ISDT 2 Charger for 300mah S2 batteries

[Lynik]

Hey, new to the hobby and have been googling/youtubing this without a definitive answer.

I bought an ISDT D2 Mk2 to charge these little 300mah batteries with a balance plug only. I cannot discharge, charge, or storage them. I get operation not supported. But the device sees the battery when I plug it in. (see pictures)

I am assuming I need a balance board to do these functions but I can't find anything definitive anywhere. Please let me know if this is the only adapter I need or something else to get this to work or if there is something else.

JST-XH Balance Board 2-6S Lipo Battery Charger Extend Expansion Board Adapter Converter​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077XYCSVB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



work.

 

[DavidB1126]

You only have the balance plug plugged in.
You also have to plug in the main plug (the one with 2 thicker positive and negative wires) into the charger too.

Looks like since its a Spektrum SMART battery, it can only charge with spektrum chargers.
Weird, that battery only has a balance port, but not a actual wire / plug to plug in.
Note: You cannot charge through balance wires.

I wonder why there is no main wires? Contact spektrum and see if this was a defect battery. But on the google images, it only shows a balance wire. @Greywolf74 or @WickedFog , can you explain this!?!

The balance board you linked, yes it can be used, but you still cannot charge without the main wires. That balance board is a JST-XH while the battery has a JSH-PH.

 

[WickedFog]

Welcome to the proprietary world of Spektrum dumb batteries. Spektrum wants people to buy their crappy chargers, so they design their batteries to only work on their crappy chargers. Traxxas does the same crap. Send em back if you can, and tell Spektrum to shove their batteries up their butt.

For your charger, you need a battery with a discharge lead and a balance lead. Maybe you can find or make some type of adapter to split that balance lead on the battery off into a balance/discharge lead?

 

[Lynik]

Hey guys,

I appreciate the responses.

What you’re saying is crystal clear, but these batteries do charge through the balance ports. They came with a usb charger, really basic. But that’s how they charge. It’s for a plane.

Which is why I was confused. The charger picks up the battery when plugging it straight in.

So, spektrum is blocking the charging? But a balance board should work on an equivalent battery from a different manufacturer?

 

[DavidB1126]

If it came with a USB charger, that's the only way on how to charge it. Unless if the other spektrum chargers charge through the balance cord.

It recognizes the battery as a 2s and the cell voltage due to the balance cord, but cannot charge as there is no main wires. That's how chargers like the isdt is/works.

Yes spektrum blocks charging on non spektrum chargers because they want you to spend money on their overpriced and junk chargers. Just like Traxxas.

If you had a equivalent battery, yes it might work, but it has to have the main wires inorder to charge/discharge on the charger.

I know what your talking about. My mini b with the small dynamite batteries came with a USB charger which charged very slow through the balance cord. Once the USB charger burnt up, I went to use my SkyRC T200, you had to use the main EC2 plug to actually charge and discharge it. Because the balance cord only picks up the amount of cells and the voltage of each cells, and is there to balance out the voltage of each cells/s. Now if it only had the main wires and no balance cord, it could work, but the juice the charger is sending to the battery, it wouldn't know which cell to put it into and balance it out due to no balance cord. (Only if the battery has multiple cells, if it's a 1S, it would be fine as there is no other cells to balance)

I think that's how it all works

What I would do is send back the spektrum battery and get something equivalent, or just keep the spektrum but it can only charge with the USB thing.

 

[Greywolf74]

Hey guys,

I appreciate the responses.

What you’re saying is crystal clear, but these batteries do charge through the balance ports. They came with a usb charger, really basic. But that’s how they charge. It’s for a plane.

Which is why I was confused. The charger picks up the battery when plugging it straight in.

So, spektrum is blocking the charging? But a balance board should work on an equivalent battery from a different manufacturer?

Your typical LiPo charger will not charge through the balance port only. You'll have to keep using the USB charger that it came with, or you could try making an adapter that splits the balance lead in to a main power lead and a balance port. That being said, I've never personally tried that, but theoretically, it will work. Just make sure you hook it up outside initially the first time just to make sure that the adapter is wired up correctly.

 

[RustyUs]

Lynik, if you do make an adaptor, charging that 300mAh pack at .3 amps would be fine. I'm no electrician, but I probably wouldn't exceed more than 1.5 amps through 22AWG wires. I think I've already gone up to 2 amps on thinner/shorter length wires, but that's just me testing things outside on my 2000mAh 3S LiPo transmitter pack. You have to do your own investigation on power handling of different gauges of wires.

 

[Lynik]

Hey guys, you gave me enough information to crack this.

First you need this adapter it converts the balance board to a balance board and IC3 adapter.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/adapter-ic3-battery-jst-ph-device-jst-xh-balance/SPMXCA326.html

Then I needed to convert that to XT60 with an EC3 to XT60 adapter. Works perfectly. Wanted to share this for the next guy. I don’t want to buy multiple chargers.

2Pair ShareGoo RC XT60 to EC3 Plug Female Male Adapter Connector for RC FPV Drone Car Lipo NiMH Battery Charger ESC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZH8PDHP

For anyone who doesn’t know EC3 and IC3 are equivalent. The IC3 pin isn’t used, so there aren’t the SMART features if you used a Spektrum brand adapter.

 

[Greywolf74]

Hey guys, you gave me enough information to crack this.

First you need this adapter it converts the balance board to a balance board and IC3 adapter.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/adapter-ic3-battery-jst-ph-device-jst-xh-balance/SPMXCA326.html

Then I needed to convert that to XT60 with an EC3 to XT60 adapter. Works perfectly. Wanted to share this for the next guy. I don’t want to buy multiple chargers.

2Pair ShareGoo RC XT60 to EC3 Plug Female Male Adapter Connector for RC FPV Drone Car Lipo NiMH Battery Charger ESC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZH8PDHP

For anyone who doesn’t know EC3 and IC3 are equivalent. The IC3 pin isn’t used, so there aren’t the SMART features if you used a Spektrum brand adapter.

View attachment 178646

Good to know that Spektrum makes an adapter