5400 Trakpower swelling terminals!!!

[Fiddybux]

I'm a bit concerned about this.

The terminal posts, especially the neg, has swollen and is distorting the side of the gold casing. It has visibly moved at the top and there is a gap between the plastic casing and the terminal post.

As far as I know I've not abused it - just normal racing a some testing / bashing in the street.

I once discharged it quite far, and the power dropped, so I stopped immediately and charged it again when cooled.

Is this normal or is it goosed / dangerous?

Will Trakpower do anything under warranty?

Thanks all.

[sosidge]

Sounds to me like it is the cells inside that have expanded, not the socket (there is no way the metal tubes themselves would expand).

I'm not sure what the current advice is, but personally I would be disposing of that pack in a safe manner ASAP.

You say you already over-discharged it, I doubt Trakpower would offer any cover for a user error like that.

[Fiddybux]

Hi sosidge,

Well the power drop will have been a lipo cutoff on the speedo, so it won't have gone below 6v per pack surely?

I've emailed Trakpower and hopefully they will come good.

[sparrow.2]

Could it be you have a duff connector on your speedo that sits loosely in the tube? The arcing on a bad connector can heat things up enough to melt solder, so a plastic case would definitely melt badly...

Just an idea :)

[mark christopher]

id say same as sparrow, was your male connector plug tight in th hole? sounds like its been hot and the plastic has melted

[neiloliver]

Does sound like a high resistance causing the heating, It coudl be the male from your ESC or a bad connection between the internal connection from the cell to the female conenctor. Can you take a photo?

If it is replaced then it would be good to take the old one apart to have a look inside.

[mark christopher]

personally i would not open it, if you want to know what has happened, post it back to trakpower uk with a letter addressed to James Mack, they will then inspect it and let you know. you wont get a better customer service than trakpower offer

[bodgit]

Ive only seen this once before, it was put down to the thermo senser on the esc, causing the male connector to overheat. The hole hasent expanded, its the plastic around it . It probably looks abit elongated now not safe to use I would say.

[mark christopher]

Ive only seen this once before, it was put down to the thermo senser on the esc, causing the male connector to overheat. The hole hasent expanded, its the plastic around it . It probably looks abit elongated now not safe to use I would say.
why would it not be safe to use? the connector is joined to the cell internally by wire! not direct to the cell

dont see how a thermal sensor on a speedo would cause that no speedo i know off moniters conection temps

[Mike Hudson]

personnaly i wouldn't use it till its been inspected

[bodgit]

if you,ve ever seen lipo,s going up, then its just not worth the risk untill the origional fault can be found and remedied. If there was enough heat to melt the terminal surround it could happen again with more serious results. Like mentioned above, best send it back to trakpower,

[steel]

I would say the same as sparrow and mark ive seen fiddys connections and the male was a bit loose in the tube but not sure if it was his charger connections or his esc:eh?:

[mark christopher]

I would say the same as sparrow and mark ive seen fiddys connections and the male was a bit loose in the tube but not sure if it was his charger connections or his esc:eh?:
charger should only be about 5.4 amps, the ESC/Motor will draw the most current


can you post a picture of the pack?

[Fiddybux]

Could it be you have a duff connector on your speedo that sits loosely in the tube? The arcing on a bad connector can heat things up enough to melt solder, so a plastic case would definitely melt badly...

Just an idea :)

Now that you mention it, when inspecting the battery wires yesterday I noticed the heat shrink had split around the black /neg banana plug, so I fixed it. I guess it could have been arching, generating heat and melted the plastic due to this. It was flush in the tube though - as ever.

Not sure what steel in on about - he's never inspected my male banana so he wouldn't really know if it was loose in tube. :o

Here's a photo. Hard to see precisely due to my camera phone and no macro, but you can just make out that the neg tube has moved upwards and is slightly bulging the top side of the pack. As you can see the rest of the pack is completely fine.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j58/fiddybux/lipo.jpg

[mark christopher]

your plug has been too loose causing heat, it will be ok to use, you could have a word with trakpower they may be able to fit you a new case if they have a spare

def not a battery fault id say

[Fiddybux]

Thanks Mark, that puts my mind at rest...but I'm going to keep an eye on it all the same.

It all happened when I was bashing in the street - and the LIPO came off hotter than usual.

This further supports that it was arching / not properly connected.

Thanks.

[steel]

Thanks Mark, that puts my mind at rest...but I'm going to keep an eye on it all the same.

It all happened when I was bashing in the street - and the LIPO came off hotter than usual.

This further supports that it was arching / not properly connected.

Thanks.

told yer your male banana was to small russ:thumbsup:

[vinny20]

I still think lipo is to much power for the car's some company's still need to work. On the problems they are having

[mark christopher]

I still think lipo is to much power for the car's some company's still need to work. On the problems they are having

????????????? i have ten plus lipo packes with various connectors, fit good connectors and your fine, fit loose ones to lipo and nimh and you get the same

why do you think in tc there mod motors came unsoldered? excess heat and that was with nimh!
use good connectors, its nothing to do with the power of lipo

[Fiddybux]

Just for the record I "am" using 4mm banana's - so they're not loose as such.

Don't know what you're on about though Vinny re: too much power?

[Fiddybux]

UPDATE >>>

Posted to TrakPower on Tuesday, got a new one back Friday morning. Wow!:woot:

They said they wanted to examine the pack to learn how to avoid problems in future - so presumably they accept there may be an issue with this pack.

Service is impeccable. Faultless! Very pleased.

I wish everyone treated there customers like TrakPower.

[mark christopher]

or it may be they decide to supply two male plugs with each pack to make sure users dont fit poor quality/poor fitting parts.

trakpower have one of the best customer services i have seen.