I was a lipo newbie not long ago, it's all really simple once you get it figured out. I've had nitro stuff and I'll take a good lipo and a BL set up over all that mess anyday!!!!:nod:

This is an area where standardizing these balance plugs would sure be helpful and just flat make sense, instead, we have 4 styles to deal with atm. When I figured this out, I bought charger and all the adapters so I wouldn't be bumping into this issue. PIA, but once you're there, its plug n play.

That's exactly the way it works - cheaper lipos will go out of balance easier and quicker than expensive ones. Cheaper lipos are more likely to puff with a smaller overdischarge than more expensive cells. Orion are made with Kokam cells that are extensively QC'ed thru manufacturing, then closely matched to the other cells at assembly. Its these extra steps that are making the diff and costing extra bucks.

charging the first pack pack now...bomb squad on stand-by.

sooooo...the pack is 2s 7.4V...my charger knows this...yet my charger is currently charging at a rate of 8.2V (and will looks to be increasing...slowly). Should I move bomb squad to Defcon 3 status?:confused:

your charger should go to 8.4v and then stay there, the amps will then slowly drop untill the pack is full. This is called CC/CV (constant current/ constant voltage)

thanks...correct you are. Much like a child watching horror movies prior to bed, watching a marathon of lipo fires on youtube prior to charging my first pack probably isn't the most confidence inspiring methodology.

charger tells me that, after 31:42 of charge time, pack is charged. 00929mAh. hmmm. would that be due to it being a new pack?

Most chargers have failsafes built in, like cell count detection, to avoid the types of things you saw on you tube. I'm still very careful with the settings on my charger. You almost have to TRY to get a lipo to catch fire like on you tube. Hmmm and if they're taping it for you tube it's no accident..lol

I'm not sure if your charger will charge untill the amps drop down to zero or if it will "time out" before the pack is 100% full. Once your pack reaches 8.4v and the charger swithes to the constant voltage portion of the charge your pack is charged to about 90-95%. You don't have to wait untill it reaches 100% before you run it. The last 5-10% takes the longest to charge and it's only the last 5-10% The last 5-10% can take anywhere from 20-45 min. and sometimes longer. It's up to you if you want to wait for it to FULLY charge.

I'm sure Duster will chime in if I missed anything;)

wow . i think im in the same confusion as you buddy check out the thread below this one

New packs come close to full. I would think that it didn't take very long for it to get to 8.4v? So most of your 31:42 was the last 10% or so. Like I said it takes the longest and it doesn't really put much in (mah)

thanks again for all the help guys. I love this site.

oh...and...ummm...yeah. wow. next purchase is definitely a wheelie bar lol.

I'm never going back to nimh...

double posting it up...

think i just poofed my balancer. in my excited state I plugged in the next lipo in line...then i plugged in my balance tap to the external balancer on the procharger. a hint of smoke and burnt plastic anyone? (i'm hoping there was just a big dust bunny in there) sunofa. so how do I test my balancer? lol...

EDIT: yeah...just took the external adapter apart...dunzo. unreal...

?? You did what?? I don't understand, might just be me. Not familiar with your equipment so can't help ya' ..Sorry

racer1812 has it pretty much nailed.....Lipo is a little confusing cause there's 3 voltages thrown around about them - the max voltage is what your charger charges to - thats 4.2v/cell so 2S is 8.4v just like you've seen. The 7.4v is the "nominal" voltage of 3.7v/cell for a 2S. This is pretty much just for selling them I guess since this is teh figure you always see. Someone told me once nominal voltage was the voltage a fully charged cell falls to when under load...that's not what my eagle tree data recorder tends to shows though, so I don't know about that. Last voltage is minimum cell voltage of about 3v/cell. This varies a little, for a really good quality lipo, factory specs say their min is 2.7v/cell. Don't try that with a less expensive lipo, it'll puff almost every time. So most just say minimum voltage is 3v/cell to handle this quality based difference.

Venom has a rep for poor instructions and I've never heard that there's a proper order for connectiong batt and balance wiring (like there is for hyperion chargers. Guess you've figured it out now, you at least poofed the connector, maybe the balancer as well.

thanks, that helps. I'm admittedly really bad with electrics (i blame math). I'm fairly adept at mechanics / problem solving, (I built my first car...real car that is) but electrics just don't compute with my gray matter. any knowledge you drop is appreciated =)

I hope it's just the external adapter...regardless looks like I'll be getting a first hand look at Venom's top notch customer service tomorrow...wish me luck lol

Racer1812 - my charger (Venom Procharger) has built in balancing capabilities, but has an external adapter piece to fit the various cell counts and their different taps. I had the charger on, plugged in the actual lipo (so it was essentially juiced), and then plugged in the balancing tap. pop. it fried one of the aluminium strips on top of the circuit board (I have no idea what they are called) which runs between solder points. I'm hoping that's the only thing damaged.