Battery safety question

[partsmgr]

I have a Powerhobby 6s lipo that I ran 4 or 5 times and will only register as a 5s on my chargers now. I know that it is almost fully charged. It now must be discharged and disposed of. There is no obvious damage to the pack or any of the wires. My thought is to take it out and run it till LVC and the start the disposal process. Think this would be safe?

 

[WickedFog]

Did you check your balance connector? Sometimes that is all it is.

 

[tntpoof]

Id say same as frog..those wires do come loose..

 

[partsmgr]

All the wires feel well seated and secure. Powerhobby didn't act like this was unusual, stated a cell might have gone bad. I'll see how their customer support is next week if the replacement shows up as promised.

 

[Weezel]

Will your charger tell you the voltages of each cell and what the overall voltage is?
It's strange that a charger will charge a 6s LiPo battery to the 25.2volts and only register 5cells. Charger should error. Maybe a balance wire is broken like @WickedFog mentioned and then thinking its a 5s battery and only charging to 21volts (what 5s charged would read).

 

[WickedFog]

Will your charger tell you the voltages of each cell and what the overall voltage is?
It's strange that a charger will charge a 6s LiPo battery to the 25.2volts and only register 5cells. Maybe a balance wire is broken like @WickedFog mentioned and then thinking its a 5s battery and only charging to 21volts (what 5s charged would read).

I don't see anywhere where it was mentioned it charged to 25.2v. Am I missing something?

 

[partsmgr]

my gensacearespammers charger which I used to charge the few times before this issue shows 20.9v and:
4.169
4.176
4.167
4.172
4.180
-0-

 

[Weezel]

I don't see anywhere where it was mentioned it charged to 25.2v. Am I missing something?

OP mentioned that it's almost fully charged and reading as a 5s battery. If its charging past the 5s voltage level how close to the 6s (25.2volts) is it charging to?

 

[partsmgr]

I don't see anywhere where it was mentioned it charged to 25.2v. Am I missing something?

The few times I charged it, it read 6s and charged fine. Now it throws an error cell mis match

 

[WickedFog]

OP mentioned that it's almost fully charged and reading as a 5s battery. If its charging past the 5s voltage level how close to the 6s (25.2volts) is it charging to?

Chargers read cell voltage to charge. If it only sees 5 cells, it won't charge to 6s overall full voltage.

 

[partsmgr]

The few times I charged it I know it was showing voltage for all 6 cells. It was fully charged when I took it out and only ran a few minutes when I had a servo failure. Brought everything back inside and was going to top it off and got the cell count error.

 

[Weezel]

Chargers read cell voltage to charge. If it only sees 5 cells, it won't charge to 6s overall full voltage.

Correct. And charger should error like I mentioned.

 

[partsmgr]

I did not type gensacearespammers in post #7?

 

[Weezel]

I did not type gensacearespammers in post #7?

It's said that they spammed this forum so now that's what they are labeled as when their name is written.

 

[partsmgr]

ok then. I did also connect it to a couple of old what I believe were top of the line charges way back and they only read 5 cells. They don't break the numbers down.

 

[WickedFog]

Correct. And charger should error like I mentioned.

If it is a balance cable losing contact, it could just read it as a 5s and not error. Depending on which cable lost contact.

 

[Mrgoodwrench35]

It's easy enough to isolate the problem with a volt meter. Just read each cell on your balance lead individually. Easy way to tell if it's the pack or the charger.

Do you have another 6s pack? See if it registers correctly on the charger. Chargers are dumb, even the 'smart' ones.

 

[Weezel]

If it is a balance cable losing contact, it could just read it as a 5s and not error. Depending on which cable lost contact.

But the overall voltage wouldn't match. Having 5cells at near their full charge of 4.2 and the 6th cell be zero and the battery still work and charge without problems doesn't happen.

 

[partsmgr]

If it is a balance cable losing contact, it could just read it as a 5s and not error. Depending on which cable lost contact.

It errored because it was looking for 6 cells and only read 5.

It's easy enough to isolate the problem with a volt meter. Just read each cell on your balance lead individually. Easy way to tell if it's the pack or the charger.

Do you have another 6s pack? See if it registers correctly on the charger. Chargers are dumb, even the 'smart' ones.

Yes, another 6s pack reads and charges correctly.

 

[Mrgoodwrench35]

I have seen a few cases where the terminal end on the balance lead was poorly crimped and looses connection. You can usually backprobe the connector and see voltage if that's the case.

In my area, Lowes will take and recycle lipos. Not sure if thats the case everywhere. The have a metal bin outside the store.