Battery Help
 

After taking my car for a spin yesterday, I've come to recharge the battery and it looks knackered. One cell reports a voltage of 0.00 and the other cell reports 3v, but when I try and charge it on its own (1s 3.7v) it says its full after about 30 seconds, and when I discharge it it says its empty after about 30 seconds..



Its an Orion 4000 ultimate high voltage shorty.



Is there anything I could try to shock it back into life, even if its not as performant? I've not had it long :-(


(The only mistake I think I made was leaving it plugged in overnight, even though the ESC was turned off. (A reedy black box))


After blowing up my ESC a few weeks back, I feel I'm not having much luck with electrics...:cry::cry::cry: :lol:


Stuart.

it's odd that you only left plugged in overnight I have left stuff plugged in for weeks carelessly with no problems

is this a two cell stick pack ? it is possible connecting wire inside pack is dislodged but that's rare
you could try charging bad cell on a nimh setting see if it recovers but you must watch carefully and swop to lipo setting once voltage gets to approximately 2.8 v
again this is not successful that often
cheers Dave

I had a similar issue it turned out to be a break in the wire of the balance port connector so if you can try a different charge lead

Cheers guys,


Its a shorty.



I'll try on Nimh.


I've already tried different leads and I've check the voltage with a multimeter.


I can get the ~3v reading from the positive and negative connections and I can get the same on the left side (i.e. one of the cells) from the balance connector and the negative connector.



I get 0.0v from the positive and balance connectors.



Is it feasible to open the battery up and check for broken connections?


Stuart

and just to add, I've just check the continuity between the connections on the battery. Between positive and negative I get a reading of 569 (which I guess is the internal resistance). Same between negative and the balance port.


I get 000 from the positive and balance port. Does that support the theory of a broken connection??


Stuart.

You should never continuity test a live circuit - i.e. a battery. This could possibly damage your meter.

It does sound like a dead cell, but as someone else mentioned every time I've had this in the past it was the charge lead itself, the balance pin had come unsoldered.

Well, I just tried jump-starting the dogdy(ist) cell via the NiHM program on the charger for 5 minutes. It seems to have brought a bit of life back to the battery.



I've now left it charging on lipo balancer mode, so we'll see what happens.


I'll let you know it its worked or if its set on fire. :-P



S.

Ok, I've managed to get both cells back up to ~4.2v.


There is a little swelling, but as the saying goes,

"if your batteries aren't swellin', you're just pretendin' "

... or at least I think that's it.. :o


I'll drop them in my car tomorrow and let you all know how quickly it goes up in flames.


Stuart.

Well it survived. The battery was fine, like back to normal. Just a little bit hotter than normal.

to be honest bin it, if its getting hotter then normal the cell internals have been damaged, your just waiting for the inevitable to happen. its really not worth the risk over a battery