Charger does not recognize 3rd cell
 

Hey guys, new to the site. Well i went out and bought a new charger and 3 new lipo batteries. Venom Pro Charger Plus along with Venom 5400mah 3s1p 20c, Venom 6400mah 3s2p 20c, and Venom 8000mah 2s2p 25c. Heres my problem, while the 3 cell batteries are charging or balancing the 3rd cell is not recognized by the display screen. The charger recognizes that the batteries are 3 cells before each charge or balance but its not showing any voltage at all for that 3rd cell on both batteries. I used a volt meter on both of the 3 cell batteries and came up with 11.6v total, cell one=1.9, cell two=1.6, and cell three=1.5. Both batteries matched up identicle even tho one is 5400mah and one is 6400mah. So im thinking there just might be something up with that number 3 voltmeter on the charger its self. What do yall think it could be.

sorry forgot to mention that while the batteries are on the charger the #1 and #2 cells are showing voltage of 3.85 while #3 just has 0.00

Your post is a little confusing....the charger has a safety thing where it will not charge if voltage is below about 3v/cell, so if the 3S doesnt have 9+v, the charger won't charge it.

Where you said "cell one=1.9, cell two=1.6, and cell three=1.5" - that doesn't come close to 11.6v (or 9v for that matter).


What does the voltage across the main power wires read for both 3S lipos?

If the voltage is greater than 9v and the charger is not seeing the 3rd cell and you have it setup correctly and the balance connection is correct, then it sounds like there is a prob with your charger.

Are you sure the balance connection is correct?

sorry for the cofusion im all over the place and still new with the lipo stuff. when i came up with the cell one=1.9, cell two=1.6, cell three=1.5 i was using a handheld voltmeter on the balance plug. both 3s packs had the same readings along with a 11.6v reading through the main power wires. i think the problem is in my charger. i set the charger up for 3s then it checks the battery status and comes up with a 3s load on the charger, if it only saw 2 out of the 3 cells an error message should appear on the screen but it doesnt. if that makes any sense

If the 3S has 11.6v, the charger should charge and balance it. If not, then I'd call Venom and ask them why the charger isn't working - or maybe take it back to your lhs.

You wouldn't be the 1st to have had issue with one of these.

my bet is the balance lead is faulty. either on the pack or charger.

^^^ Call Venom and discuss that as a poss - they know the chargers best and let them decide what to do about it. If you bought it from a lhs take it back and let them see what the prob is and try to fix it or give you another.

Like I said, these have not been trouble free. Venom has stood behind them though, so you just need to get them or your lhs involved.

I know a guy who had a similar issue with his charger's balancer misreading the number of cells. Turned out that he was plugging the balance lead into the wrong end of the many pins. Double-check your manual first, but I think you may have to move the balance plug to the other end of the pin bank.

I have the same issue with a 4s using a venom pro charger but I believe the issue lies with the pack and not the charger.

I have 2 4s 5400's and after running the first pack in my rc8be it hit lipo cutoff on my LRP, slowed down and then the speedo flickered. I took the battery and put it on my venom charger. The charger recognized 3s so I turned off the charger and back on thinking that it needed to be reset and the charger still only saw 3s. I took my other pack, never used at this point, and dropped it on the charger and it saw 4s. This makes me think the balancer connector on the pack is faulty and not the charger.

I did notice that the charger only dc's at 1 amp, so far this is the only downside. And besides, I can dc from the car faster if I *need* that done quickly :)

Hope this helps someone else having the same issue.

Take a DVM/MM and check cell voltages from the balance connector. Also check voltage across the main power wires. Something's not right.

If voltage across main power wires is less than 12v, you prob have a weak/low cell. If there's a prob with one of the cell's balance wires, but the lipo has more than 12v, the charger should give an error since the voltages would not agree.

You can try charging withoiut the balance wires conencted - see if that's any diff. If it is, then prob have a balance wire issue. If it's still seeing it as a 3S, then its prob a weak/low cell.