Batteries Bad? OK to continue using?
 

I have 2 3cell lipos that are both doing the same thing - when I try to balance them, I get the following error on my charger:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17388106/volerr.jpg

If I unplug the balance plug and charge that way, they will both charge and appear to work OK - I haven't ran them for a full charge since this started, only quick runs to see if the batteries are working - but I can tell by the way the Slash runs, it's getting all 3 cells, or at least some part of all 3.

Could it be that they are so far out of balance that it can't balance them? Other packs have no problem charging on this charger.

Should I continue to run them and not worry about balancing? They are just for bashing - no racing with these packs. They are both inexpensive packs - one is a SkyLipo, and I don't remember the brand on the other, it came with a used truck...

Lipo's should be balance charged every time. Yeah, your cells might be so out of balance from each other that the charger won't charge them.

The balance plug may have lost connection on one cell.

You may want to charge them with out balancing them for five minutes or so, then put on the balance tab. See if it will the charge. Do you have a setting on your charger where u can see the voltage of each cell?

I had the very same problem with my hitec x2. 8 out of 10 it's mainly going to be the balance board with the problem.

Yeah, right. Could be one or more of what's been said.

I had kind of the same issue and soldered on real bullets to my charge lead and that did it. It was the cheap ass bird cage plug things that we not connecting well any more or something in their solder job was going south. Scratched my head for a while on that one :lol:

Point being it's probably a connection somewhere down the line. Balance lead? Balance board? Port that balance board plugs into? Hopefully not a lost balance connection in the pack.

Do your race packs balance charge correctly?

As asked, does your charger show per cell voltage? If too low try NiMh charge at 0.5a for a while and get them back to where they should be.

If the immediate fixes don't work, try new plugs for cheap, solder well. Still no?
Keep going down the line.

I will have to see if the charger will show me each cell.. Not sure. Race packs do balance well, but they are 2 cell - so that doesn't help much here. I will thy the NiMH charge idea to see what happens I guess.

NiMh charge is if your packs are below voltage that your charger sees as safe to charge. Bring it up to where you can lipo balance charge again. Once confirmed your packs are toast low.

First you need to know if you got something wrong. Charge the 2s and see if you have a screen that shows individual voltage. All good? You know the board is giving good signal to the charger. Now chase it backwards. If you have testing tools you can check the plugs from there but it may be easier to just go get a new board and redo the connectors that run into the pack. Deans? Bullet? What? May be bad solder.

If you charge 2s race packs ok and not the problem packs, either something in line or the beater packs are ready to retire.

Just thinking out loud... may be as simple as you still have it on a 2s charge profile and your trying to charge a 3s.