Re: Battery Question
 

Jag,

Assuming that we are talking about 4-cell packs.

How are your battery packs configured (i.e. 4 straight, paired with a shunt wire, etc.) and how did you position them on the Smart Tray?

Not sure, but were the four lights lit on the Smart Tray after you pressed the start button?

Have you read all the instructions on the BOTTOM of the Smart Tray box? I didn't find them for a long time myself.

Yeah I hear you. It seems like the tray didn't like the wire connection between the 2 pairs of batteries. The tray worked fine on an old pack I had that was hard connected all 4 cells.

BTW, I was trying to discharge the batteries.

Thanks

Crashby or Chris,

Is the racing at Modesto on today???

Bill

yes, i'm leaving now

Re: Re: Battery Question
 

Yes, 4 cell.

Paired with a wire connecting them.

Yes, the lights came on briefly. I would say they were on for 30 seconds or less.

I did read the instructions on the box. I installed the pack all the way to the left with the "-" on the bottom like it said. I put the cells together in the tray (I didn't leave any gap between the 2 pairs).

I put an old pack on first to test it and it worked fine but the cells were all hard attached. The "+" end of the cell with the wire attached is the one that exploded. The same cell on the other pack looks damaged as well.

Thanks

jag,

That good test of the one hard attached pack is making the think the orientation was wrong with the "saddle packs" on the Tray.

Was the shunt wire between the two pairs of cells at the bottom when on the Tray (i.e. oriented from bottom of 2nd cell to bottom of 3rd cell)

Or did you have it possibly going from 2nd cell bottom to 3rd cell top on the Tray? This would be a problem.

Gone racing....

Hey Chris,

Great looking car!

Ronnie

The battery orientation was as follows:

From left to right
1st cell - neg. bottom, positive top.
2nd cell - positive bottom, neg. top. shunt wire on neg end.
3rd cell - neg. bottom, positive top. shunt wire on positive end. This is the cell that was damaged.
4th cell - positive bottom, neg. top.
So the shunt wire went from the top of the 2nd cell to the top of the 3rd cell when in the tray. I also noticed that the pack sparks when installed into the tray and immediately begins to get hot.

I inserted the pack in the on the left end of the tray and used the next 3 slots to the right.

Thanks

Good luck racing. I hope your day goes better than mine.:D

Switchblade - I always charge at 4 amps running mod. Do you have some way to check the amp draw of your motors? You can tune your motors for less amp draw, lighter motor springs, receiver pack mild profile on the speed control.

Jag - the pack wasn't in the correct. I had one heat like that once. You want the pack on the far right, with positive connection on the bottom right hand side (where you solder the positive lead on) across the top be nothing but battery bars connecting cells (or the wire on split packs).

take care
john

Really... not that I am doubting you but the instructions say "packs with fewer than 6 cells need to be placed all the way to the left side of the Smart Tray with the negative end of the pack matching with the "-" mark". That's what I did and obviously something went wrong. Do you know this for a fact? If 1 of the cells exploded are all of the others bad as well or can I just replace the bad cell?

Thanks
jag

I've been using one for quit a while and always put the 4 cells all the way to the right.

take care
john

I think I figured out what I did. I had the polarity correct but I wasn't paying attention to the location of the battery bars. I think I had the battery in 180 degrees wrong. The shunt wire should be on the bottom, right?