bomber9

iTrader: (25)

Hi, i dont know what i'm doing wrong but this is my 6th lipo (3 orion, 1 team checkpoint, 1 racers edge, 1 reedy) that has puffed up. I use a Hyperion EOS 0606i charger. all my lipos are 2s lipos. i balance them on every charge. i dont know what i am doing wrong. when not in use i charge them at 60%. the only thing i can think of is that i run them pretty low before i charge them again. can someone tell me what i'm doing wrong.

racer1812

iTrader: (31)

The question is how low is "pretty low"? What is your LVC set at? Also need a little more info, what vehicle, motor, esc, driving conditions, battery specs, etc...

bomber9

iTrader: (25)

well the last lipo i puffed was an Orion 6000mah 2s saddle pack. i have it in a Kyosho FS2. i have an Orion esc forgot the model but its the one thats exactly like the Ko Propo version. i run a 8.5 Orion vortex motor. I run it on a small parking lot track. i raced it last week and i ran it down to almost empty. i am pretty sure i had it less than 500mah. i'm not sure what my LVC is set on but what do you recommend it to be?

eri3f0g

iTrader: (14)

when you say empty you mean to cutoff correct? Not to "dead".

I would make sure your ESC has the proper voltage cutoff for a 2s lipo as previously mentioned. I think most ESC's are around 3.0 - 3.2v per cell edit which means the packs will always have more than 6v in them when "dead"

Also, what are your motor and ESC temps? Perhaps your gearing is adversly effecting things and making your battery work extra hard (high amp draw) Along with that question, how warm do the batteries feel or what temp are they when you are done?

Just brainstorming for other causes.. How are your solder joints on the ESC and motor? If they are thick, gloppy, or porous looking you could be creating resistance in the solder joint alone which causes problems as well.

I'd say you've ruled out the batteries as you've been through six and they look to be good brands.

bomber9

iTrader: (25)

damn, everything you just mentioned might be my problem! my soldering is pretty thick, my esc gets pretty hot i think i am using an 18t. maybe i should resolder and gear higher and see what happens.

eri3f0g

iTrader: (14)

not familiar with a fs2, that's the 1/10 4wd buggy right? That will definitely pull some power out of your motor/esc/battery combo when your putting 4wd to the ground.

If you have fellow racers running a similar buggy ask them what their gearing is for a similar setup. I can't really advise on gearing for that as I've never ran one.

Sounds like you have somewhere to start though. After you've redone your setup use a temp guage on the esc, motor, and batteries and let us know.

bomber9

iTrader: (25)

sounds good, thanks for all the help. what is normal temperature for the motor/esc?

eri3f0g

iTrader: (14)

I run the tekin motors and I'll run them to 160f all day. Some at the track say you can run them to 180 without issues. Tekin states 160 is safe so that's what I go buy and most often i'm not even hitting those temps. I do like to hit 140 though so I know I'm using what i've got.

I've also noted that some of the LRP motors seem to run a bit hotter without ill effect. I think you can run them at 180.

ESC's.. I'm not sure. Mine never goes over 125-130 and the tekins have a LED "temp status" that you can view during use. I've never had mine say it was close to thermal or even "hot" when it temps at 130. The RX8 I have in my 4x4 Sc10 also has a temp status and the fan is supposed to kick on at 180. With that in mind I'd say keep it below 150 until you get more input or find out the reason for the battery puffing.

ta04evah

iTrader: (2)

That alone may be the factor that is causing your lipo's to puff.
If your speed control has a low voltage cut off point set it to 3.2v for each cell in the battery pack.
If your speed control doesn't have this feature then invest in one of these low voltage alarms http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...rm_2s_4s_.html It will sound a very loud alarm when the voltage in your batteries get down towards a critical level and that will let you know to stop running the car.

Cheers
Rob.

Robert421

iTrader: (11)

http://www.rctech.net/forum/electric...s2-thread.html

Try looking over this thread.
From what research I could do it looks like you have a good charger, but not sure about the esc. Is it the Orion vortec varity? If it does not have the lipo cutoff voltage set to on, it will run the battery to low, which has already been mentioned. Over gearing will cause the esc and motor to be hot which also has been mentioned.

If your batteries are puffing after you charge them, make sure you have the settings correct in your charger ie is it set for lipo or nimh, nicad?

Duster_360

iTrader: (21)

+1 totally agree - over discharging is most likely cause of puffing, getting the lipo really hot is the other.

Three things lipo does not like - being stored at full voltage, being over discharged below 3.7v/cell resting voltage (lipo does have some voltage recovery) and being run hot - like temps of 120-140F.

You seem to be avoiding 2 of the 3 so it looks like simple case of over discharging. One other way to tell if you're over discharging is to look at how much mah your charge puts back in the lipo when you re charge it. You should not be replacing more than 80% of the capacity so for a 5000mah lipo you should not see more than 4000mah going back in on recharge on a 5000mah lipo. If you are recharging more than 4000mah in this case, you are over discharging. In this case, increase you lvc a little until you drop below 4000mah on recharging.

I have found out lipos don't need to run the lvc every time they're run - won't get the best life that way. I can see mine just start to slow a little and that's when I quit running. I run 5000mah lipos and what I see on recharging is usually 3700-3900mah. I get pretty good service from mine, almost too good cause they last so long.

8ightRider

iTrader: (10)

I have the same problem with my Thunder power 4s Pro Series battery...The seal was broken upon arrival so it would puff up about 4 times it size after I removed from battery tray but would always go back down to normal size....I duct taped that thing and have gotten another 20 or 30 runs out of it no issues, still charges perfectly and runs great.


I know why my batts do it though, we race in a fire truck bay that has a layer of dust that is like ice so we are constantly full rpms full throttle moving around in there, they are more like drift cars lol. Thus why I really only use the TP battery cuase I don't want to put much strain on my other batts.