Powerlab6 car saddle pack problem

[fq06]

My reedy 2s hard case stick packs balance charged. Hard case with plug in ports for charge harness, not direct wire coming out of lipo, same with saddle. FMA balance adapter.

I have a reedy 5200 saddle pack with no balance ports. Set charge profile for auto detect, no balance and I get bad cell node error trying to charge in series or just one cell. Tried 1s & 2s specific also. Set profile for balance disabled also.

What am I doing wrong?

Brand new charge lead from hard shell lipo case to new deans between charge lead from lipo and the powerlab charge output cable. Brand new reedy balanced charge lead.

Plug the same charge lead into a cheap hobby king charger series or single and it charges fine

Anyone else have this issue, any guidance? Thanx.

[jersy/hank]

why don,t u go to fma site &contact howard mantos. he can ans. all your questions.

[fq06]

Originally Posted by jersy/hank

why don,t u go to fma site &contact howard mantos. he can ans. all your questions.

Thanx for the suggestion, but I emailed tech support and called today. Got a race tomorrow.

[fq06]

Does Howard have a email address direct to him?

[jersy/hank]

well are u on right chem. hang in i go to e mail

[fq06]

Yes, lipo. Copied accurate charge I think it was and changed balance to no and set amp rate and cell count.

[jersy/hank]

try howard@fmadirect.com

[jersy/hank]

ihave multi 4 & 10s so not real familer with 8

[fq06]

@hank
Won't let me reply to visitor message or do anything right now, not enough posts.

[fq06]

Someone on rctech said powerlab doesn't like not balance charging

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by fq06

My reedy 2s hard case stick packs balance charged. Hard case with plug in ports for charge harness, not direct wire coming out of lipo, same with saddle. FMA balance adapter.

I have a reedy 5200 saddle pack with no balance ports. Set charge profile for auto detect, no balance and I get bad cell node error trying to charge in series or just one cell. Tried 1s & 2s specific also. Set profile for balance disabled also.

What am I doing wrong?

Brand new charge lead from hard shell lipo case to new deans between charge lead from lipo and the powerlab charge output cable. Brand new reedy balanced charge lead.

Plug the same charge lead into a cheap hobby king charger series or single and it charges fine

Anyone else have this issue, any guidance? Thanx.

Are you saying your LiPo battery does not have a balance connector


If it does, I ran into this on my Powerlab 8. If you've got a digital multimeter, you need it now.

Plug in your balance cable into your LiPo battery, do not plug the other end of the balance cable into the '6 charger.

Next, at the Cellpro 6 end, identify the pin opposite the red wire, that would be the negative wire. Carefully touch the negative digital meter to that negative wire. And touch the positive meter to the next pin on the connector. You should read one cell, about 4 volts or so. Go to the next pin, 8 volts or so, and on to the end.

But here is the important part, the top of the last cell MUST connect to the cellpro connector RED wire. If not, there is your problem. Yes, that might leave pins in the connector with no battery connection to it.

And, the Cellpro Powerlab 6 charger also has different configurations for different types of battery connectors. That is visable with the Cellpro USB cable adaptor. Which won't work if you don't have one right now.

Try that pin out connections, and see what you get. If the "Top" of the battery does not connect to that RED wire, it must be corrected.

Those Cellpro chargers work on any type of battery including balance charging, they just must be hooked up properly. Contrary to RCTechs opinion.

One of my club members purchased the Cellpro 10S charger. He's since put all his other chargers into a box in his work shop.

Let us know what you find.

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by fq06

My reedy 2s hard case stick packs balance charged. Hard case with plug in ports for charge harness, not direct wire coming out of lipo, same with saddle. FMA balance adapter.

I have a reedy 5200 saddle pack with no balance ports. Set charge profile for auto detect, no balance and I get bad cell node error trying to charge in series or just one cell. Tried 1s & 2s specific also. Set profile for balance disabled also.

What am I doing wrong?

Brand new charge lead from hard shell lipo case to new deans between charge lead from lipo and the powerlab charge output cable. Brand new reedy balanced charge lead.

Plug the same charge lead into a cheap hobby king charger series or single and it charges fine

Anyone else have this issue, any guidance? Thanx.

Hi:

Sorry, forgive my ignorance. How many cells are in the pack that you are trying to charge without balancing that is giving you the cell count error?

If it's higher than 2s, there is no way to charge this battery on the PL6 without attaching a balance connector. There are no settings in a preset that will allow for this. We do this because it is unsafe to charge > 2s LiPo without balancing.

If it is a 2s pack, let me know, and we'll go from there.

Hope I've helped you!

Tim Marks

[fq06]

Thanx for the response Tim, two single cells in parallel... or single cell by itself.
Tried with balance plug plugged into balance board and not plugged in.
Could charge as single cell by itself or two cell parallel on other chargers... just not power lab.

Nothing to plug balance plug into on the lipo's.
Two single cells
http://www.teamassociated.com/reedy/parts/details/627/
Connector
http://www.teamassociated.com/reedy/parts/details/607/

[fq06]

Originally Posted by kyleservicetech

Are you saying your LiPo battery does not have a balance connector


If it does, I ran into this on my Powerlab 8. If you've got a digital multimeter, you need it now.

Plug in your balance cable into your LiPo battery, do not plug the other end of the balance cable into the '6 charger.

Next, at the Cellpro 6 end, identify the pin opposite the red wire, that would be the negative wire. Carefully touch the negative digital meter to that negative wire. And touch the positive meter to the next pin on the connector. You should read one cell, about 4 volts or so. Go to the next pin, 8 volts or so, and on to the end.

But here is the important part, the top of the last cell MUST connect to the cellpro connector RED wire. If not, there is your problem. Yes, that might leave pins in the connector with no battery connection to it.

And, the Cellpro Powerlab 6 charger also has different configurations for different types of battery connectors. That is visable with the Cellpro USB cable adaptor. Which won't work if you don't have one right now.

Try that pin out connections, and see what you get. If the "Top" of the battery does not connect to that RED wire, it must be corrected.

Those Cellpro chargers work on any type of battery including balance charging, they just must be hooked up properly. Contrary to RCTechs opinion.

One of my club members purchased the Cellpro 10S charger. He's since put all his other chargers into a box in his work shop.

Let us know what you find.

Will check with multi meter tomorrow if Tim can't think of what's not right off hand.

But there are no balance ports in the saddles. They are two separate single cell lipo's, connected in series.
Charger red goes to cell one red. Jumper wire from cell one black to cell two red. Charger black connected to cell two black.

There is no balance port for powerlab to recognize.

My two cell 6500 stick pack that has a balance port in it charges fine... balanced.

Using FMA cp8s-gpko6s... balance board that came with it from amain hobbies.
http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...n-6S-40A-1000W


Have the USB adapter and CCS installed with latest firmware that was just loaded yesterday.

[fq06]

Ok, so... copied 1s/2s small non balanced from library to unused preset and that charged the saddle pack. 1 cell by itself or two cells in series... no problem.

But now I need to get that up to at least a 5.2 amp charge at the minimum... 5200mah lipo. That preset is 2a Max.

Tim, any thoughts on how to get more than 5a out of that?

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by fq06

Ok, so... copied 1s/2s small non balanced from library to unused preset and that charged the saddle pack. 1 cell by itself or two cells in series... no problem.

But now I need to get that up to at least a 5.2 amp charge at the minimum... 5200mah lipo. That preset is 2a Max.

Tim, any thoughts on how to get more than 5a out of that?

Hi:

Glad you got something going. The PowerLab 6 can only do 2A on a non-balanced charge as you've discovered. For safety reasons, we don't let the user go above that using the non-balanced preset. Can you solder? What you need to do is pick up one of these:

http://www.usastore.revolectrix.com/...-10-9-Position

Then you need to splice the black wire of the above connector to the black wire where you are currently plugging the single cell into the PL6 black banana jack. Next, solder the red wire of the above connector to the red wire where you are currently plugging the single cell into the PL6 red banana jack. Then plug the balance connector into the balance port, choose any of the non-balancing presets, and charge away. The Accurate and Faster Charge presets allow up to 10A. The High Power preset will allow up to 40A.

Be sure to put heat shrink tubing or electrical tape over you solder work. If you solder, you can build up what you need in about 10 minutes I imagine.

If you want to get more creative, figure out a way to parallel the cells at the same time you connect up the balance pigtail. Then you can charge them in parallel at the same time. The PowerLabs were made for parallel charging and the user interface even asks you how many packs you have in parallel when you start an operation. The unit will automatically do the work for you to multiply the current preset's charge rate by the number of P you tell it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Tim Marks

[fq06]

Ok, so remove the balance lead from another charge lead like the one in my above post and black wire from your connector to black charge lead wire. Red from your connector to red charge lead.
That will allow me to charge 1s @ 5.2a.

I do charge both in series without balance throughout the race day (maybe 6 times) and storage charge each one individual to get them to resting voltage at the end of the day. Start the day by charging each one to 4.2v. The cells voltage doesn't really drift throughout the day, it's fine.

How can I wire it up to charge in series?

If i have to do parallel...
Parallel would be red to red and black to black in 1st saddle pack and then have a lead jumping from red in pack one to red in pack two and same with black?

Then set for 2s parallel in preset?

Will have to bring a junk charger for tomorrow to get through the day, my main charger quit on me. Can't charge at 2a... won't have time between heats to get a full pack since I run 2 classes. One car saddle, one car stick.

Eventually need to figure out how to charge both 1s saddles at once. Thanx for the guidance Tim.

[fq06]

Ordered the connector... shipping was more than the part. I guess it could be worse, connector could have been $10 and then $4 shipping

Thanx for the help Tim, now if you can help me get both 1 cells charging at the same time... that would be great! No firmware update to allow two single cells series charging at up to 6a without balance so I don't have to carry a rats nest of wire to charge the saddle pack?

[fq06]

Got the iron out and soldered it up, balance charging my saddle pack and very happy!

Thank you Tim on this thread and Howard on the phone.

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by fq06

Got the iron out and soldered it up, balance charging my saddle pack and very happy!

Thank you Tim on this thread and Howard on the phone.

Hi:

Nice job! Glad to hear it!

Tim Marks

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by fq06

Got the iron out and soldered it up, balance charging my saddle pack and very happy!

Thank you Tim on this thread and Howard on the phone.

FYI
I've converted all my Cellpro Powerlab 8 balance cables, and batteries to a standard connector. No need to fumble with those multi-connector circuit boards!

Connectors used are all www.digikey.com part numbers:
Cellpro balance connector shell -- WM2540-ND
Cellpro balance connector pins -- WM2517-ND

Battery balance connector shell -- WM2907-ND
Battery balance connector pins -- WM2510-ND

Take a look at the photo on how it works: