HobbyKing Lipos
 

well I bought a Hobby King Lipo

a Turnigy 4500mAh 4S 30C hardcase pack

( http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=14983 )

well i have a Team Losi Xcelroin 1/8 combo in a Ultra XL1-E

well here's the scoop.

I went to plug in the battery to the ESC to test it out and there was a spark when connecting the lipo. now the lipo doesn't power my ESC. I ran a blinky to it and it only showed 3s.

I have set the ESC to 4s lipo before i plugged it in and when the lipo blew and only showed 3s i set the ESC to 3s still nothing.


So will the lipo work once i send it in to be replaced?

Did you attempt to plug it in with polarity reversed or does the new lipo have a bad (low voltage cell) cell? Some escs spark when connected anyway (to charge the caps in the esc), so the spark could be normal, but if you reversed the connection, you could have damaged the esc and the lipo.

What does the lipo show for voltage? Did you check voltage before attempting to connect it? These are not delivered with a full charge when new, so the 1st thing you should have done was to charge it fully.

it was already at full charge and balanced when I first got it I was running it with a HobbyWing XeRun 80A w/ 2350Kv motor. What do you mean about "polarity reversed"? I had to redo the battery leads to the lipo lead
( http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=9283 )

it was a pretty big spark due to the fact it burned (blacken) the 4mm male bullet and melted the Protector.

ESC is just fine I ran it with a 2s Lipo no trouble at all

reverse polarity means the red wire on black and black wire on red. Reversed.

well nope it was red on red and black on black. I thought it was a bad solder so I made my own lead using different wire still nothing.

So it read a full 16.8v new out of the box?? I've never gotten a fully charged new lipo of the 100s of them that I've owned. None of my HK lipos came fully charged. Most were 3.7 - 3.8+v/cell and one 3S was too low to charge as a lipo due to a very low cell (0.28v).

I'm trying to understand what caused the spark. Some esc have a small spark when connecting, that was not what you apparently experienced. If you didn't plug it in backwards, then what sparked and why?

When you have a short that causes a spark like this, sometimes the lipo will lose a cell (or cells) due to the way they are connected internally. Try to test your esc with another lipo, I'd be worried you damged the esc too.


Good luck returning the lipo....

No I fully Charged the Lipo. Every cell was just fine. What Sparked was the Lipo connector (see link in post #3) and the connector to the ESC was a EC6 or something to 4mm bullets. I cut off the EC connector and added the connector (in post #3) so the male to female connector sparked. I did test it with another lipo (a 2s lipo) and it worked just fine. When the lipo sparked it did lose a cell (i tested it with a blinky and only 3 lights lit up instead 4. Once I get the new Lipo I will charge it and check the cells etc.

hmmm, you need to check each cell with a volt meter. On your balancing tab there are 5 wires, one is a ground the other 4 are the posotive for each cell. I'm not 100% about the blinky because I don't have one, but just because all 4 cells don't light up doesn't mean you have a bad cell. It probably means that the other 3 cells are charged a bit more than the 4th cell so the blinky is trying to draw them down to balance the pack. That's how a balancer works by discharging the other cells down to the lowest one. Throw your pack on the chrager and it it reads above 14.8v then you still have 4 good cells. Keep us updated

Jay

well when u first plug in a blinky balancer it displays as many lights as the lipo

EX: 2s would show 2 lights then go away

I have read the manual to the blinky. So pretty much How it is. But I am just going to send it in a replace it, then when i get the new lipo I will check the Volts threw my charger (my charger shows the volts per cell)

I am not going to unpack the lipo just to test it.

You might want to or else you could easily lose the whole thing. Hobbyking is great for low cost products, but their return policy is very strict. If you charged the lipo once you pretty much voided the warranty, if you connected it to a car you pretty much voided the warranty. I love HK lipos and it is one of only a few choice brands I will buy, but at the cost they sell them there is going to be negatives. The only returns they accept are if you check the voltage before charging or using and return it untouched.

well they wouldnt have gave me an RMA # if warranty was voided but if it is voided well i just sell it at a cheap price since i bought a venom hard case lipo.


its hard to find hard case lipos for 3s and UP and at a good price

HK decides after receiving your lipo if they're going to replace it, not before. You pay to ship it back and they decide them if they'll replace it or not once they inspect it.

I read a lot of complaints about lipos not being replaced after paying to ship them back.

thanks for the info on yet

oh well i will prbby sell if they shipped it back instead of replacing it

i will keep people up to date if it was replaced or not

thanks guys

You keep saying your going to sell it... sell it to who? It would be pretty jacked up if you sold someone a damaged pack, even if you advertise it as a "3s" pack

Jay

+1 on that.