Solved Lipo not charging. Totally lost my mind and out of ideas.

[Oldbrass]

Howdy all,
First, thanks for all the help I've received so far. I deeply appreciate it.
Second, I've watched YouTube videos and read instructions and troubleshot as best as I know how and I'm out of ideas. Here's the rundown:

Battery is a Tattu 3S 850. Brand new and bought from FT.

I have two chargers. First is a C1-XR. Second is a iMAX B6. (Yes, I have two because I'm an idiot who forgot that he already had one and bought a second).

The harnesses that both chargers came with did not include the mini XT-30 style connectors that the 850 uses, so I bought some and soldered it up to the banana plugs. For the C1-XR, there was actually a red and a black wire that was left bare (with shrink tube caps) so you could attach custom connectors. For the iMAX, I had to sacrifice a T Plug to banana to attach the mini XT-30.

I have tried both chargers with both harnesses in an effort to charge but get error messages.

On the C1-XR, it says "Battery Check: Cell Connect Err"
On the iMAX, it says "Battery Vol Err Cell Connect"

Because the battery is an 850, I do have the problem of neither charger selecting for it. Both go from 800 to 900 with no way to do 850 that I have found, so I've been selecting 800 to be safe.

I have my balance board connected. I attach everything in the right order. I select balance charging. What am I missing here?!? I've included pics of what my settings look like to charge so you can see if I'm making any errors.

The wind is dying down and I wanna fly!

Thank you all!

 

[Quinnyperks]

I’d just order a real one, a little lost flying time Is better than a Lipo fire.

 

[leaded50]

do you have a voltmeter, and can check how much voltage its on the battery at moment? Imax typical do that if voltage on battery is too low.

 

[whackflyer]

Howdy all,
First, thanks for all the help I've received so far. I deeply appreciate it.
Second, I've watched YouTube videos and read instructions and troubleshot as best as I know how and I'm out of ideas. Here's the rundown:

Battery is a Tattu 3S 850. Brand new and bought from FT.

I have two chargers. First is a C1-XR. Second is a iMAX B6. (Yes, I have two because I'm an idiot who forgot that he already had one and bought a second).

The harnesses that both chargers came with did not include the mini XT-30 style connectors that the 850 uses, so I bought some and soldered it up to the banana plugs. For the C1-XR, there was actually a red and a black wire that was left bare (with shrink tube caps) so you could attach custom connectors. For the iMAX, I had to sacrifice a T Plug to banana to attach the mini XT-30.

I have tried both chargers with both harnesses in an effort to charge but get error messages.

On the C1-XR, it says "Battery Check: Cell Connect Err"
On the iMAX, it says "Battery Vol Err Cell Connect"

Because the battery is an 850, I do have the problem of neither charger selecting for it. Both go from 800 to 900 with no way to do 850 that I have found, so I've been selecting 800 to be safe.

I have my balance board connected. I attach everything in the right order. I select balance charging. What am I missing here?!? I've included pics of what my settings look like to charge so you can see if I'm making any errors.

The wind is dying down and I wanna fly!

Thank you all!

Likely your chargers have a Batt Meter page. If you go in there you can see the voltage of the cells. If the individual cells are under 3.3v or the voltage at the main plug is under 9.9, it's likely that's why your charger isn't accepting it. To fix it, go to Nimh charge, and plug in just the main plug of the battery. Start the charger and wait for the voltage to climb above 9.9. BE AWARE THIS IS SOMEWHAT DANGEROUS. Please please don't start a fire, and do it outside. Just hold the battery in your hand while it's on the Nimh charge and make sure it doesn't get warm or hot. If it does immediately stop the charge. Next go back to LiPo charge, plug in the balance plug, and it should charge. Make sure to balance charge it. If you're not comfortable with this method don't try it. I've done it several times and it's always worked, but it is kinda dangerous, so be careful. Here's a link describing the process.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Restoring-over-discharged-LiPo-Lithium-Polymer-bat/

 

[Aireal Anarchist]

I posted in your other thread but if you dont see it .........if it is infact a low cell in the battery, since your using a balance board for multiple batteries, just plug a good battery in the balance board with the battery with low cells and then attempt to BALANCE CHARGE again
the good battery should fool the charger that there is enough voltage and your good to go ....done this a few times with that same iMAX charger

 

[Oldbrass]

I posted in your other thread but if you dont see it .........if it is infact a low cell in the battery, since your using a balance board for multiple batteries, just plug a good battery in the balance board with the battery with low cells and then attempt to BALANCE CHARGE again
the good battery should fool the charger that there is enough voltage and your good to go ....done this a few times with that same iMAX charger

Do the two batteries need to be identical? I only have the one 850 but I have a few 2200's.

 

[PsyBorg]

Im gonna go out on a limb here...

The charger will read the battery thru the balance plug and see three cells. For the over all battery voltage it uses the main wire. I see that you have electrical tape on your main wire like it was spliced to add the connector. If there is an open in that part of the circuit the meter will throw a cell error because it sees too little voltage to match the settings even though the balance port does see them all.

 

[Merv]

I’ve had balance wires become disconnected, inside the pack. Give each of the balance wires a gentle tug to see if one is disconnected.

 

[Aireal Anarchist]

Do the two batteries need to be identical? I only have the one 850 but I have a few 2200's.

I try to always balance multiples with the same MAH rating ....but yes you can use the 2200 to see if you can get it going
you will know immediately if your successful, you will likely get the same error message or it will begin charging

 

[Oldbrass]

Im gonna go out on a limb here...

The charger will read the battery thru the balance plug and see three cells. For the over all battery voltage it uses the main wire. I see that you have electrical tape on your main wire like it was spliced to add the connector. If there is an open in that part of the circuit the meter will throw a cell error because it sees too little voltage to match the settings even though the balance port does see them all.

I wondered that too and peeled back the tape and rechecked the junctions and it all looked good. I even made up a new harness just because I know how my luck rolls and both generate the same error message. Good thinking though.

 

[Oldbrass]

I’ve had balance wires become disconnected, inside the pack. Give each of the balance wires a gentle tug to see if one is disconnected.

Another good idea. Just checked and they are all solid. I'll keep this in mind for the future, though.

 

[Oldbrass]

I try to always balance multiples with the same MAH rating ....but yes you can use the 2200 to see if you can get it going
you will know immediately if your successful, you will likely get the same error message or it will begin charging

Thanks again. I really appreciate it. Same error message, unfortunately. I'm thinking the last thing left on the list is that it's severely undercharged. Gotta find my volt meter now and maybe try Wackyflyer's plan tomorrow when I can set up outdoors in case of unexpected pyrotechnic excitement.

should be fun.

 

[Oldbrass]

UPDATE!

It worked! I followed the instructions as described here and get the battery up over 3.3 volts per cell. Since it's a 3 cell, I decided to go to 10.2 so each cell had 3.4 (3.4 x 3 =10.2) and then I switched the charging program to LiPo and hooked up the balance board. I charged at the lowest rate allowed and the whole thing took about 45 minutes.

So, the battery is alive! Thank you all for your ideas and help. This is exactly why boards like this are still relevant and so very, very useful. You folks are great!

 

[Quinnyperks]

Great job.