood. I've parallel charged batteries for years.
@@RCVideoReviews what mode can you charge in if you have one cell lower and 5 cells inline on a 6 cell pack? Should i attempt to charge the one cell using this same method in NiMH mode or charge the 1 cell in lipo mode?
This is awesome it really work this is genius!!! Now I hope it doesn't affect the battery to much now tho. I'm thinking it might died faster....we will see!! Great vid tho
Sometimes packs get a little too far out of whack and balance chargers will not quite get them back in line. So a little assist can help from time to time. This video gets lots of views because it happens to lots of people.
Storage voltage is anywhere between 3.6v and 3.85v. There is no meaningful difference in that range. Many manufacturers ship batteries at 3.75 and there's no telling how long those cells are in storage before moving into production.
I have been watching videos one after another…I was extremely intimidated about sticking loose wires into the balance port. Your method using the servo cable put my mind at ease quite a bit. Obviously, care still had to be taken, but I did finally manage. Thank you.
You're welcome.
December 2022 and you've just saved my 3s thats been in storage for about a year 🙏 earned a sub from me
Welcome to the channel.
Thank you so much for making this video. I had a 4s Lipo and the balance was just completely messed up. Cell 1 was reading 4.20, cell 2 was reading 4.23, cell 3 was reading 4.20, and cell 4 was 4.05. Got it all back to normal again and I’ll t works great
Awesome! Glad it helped.
Excellent that's how I do it , charge the individual cells as a single cell
Thanks for posting this. I'm new to the multirotor hobby, and you helped me save my first battery.
Geoffrey Tuttle Awesome! I'm glad it helped.
THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH!!! You saved me 2 Lipos worth 70$.... You are a LEGEND!
Glad to help! Thanks for the kind comment.
Hi, this will seems weird question but you say at first you have to always put the black ground of the servo wire into the black on the lipo connector. Then you move it up so the black is not connected to the black anymore. Even when you charge the black is in the yellow and the red with the red. Doesn't that give voltage on both of you servo wire from coming from both of cell wires ..i'm confused ;-)
Start with the ground on the ground wire (Cell 1). When you move to the next hole on the balance lead you will only be measuring voltage on Cell 2. Just follow the video. It works.
Very clear and informative "How-to". Thank you for sharing.
+neilborj You're welcome! I hope the information can help you out sometime.
Perfect. life saver, thanks. I built a 4x li-ion pack for my quad, but didn't check the cell levels first. One was at 4.1 and the rest at 3.7. The Turnigy balance charge would not fix the balance,, just pushed this one cell up to 5 volts! I put it on my ISDT disharge and the 3 cells went to 3./7 and the one back to 4.1 lol. So I just happened to have a charg lead with futaba plug on it so didn't even need to gerry rig to do this NiMH discharge trick. Seems to be working! so easy (but I still put the pack in a lipo safe for the discharge)
Good job catching it before it caused a bigger problem.
Thanks for the video and very good tips. I did the mod to the ESC extension cable and confirm it can even work as a balance charge cable for proprietary batteries I've managed to balance charge a 1500mah 2s on 1500ma current with no issues. Since it's an ESC cable it should handle at least 3A
Awesome! Glad you found some new to use. Thanks for the comment.
If u did a discharge on 1 of the other cells 1st just to c what the battery sag is then u could set the charger up to discharge the highest cell with that voltage and cut out all the head work
I'm probably going to be posting a v2 of this video. Just got some equipment in and it looks promising. Should make this a LOT easier.
I might try this great way of explaining and not making it overly complicated 👍
Glad to help...Thanks for the comment.
You had me at "it's just my theory, I don't have any science behind it... maybe somebody will comment below"
I try to represent fact as fact and opinion as opinion, and I try not to be afraid to say "I don't know"
Question for you, since you seem to know quite a bit about batteries. I have a 3S battery (one of two) that I used to power my 6S RC car. The car is designed to run on either two 3S batteries or one 6s battery.
Anyway on one of my 3S batteries the yellow wire for my balancer has become disconnected (it broke) and I can no longer use the balancing station or charge my battery using balance charge. My question is does that mean that this battery pack is garbage now? Or can I just charge it without balancing it. I won’t be able to monitor the individual cells, however I know to turn the power off when it gets to 12.6 V For the three cells.
Are the balance charging gadgets required or just recommended?
What will happen over time is the cells will become more and more out of balance as you use them. As the IR delta among the cells increases, those cells with higher IR will end a cycle with lower voltage. Think of 3 cups of water. The cell with high IR is the most empty cup at the end of the cycle. Now when you charge your pack up again, the other two cells will hit peak voltage before the high IR cell meaning you'll have two cups overflowing and one cup not filled up. This problem gets worse and worse for each cycle.
Given the volatile nature of LiPo batteries, I would not suggest continuing to charge without using the balance lead. I *always* balance charge LiPo batteries.
When you say the yellow lead broke, is there a reason you can't fix it? You could always buy a balance lead extension and splice (solder) it on the battery balance lead.
RC Video Reviews, Yeah, it broke at the innermost portion, or the part closest to the battery itself. I was thinking about soldering it in fact I even tried but then I was worried that I was going to Sauter to cells together or something worse, electrocute myself, so I just gave up on it. I do plan on picking up a new one I just was thinking maybe I can get three or four cycles out of it. Which from what you’re saying sounds like it shouldn’t be a problem, but for sure I plan to get a new battery.
@@EastTactics Again, I would advise balance charging only. If you can't measure the voltage on one cell you run the risk of overcharging the broken cell.
thank you
Subscribed: Excellent Tech level, low fluff, Truly Sharing Intellect - a YT best case scenario !
Welcome aboard! Thanks for watching.
instaBlaster
Interesting video.
I'm thinking you could you set each cell for the storage charge of a single cell, that way the you would "self calibrate" each cell to 3.8 volts without having to having to take the effect of current draw into account. It won't matter as its the same device is doing the same discharge to a known/set datum point so the cells should be perfectly balanced at storage voltage.
Just a thought.
405line yeah there are probably a half dozen ways to skin this cat. The main thing I wanted to do is to get the voltage within a few hundredths of a volt per cell. Showing the physical pins and connections was important for this video too.
Get a FrSky FLVVS plugs into the balance port of your battery and it shows the voltage of each cell as well as voltage of your pack. Plug it into the sPort on a FrSky rx and your Open TX radio can display the overvall voltage as well as the voltage on the lowest cell. Once you discover the sensor.
Yeah, I've been using those for years. Even did a video on the FBVS-01: ruclips.net/video/e7hrncbqXew/видео.html
Not everybody uses FrSky though. Good tip, thanks for sharing.
@RC Video Reviews Thank you kind sir, I will be doing this from now on ! you saved one of my lipos ! I wish I knew this a month ago.
You're welcome. Glad to help.
Thank you, I couldn't discharge that cell on Li-Po settings, now I know how :-)
Awesome! Glad it helped.
@RC Video Reviews thanks again you saved one of my 5500 mah lipos from certain death, this video is epic it needs more likes !
Glad to help.
Great video, quick question, instead of discharging, is it possible to charge the 2 lower ones to 3.8v ?? Thank you !!
Sure. If your charger lets you charge one cell at a time.
I've always done pretty much the same except hooking it up via the xt60 connector and leaving the balance plug disconnected. I also don't discharge, using NIMH function only run it until the pack voltage gets up enough to get picked up on lipo balance setting on charger. Admittedly your way is probably safer but if you monitor everything you have no problems like I've had for several years using this method
Yeah, if you're keeping an eye on it, it doesn't matter what profile you use. Just know your battery chemistry limits and I would probably avoid any kind of NiMH delta peak/trickle charging with lithium. Just get the voltage back to a healthy state and start using a lithium profile with a balance lead.
@@RCVideoReviews thank you for the quick reply, that is pretty much what I do currently but thank you for adding the information for anybody else that may read my comment
Great video congrats !! Did the battery in the video from now on balances property every time?
It did for quite a long timer after I made that video. It's since been retired.
On my BD6 charger I can discharge a single cell under the Lipo Discharge (or storage) settings. In that case do you know if it is better to do that or to use the NiMh method instead ?
As long as you can isolate the cell you want to change and then get that cell's voltage in-line with the other cells, either approach is fine.
Thank you so much, you just saved me 20€, might not be a whole lot but still! Worked just fine for me
Awesome! Glad it helped.
If you have high resistance in the cables, you will read lower voltage at the charger then at the battery cell, because there will be some voltage over the resistance in the cable. Pulling more ampere from the battery, will give you more voltage on the cable, and even more error in the reading. At least that is what I would guess is the reason.
You might want to check the resistance in the battery cell too.
You could also use the battery charger and charge each cell individually as 1S. Then they will be balanced, but it will take longer time to charge.
If the balance leads from the board to the charger are all equidistant (and they are), then the resistance will be equal and the relative delta in voltage will remain equal. Amperage is delivered via the mains, not the balance port--at least on multi-cell charging. I can pull the battery off the board and measure direct--multi-meter or balancer and expect to see a similar result as on the charger. In any case, I don't bother with this process unless some device--which I trust--tells me the pack is out of balance.
@@RCVideoReviews (do you remember what you did in this video? That is for ordinary balanced charging, not discharge/charge one cell in the pack at a time as in the video. OR do we misunderstand each others?)
I was talking about the resistance in the wires will introduce a resistance drop when you dischage through those balance monitoring wires, like you do in the video. That could be the reason you measure one voltage at the charger and one higher at the cell. And as with all resistors, as you draw more current, the voltage drop will be larger over the wires (resistors).
And MCModelsReviews used the balance wires to charge the cells that are lower then the others. That is why he did the adapter. Not to drain one cell that have higher voltage, like you did. But it work that way too though.
But if you want to charge all cells at higher current, then you need better wires then the balance leads, that is why you have the main wires. That is why you USUALLY not charge/discharge through those.
And yes, you should not regularly charge or discharge cells with this technique unless it is needed. One should use the ordinary balanced charger, where the balance wires are used to monitor, and when needed discharge cells that are a bit over charged (with about 0.1 volt) down to spec, until all cells are charged.
But as you used this technique to discharge one cell, you can also use this technique to CHARGE the other cells that are behind in charging, one at a time.
@@AndersJackson Got it. Yes, we absolutely misunderstood each other. You are 100% correct - This should only be used on a case by case basis. The amperage should be kept to the lowest level to get the job done. I thought you were making reference to the voltage drop being different as measured from the voltmeter directly vs. from the charger. That's where my mind went when I started reading your comment.
Yes, you definitely can use this technique to charge or discharge. Honestly, as long as you keep the amps under control, and your charger allows adjustments to cutoff + or -, then it's a matter of preference.
Thanks for clarifying and participating,
J
@@RCVideoReviews thanks for the clearification.
We see this to seldom on socialal media. Thanks.
Appreciate your engagement. Thanks.
Im having the same issue with my 6s Turnigy battery and I'm charging/discharging each individual cell to get it back to normal. Its a good little trick if your careful!!
Yup, it works.
Well voltage in a parallel circuit is the same. The current is different. In a series configuration the voltage is different but the current is the same.
Hi man, I'm learning a lot from you, thanks for everything, I have a question you might find stupid but Its a real question for me , I would appreciate your help,
I want to know in which way I'm spending more electricity when charging lipo batteries please?
for example let say I want to charge (12) 4S 1500 mah batteries and I have a 200w 12A charger with 2 spot for charging ( like isdt D2 charger )
I can charge all 12 batteries at once by using parallel charging in just one hour,,
also I can charge them one by one and each take one hour
in parallel charging the fans of charger blow all the time , but if I charge them one by one the fan just work few minute once in a while,
I like to know in which way I'm using more electricity ? thanks a lot
Amir motalet How many MAH are you putting in the batteries for each method? That's your answer.
This is a great idea! Ive been discharging my packs with a custom connector attached to the main leads and a 12v light bulb.
Now I can discharge an individual cell with your custom connector attached to the balance plug and a 12v light bulb.
Good idea. Hopefully you won't need to do it often though.
Use an esc or motor fan if you're not going to use a charger to balance or discharge
@@RCVideoReviewswhy not?
Is there any disadvantage to this?
Could you just connect a small bulb to it and check the voltage regularly
Yes
Thanks for the detail. How long did it take you in total to balance the cell? Do you still use this method?
Time depends on the delta between the low and high cells. Yes, I still use this if necessary--which isn't very often.
Agoust 2022 and your info just save 2 lipo packs.... Thanks a lot. 👍
Glad to help
Omg look at all those packs!!! Do you store them like that or put them in a fire safe storage bin? Also how come the balance charge wouldn't balance it out when charging? Just curious. Thanks
I store them out in the open. These days on a shelf below the bench. Most of the time the charger will balance but when a cell gets far out of whack the chargers sometimes just give up.
@@RCVideoReviews I do too! I was just curious. That is alot of lipos! I like it lol
Chris Watson Most of what I use are 2200 3 and 4s. I use 4000 5s for big balsa planes and 6s 5000 for the 70mm EDF. Most of the green multi stars are for some sort of fpv plane.
Hello
I am new to the world of lipos and my 4s battery shows readings of
4.10, 4.05, 4.17 and 4.03. (I checked with a lipo battery cutoff buzzer)
I currently do not have a balance charger but you mentioned that this method should not be used often.
Can you enlighten me on why and please suggest other methods for balancing my cells.
I currently use the hotRC 3s /4s charger which is not a balance charger.
However if I am able to get the battery back in balance. Can I continue using this charger or do I need to get a balance charger
Buy a balance charger. Right now.
Which would you recommend
The chargers are the imax B6 and b6AC
Thank you.
Alright thank you.
It appears the hotRC charger I was using is supposedly a balance charger so I tried charging the battery again until it showed battery Full indication
However I ended with
4.18, 4.19, 4.28 and 4.15
Your trick worked for me. Thanks for posting!
You're welcome!
thank you for the video , in my case i have one of the cells is less than the other two (3s lipo) what would you suggest , do i have to discharge the two other cells or try to charge the cell that have less voltage , thankyou
Either way. You can charge the low one or bring the other two down. Either method will work.
@@RCVideoReviews thankyou very much, really do appriciate
@@mauriziobezzina3378 You're welcome.
Nice video very informative 👍 👌 👏 awesome
Great content here...That little black Battery Capacity Checker is also a balancer: Hold the Type button down, wait for 2 beeps.
I've seen checkers like that with balancing capabilities, but I've never been able to figure out how to get it into balance mode. I'll try the holding down the type button for a few seconds. Thanks for sharing.
Hello...Adam Welch has a video that shows this: ruclips.net/video/Pnrxm3KNjes/видео.html
Jakob Hovman I tried it. Mine doesn’t beep but it does start cycling through the cells. I have a pack that is .015 out. I’ll let it run on that for a while. I get the impression if this is balancing it’s going to take a long time because I don’t see anything on this device that can create much amp draw.
You have a point...I have no amp measurement of this either...Let it run all night, if you have time. Good luck...I will set up a amp test circuit next week.
So after 12 hours, all it did was lower all three cells evenly. The min/max value stayed the same through 0.15v discharge. I don't believe it balances or discharges by design. I believe it discharges solely because the battery powers the display. In any event, I wouldn't advise leaving it plugged-in unattended.
@RC Video Reviews Hi and good afternoon, I got a question, I am trying to discharge two cells on a 3s lipo, I did make the cable to do it, here is the lipo cells: 1s 48% - 3.850v, 2s 73% - 3.980v, 3s 69% - 3.958v, I set on my charger Nimh and discharge, also I set discharge to 0.3a, I click discharge, but straight away I get the following problem straight away: DICHARGE COMPLETE: CUT-OFF voltage 3.85v, please help.
If you’re sure you’re on the correct cell and it drops immediately with only .3a, you could have a bad battery.
@@RCVideoReviews Thanks for your reply, I just panicked lipo is fine, I just placed it on a balance charge.
2200s seem to be problematic. I have went through 3 eflites. My 1300 years old work great and large 6s ar 3 years old stay in balance. Thanks for the vide
You're welcome.
So On my 2s lipo you have 3 sensor wires. The black is ground and the other 2 represent each of the 2 cells. Would I not always need to use the black ground and a wire from the cell that I want to effect? It looks like in the video that you are ignoring ground. What am I missing here?
That's not how series connections work. If you keep one lead on the initial ground, the voltage accumulates as you move from one wire to the next. If you move both wires together, you measure the voltage of the cell between ground and positive. Try it, you'll see.
I purchased three new turnigy 1500mah batteries in 2015 and NEVER charged them. Forgot about them..just found them. Should I just charged them and see what happens? Will they just be no good now?
I'd put a volt meter on it and check for voltage before doing anything. If you're near 3.8v/c I'd try it. Make sure you monitor real time though.
It works both ways sir john? Cause i have a lipo batt reading of 3.72 3.72 3.68 and want to increase the 3.68 to 3.72
Sure, if you can get a charger to agree to charge one cell.
And you keep an eye on it.
@@RCVideoReviews will do sir thank you
Hey, why does my balance charger storage charge above 3.7 V (it says 3,7) and doesn't fix the difference in volts. One cell is 3,74 and the highest one is 3,78 V. I have the imax b6 ac charger.
Because it's consumer grade equipment that's not calibrated to a standard. If you question it, you should change chargers.
@@RCVideoReviews ok thanks, it seems to storage charge to 3,85 V is this good? Does it look at other things too? Because it has voltage meters and could easily fix the lower cells.
Is that room hot? I like your stuff bro ,i am trying to buy some lipo now for my mavic secondary ,whichich is better?
That room can get hot, but not much over 95f. I like Turnigy Lipos from Hobbyking for day-to-day flying.
Does this work if you need to charge a single cell to bring it back up to be even with the other cells
Sure. :)
Thanks for the vid. I have a 3s zop lipo that has a high third cell. Currently 3.84. 3.85.... And 4.02😢 it's like it pulls more from the other two cells
Ok... So I just hooked a tester and all cells came up as 3.87. Is it possible that my little lipo tester is bad. I bought one from a hobby store for cheap.
I try to avoid buying battery related equipment that cannot be calibrated. Look at the Toolkitrc MC8.
Loved the video! Very informative. Also, you have so many lipos! Would you send a few my way if possible?
EvHexRC 1 thank you. I'm glad you found the video helpful. I've been collecting them for quite some time. I've had to retire a number of them as well. Hobbyking has great pricing on lipos.
RC Video Reviews If/when you have to retire more lipos, I'd love to have em so I could blow em up (in a controlled environment) and tell everyone about your channel!
Great video! I charge my LiPos every time balanced. But every time when discharged the cells are 0.2V out of whack. Can't be fixed, right?
As long as you're using a quality balance charger and you balance charge every time there's nothing else you can do. The reality is materials are imperfect. Slight variations from cell to cell result in changes to IR which changes the rate at which voltage is added and removed from cells resulting in unbalanced cells. Back when I raced off-road electric we used to discharge our packs on a rack that formed a +/- circuit with a flashlight bulb for each cell. You'd screw down the terminals for each cell and wait for the bulbs to ALMOST go out. Then you'd unscrew that one cell until each cell was disconnected. Then we'd charge them up with no balance lead. The theory at the time was if the cups all have the same amount of water in them when you start pouring more water in, then they'd be at the same level when the cutoff algorithm turned the charge off. Of course that doesn't account for per cell resistance during the charge.
@@RCVideoReviews i remember doing that same thing to my 2400 NIMh packs. Heck i remember the first time I bought matched 1200 SC cells!
@@DrDiff952 When I raced offroad electric, I had a bulb balancer. We'd put our 6 cell packs in that thing, screw down the taps on each cell to get the bulbs lit, then unscrew each cell when the bulb was almost out.
Hi, I have 2 new ones the same I haven’t uses them for a while and now I have just tried them and the voltage metre won’t read them and my plane is only Reading 2 cells but still giving power just not as much, just wondering are they broken now Thanks
Your voltage meter should be able to read the voltage especially if they are providing power to the plane. You need to get a voltage reading off the packs. Have you tried to balance charge them?
@@RCVideoReviews the voltage meter is reading them now it’s says no1 0.00 no2 8.61 no3 7.23 all 15.8 and just keeps changing and no I haven’t tried to balance charge them
@@dannycooper1574 Something isn't right. If you have individual Lipo cells reading 8.61 you would probably be on fire. If I were you, I would seek some help from someone experienced handling these batteries. What you're telling me indicates you have a hardware fault.
@@RCVideoReviews ok thanks
I`m also doing this but then I found a way to `force` my charger to balance properly (when I have the time tho) I charge until the lowest cell is over/at 3.85 ( storage ) then use storage mode, it is discharging at 0.1A whatever the setting is when discharging close to 3.85V but it works, it keeps the cells from falling under 3.85V and bring the others down.
Its a great solution to get around the out of balance issue thanks , but what i don't get is why they go out of balance with a balance charger? Defeats the objective of having balance chargers
They don’t go out of balance on the charger, they go out during discharge. Just yesterday I put a balance checker on a pack while running a prop test and saw cell number 4 at 3.76 while cells 1-3 were at 3.83. It has to do with internal resistance. When one cell’s IR changes from the others it causes this.
I think if a cell gets too far out of whack the balance charger just gives up. I’ve seen this happen on known good chargers too.
Did the same thing, then balance charge at a very slow setting. They all look good at 4.20v, but when I run the battery one cell discharges quicker than the other cells. ???
That sounds like a bad cell to me. Does your charger have the ability to test IR?
Thank you so much , you saved my battery
I’m glad it helped. Thanks for the feedback.
I have a near brand new 6s look that’s off balance does it matter the size of batery
No. Cells should still be balanced regardless of how many cells there are.
What if the cells are .05 off? Is that bad. Yes .05 off not .5
That's a marginal gap. Cell voltage differential increases over time on all packs I've ever used. Just the nature of the beast.
Looks like you were trying to balance somewhere in the middle of the discharge curve... wouldn't it be easier to balance at the top of the curve?
Perhaps. The point of the video is simply to demonstrate a method to adjust the voltage of a single cell in a multi-cell setup. Since this was a new pack, I took the opportunity to show how it could be done. As with many things RC, there is usually more than one way to solve a problem.
If there is a clear voltage difference under load from one end of your leads to the other, that indicates you have a lead(s) with excessive resistance (bad connection(s), bad wire). This is likely why your cell was so far off. If your charging lead(s) to one cell has excessive resistance it will throw off the balance charging by overcharging that cell because the charger is reading incorrect voltage lower than reality.
If there is a mechanical defect (bad connection, bad wire) why would it not continue to go out of balance? In my case, it didn't.
@@RCVideoReviews If you are continuing to manually balance charge your pack then the issue will be eliminated. Since you did not include any followup to your original posting I cannot diagnose it. If you are no longer getting significant voltage difference now when measuring each cell under load (stay well under what the wires can handle), then it may be a fluke in manufacture or charge cycle.
Test each cell individually under load (500mA or so depending on lead awg). You should know in a few minutes if one cell has a bad connection/wire on the balance leads or not. Compare that to the main power lead. Good luck.
@@derf_the_mule1405 The point of the video wasn't to diagnose how the battery got there, it was to show options for when it did. If it mattered enough, I would have diagnosed the issue. I appreciate that you're sharing some ideas though. Keep them coming!
I've got a brand new battery that's crazy out of balance. The first cell is 5.8v the second is 4.6v and the third is 2.3v. My balance charger wouldn't charge it and i can't return it to the seller. Anyone got any idea?
I have an issue i dont why all my lipo 5 packs 4s charge not reach to 4.20v. only cell no2 reach 4.18v. others 4.05v. i need discharge it to 4.18 to 4.05 and start back charge balance?
Seems unlikely to me all of your packs have failed. I would investigate the device telling you they can only reach 4.05.
Are you balance charging?
@@RCVideoReviews everytime i do balance charge. 1 more question, after use battery, is that correct i do direct storage mode 3.85v if will not use it anymore. Or i need to discharge (
@@manvsfoodfpv I'm not 100% sure I understand your question but I'll put it this way:
It doesn't matter how you discharge to storage voltage as long as you get there. I personally store LiPos at 3.80v/cell. Nearly 100% of new packs I've received came at 3.75v/cell. The common suggestion is 3.85v/cell. So I think anywhere between 3.75v and 3.85v is probably ok.
My personal practice as of now is that I don't charge a battery until I need it and at the end of a flight session, all packs go back to 3.80v/cell.
Now, if I'm out flying and take a charged battery from 4.2 to 3.95v and plan to use that battery again during that flight session, I don't mind leaving it at 3.95v until I recharge it. If I'm NOT going to use it again in that flight session, I discharge down to 3.80v/cell.
If your charger is one cell lipo Capable you can do this on the lipo setting
I have an unbalanced drone battery. If I buy a balance charger, will it fix the problem.
It depends on how badly out of balance the battery is and what kind of IR you have between cells. If you're using Lipo batteries, you should ALWAYS balance charge them though.
But isn't the negative plugged into the positive of cell 2? I'm confused
hi sir, how about lipo that its balance getting reduce?
any method to fix or restore it? for example from 2.2 mah 3s lipo reduce to 1.X mah.
thanks in advance.:)
If I understand your question correctly it sounds like you want to know if there's a way to recover a pack that doesn't hold the charge indicated by it's manufactured capacity. Have you verified that all cells have the same starting point? i.e. 3.75v/cell? If one cell starts high, say 3.9v and the other two are 3.75v your balance charger may not cover that much of a delta and will stop charging when the 3.9v cell reaches 4.2v while the remaining cells are still 4.05v each which would manifest itself as an under capacity charge. Voltage is the key here. Start at 3.75 to 3.85v/cell (3.85v is the common storage voltage for LiPo) and make sure all cells are at the starting voltage. Balance charge to 4.2v.
my 4s battery has this one cell thst is easily get discharge... everytime i charge it it will reach 4.20 just like the other 3 but when i use it on my boat, the first cell will hit 3.40v while my other 3 is still in 3.70v mark, what should i do?
Retire the pack.
Thats what i thought, thanks 😊
Hello. can you help me please with some advice? how do I keep my batteries in order not to lose their capacity? even if I put them on the shelf to 50% (lipo storage) some of them lose their capacity when they load them ... for example from 2500mah I still have 1200. I tried to discharge them and charge them again many times believing that this cycle will resurrect them but without success. some of them or puffed and used 2-3 times. I'm new to rc, and even if I really like it's expensive to buy batteries. please help me.
You can't stop them from losing capacity. Over time (discharge cycles) all batteries lose capacity as their internal resistance increases. The best you can do is:
1) Always balance charge.
2) Never charge lipos above 4.2v/cell
3) Never discharge lipos below 20% - Although I prefer never to go below about 3.7v/cell
4) Store them at 3.85v/cell
5) Understand the C Rating of the pack. If you have a 2200 30c, that means you can discharge at 66amps. No more.
6) Do not charge at a higher C rating than the manufacturer recommends. Honestly, just charge at 1c for longevity.
Even following the guidelines above, your batteries will still puff, they will still go soft, and you will still have to replace them. To keep your sanity, just consider batteries as a consumable much like nitro guys who have to buy fuel for their planes.
I understand that in time after many discharge cycles I lose my capacity but I have batteries which have been used up to 5 times and when I do not use I do not charge them completely, I set charger to lipo storige and then charge only when I want to I use (charge them with the real b6 charger, I took care not to buy fake)
what I do not know is if the moment I want to charge the batteries I must first discharge them or I can set the charger directly on the lipo balance.
Thank you very much
@@penacatalin7630 From the storage state of 3.85v/cell you can go directly to balance charge. You can go directly to balance charge from any level of discharge without causing damage. If the batteries are puffing and internal resistance is increasing after just 5 cycles, I would switch battery brands. I've had good luck with Turnigy Lipos from Hobby King.
Why didn't you start by balance charging?
I have 2 parallel charge setups and one thing that helps is to use balance lead extensions.
+sweetieinsf I ALWAYS balance charge. Never charged a lipo pack any other way. Ever.
+jmxp69 FYI you'll note in the video I discovered the out of balance condition after a flight. The pack was balance charged prior to the flight.
I got that, I was just wondering why you thought discharging the one high cell was better than trying a balance charge first. I'll be curious to see if your method worked in the long run. I've had some luck with a low rate balance charge to recover weak cells.
+sweetieinsf Past experience with balance charging just hasn't shown the ability to recover too much of a gap. Maybe another video in this discussion.
Bruce has a good video on how balance charging works. Simply put, charge goes up, FETS reduce high cells. Rinse/Repeat.
Sir my 3s lipo pack is showin 4.7 overall volts but when I am checkin single cell volts its showin 3.7, 3.7, 4.4 . Sir can you help me with this problem??
You should not see 4.4v on a lipo cell. 4.2 is the max. 3.7 and 3.7 are ok.
I would use a multi-meter and check voltage on the main leads 1st to make sure it's 11.8v. If it shows 4.7 on the mains you need to dispose of that battery.
If a multi-meter shows 11.8v or thereabouts on the mains, then use your meter and check individual cells on the balance leads--do not use a hobby voltage checker. Use a meter.
Let me know what you find out.
@@RCVideoReviews Yes I m getting 4.7 volts on main leads.That means my battery is damaged
Yeah, if you're getting 4.7 on a multimeter off the main leads you need to dispose of that battery. Anything below 9.9 on a Lipo is not good. If you have a 4.7v cell that's even worse.
How can the full capacity of an older, otherwise good lipo/life battery be reached? ex from max charge of 65 % to 95%
I don't understand your question. You should use voltage values in lieu of percentages. If you're using a balance charger, the balance charger will charge to peak voltage.
@@RCVideoReviews My bad. Thanks for the kind response and information.
Good info thanks dude.
You're welcome. Glad you found it useful.
In this case, can the balancer charger fix this problem? The smart balancer charger i think try to balance your battery
I'm sorry I don't understand the question.
@@RCVideoReviews after i do what u show in this video, cell become balance, but when i do balance charging it back to unbalance again
@@arasykeysha then you probably have an IR issue. Resistance on one cell is higher than the others. That cannot really be solved as far as I know. When that happens to my packs, I retire them.
@@RCVideoReviews i need your advice, i have lihv 3s,my cell is 4.36/4.34/4.29 what u think? Still useable?
@@arasykeysha Sure it's still usable. What will wind up happening is the lower voltage cell (the one with the higher IR) will drain faster. It'll hit the cell minimum faster meaning you won't get the same flight time. It will probably not deliver the same amperage as the lower IR cells. So you'll feel that in power development throughout the flight.
Awesome. Thanks, just what I needed for both my 6s packs!
Great! Glad it helped.
i bought a new 3s lipo and the cells have 1866, 5037, 3785 mV.
what can i do?
So you're saying your cells are 1.86v, 5.037v, and 3.785v? And it's LiPo? Return it. The safe range for LiPo is 3.5 - 4.2v. All cells ideally should be within 1/100th of a volt. 1866mv (1.866v) and 5037mv (5.037v) are not good for LiPo cells.
okay..i have a 3s 2200..with one cell at 3.95 3.97 and 3.96...but my balance charger doesnt have a discharge function...how can i bring the 2 cells down?
Personally, I wouldn't worry about that small of a gap. But if you want to get them perfect, first get a charger that can discharge, calibrate it, then follow the steps shown in the video.
If you want to brute force it, connect some sort of load (like a light bulb) to the two pins for each high cell. But you'll have to keep disconnecting the load to check progress.
@@RCVideoReviews thats exactly what i was thinkn too...i have an decent sized old brushed motor..and was contemplating on runnin it like 30 secs and then checkin it...then rinse and repeat until i got the two cells down to 3.95
@@RCVideoReviews and thankyou for replying to my question btw....not alot of channels actually do
Glad to help. Let me know how it works out.
@@RCVideoReviews soo...i chose the brute force method..all went well and all 3 are sitting at 3.95...i must say...im a bit surprised at how much time it took runnin my motor..to get the numbers down to where i needed em..id estimate a good minute to minute n half per cell
Doesn't the charger automatically detects is a single lipo cell
I just went out to check that, and yes, that works too. Discharge on 1s and the charger isn't looking for a balance connector. So the pin header can be connected to mains with no balance connection to the charger and it did start discharging using the LiPo profile.
Mine has 3.7, 3.7, 4.2. Not sure what to do.
mine 3s 4500 pretty hot after uses, it is fine? Tks
No, not fine. Batteries shouldn't be hot. If it's hot after use, I would probably dispose of it.
@@RCVideoReviews tks, do you know the reason
Most likely you're drawing too much current from it. LiPo batteries do not like to be hot.
The charger was on load so the battery voltage jumps to 3.7 v from 3.6 v after stopping the charger.
I've been facing some opposite situation here. After my battery reaches to 4.2 v/ cell it gets to 4.1 v/cell. Basically from 25.2 v to 24.7 v.
Can someone help me with reason!!😅😅
Why not just use a small 3v or 4v bulb to discharge a cell? Then repeat this till all cells match?
33gate1 that’s certainly another option. That’s how we used to balance NiMH packs when I raced off-road electric.
I am new to this subject but I thought the charger shown has a balancing feature which discharges the higher charged cells allowing when charging resumes the lower charged cell to catch up.
Couldn't you just put it in the charger go through the actions of charging and let the balancing feature take care of it like it should have from the beginning. Ken
Sometimes the Delta is just too high. The battery in this video had only ever been balance charged and storage discharged yet it still got that far out of whack. The video shows how to deal with an out of spec situation that the charger isn't correcting.
You are really a genius🌟👏❤️
with all of those batteries and charging going on I would get those concrete sheet rock type boards and line the wall behind it and the floor just for extra precaution.
Good idea. I've had a relatively large-scale overhaul on how I charge batteries after I built my field box though. All of them get charged and discharged at the field now.
Well, you dont need to do all that complicated stuff. I had the same exact problem with one of my lipo yesterday. I charged it at 0,5 amp and the charger did the job by bringing the two cell at the same voltage.
WEll finally it didnty work out sorry. I did try your trick but after i discharged the the cell with higher voltage to 3.7 volts, the other cell did show .9 volts :(
I'm not sure I follow. You can charge/discharge a single cell at a time. Why did another cell drop to .9?
It doesnt surprise me your having issues with out of balance batteries because of how your charging with that parallel charge port. IMO that is a dangerous setup. The whole point of a balance charger is to charge each cell separate of the others in a multi cell setup. When your charging 4 packs in parallel its only reading an average of all the cells on 4 packs your under and over charging cells doing this. Sure it saves time but imo lipos are risky and charging at the rate your charging at (i think you said 8 amps) ide say your lucky you havnt had a major issue so far. If i were to charge like that ide have temp probes on each pack. This is just my opinion ive been around rechargable batteries since the red sanyo nicad batteries in the 80s till now but imo the only safe way to charge in parallel is if all the cells in the packs were matched using a machine that charges/discharges and measures the internal resistance during the process. The cells will drift apart over time from use the batteries in the center suffer the most because they are in the center of the heat the better they stay cool the more cycles you can get out of them. Its your equipment you can do what you want but it just seems risky to me is all. When i first read about how lipos uses a balance port thi is so they dont have to "match" batteries any more they can just throw packs together some cells slightly weaker and some stronger the charger does all the work. Another issue i can see is if any of the 4 packs in the parallel charge is not at the same discharge state pack 1 80% pack 2 at 70% pack 3 at 75 the pack 1 will over charge before pack 2 is even close to being done.
Bullcrap. Nothing wrong with charging in parallel and it has nothing to do with why this particular battery had an issue. The tech and physics of parallel charging are well known and understood. I've parallel charged batteries for years.
thx it brings my bat to life
Good news!
Good tip will try in have a 5200 mAH out of balance 2s 4.20 and 4.16
Yup, this will cure that situation. Good luck.
Awesome this saved my ass!
Awesome! Glad it helped.
I knew I kept those servo connecters for a reason
Right? I have boxes of connectors. I always have the idea that the second I throw one away I'll need it.
I think you'll find that's the male end of the servo extension
I’m sure you’re right.
Why not charge the one that is low instead of discharging the one is high?
santos4real that would also work. Two cells were even. I worked on the one cell that was out of line.
@@RCVideoReviews what mode can you charge in if you have one cell lower and 5 cells inline on a 6 cell pack? Should i attempt to charge the one cell using this same method in NiMH mode or charge the 1 cell in lipo mode?
This is awesome it really work this is genius!!! Now I hope it doesn't affect the battery to much now tho. I'm thinking it might died faster....we will see!! Great vid tho
It won't hurt battery life. You're not doing anything other than getting the battery back in spec.
That's barely any imbalance at all. I had a brand new 3s battery charge to 4.15v 3.71v and 3.8v and it would never finish charging.
You have invented a hot water ?😃
I'm sorry, I don't understand
Can i buy some of your battery
Hobbyking. That's the place to buy them. 😁
I’m new to this but I thought that’s what balance charging does?
Sometimes packs get a little too far out of whack and balance chargers will not quite get them back in line. So a little assist can help from time to time.
This video gets lots of views because it happens to lots of people.
sir, I thought balance charge will fix that.
Not always. I have a pretty good charger that will eventually stop trying when one (or more) cell(s) is too far out of balance.
RC Video Reviews oh ok thank
Storage voltage is 3.8 volts
Storage voltage is anywhere between 3.6v and 3.85v. There is no meaningful difference in that range. Many manufacturers ship batteries at 3.75 and there's no telling how long those cells are in storage before moving into production.
Thanks
No problem
Resting voltage 3.8, 3.8, 3.7 is fine. Perfect isn't necessary.
Agreed.
fluke multi meters look so dam good
I've had mine for a very long time. Probably one of my longest surviving tools.
@@RCVideoReviews there way out of my budget I'm currently surviving on multimeters from the local hardware shop that are 30 euro