Icharger / new Zeee batteries problem

[Tim Logan]

I'm hoping someone may have some experience eith this problem. This is the first time I have ever had a problem with lipos. I purchased two Zeee 7200Ma 100C 4S batteries recently. I have other Zeee batteries (5000Ma 50 C 3S) which charge fine and work great. Battery voltage was checked at about 3.8 per cell out of the box. I installed 8mm anti-spark connectors with excellent solder joints, rechecked the voltage, and proceeded to charge. I am charging them at 1C on an Icharger 206B charger. Capacity cutoff was set at 10,000 mAh. Neither battery is taking a charge and will not fully charge. They show about 3.9 per cell after bring on the charger for over 90 minutes. All cells are equal. I've sent a note to the Zeee rep and waiting to hear back. It would seem very unlikely that two batteries can both be bad - so wondering if there is some setting on the Icharger I'm overlooking? Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Daniel's Racing]

I'm hoping someone may have some experience eith this problem. This is the first time I have ever had a problem with lipos. I purchased two Zeee 7200Ma 100C 4S batteries recently. I have other Zeee batteries (5000Ma 50 C 3S) which charge fine and work great. Battery voltage was checked at about 3.8 per cell out of the box. I installed 8mm anti-spark connectors with excellent solder joints, rechecked the voltage, and proceeded to charge. I am charging them at 1C on an Icharger 206B charger. Capacity cutoff was set at 10,000 mAh. Neither battery is taking a charge and will not fully charge. They show about 3.9 per cell after bring on the charger for over 90 minutes. All cells are equal. I've sent a note to the Zeee rep and waiting to hear back. It would seem very unlikely that two batteries can both be bad - so wondering if there is some setting on the Icharger I'm overlooking? Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Is the charger staying at 7.2 amp charge current the whole time ? It isn't going to shut down until 4.2 volt per cell is reached.

Is voltage still coming up ?

Let it go until it finishes unless it gets stupid excessive. The charge rate must be tapering at some point.

Did it shut down from the 10,000 mah cutoff ? Maybe just go again and see if it tops up.

You are for sure in LiPo balance mode ?

 

[Tim Logan]

Thank you for replying! To answer your questions:
1) I am not sure if the charging current remains at 7.2 A. In fact, this is what confuses me the most. The top line of the readout screen, shows that the charge amperage is .28 or so (which I believe is amps, not mAh. I do not know what to expect to see on that parameter. Should it be 7.2 A divided by four or should it show 7.2 A?

2) I took it off the charger after two hours. The voltage had come up about .03V per cell.

3) If I let it to continue to charge, it would likely be charging, as you say, for a stupid number of hours. Obviously nothing that can be used in the field.

4) I'm not aware that the 10,000 mA cap made it cut off. It appears that the charge rate has been constant the whole time. I will say that up until this point I have only charged 5000 mA batteries, not 7200 mA. That's really the only thing different from prior Lipo charges.

 

[Stevegross]

Post a picture of the charger screen while your charging the batteries. Easiest way to see what’s going on.

 

[Tim Logan]

Thank you Steve. Here are pictures of the screen before charging and while charging; separate cell voltage; pic of the cables/connections, and screen shot with a cell meter on the battery.

 

[Mike Hughes]

Your charger is only putting .29A into the pack. Since it is 7200mah, that is gonna take some time to fully charge at that rate. Your start screen shows you at 7.2A. It should ramp up to that after a few seconds. What is the max charge rate of your charger? I would try taking it back to 5A and see if it will go.

 

[Stevegross]

Did u make sure in the settings page the Lipo temination voltage is still 4.2v?

 

[Mike Hughes]

I see in the pic it goes to 20A. MMMMMM. Odd

 

[Mike Hughes]

I am wonder what your 12v source power is. Possibly is not large enough to supply power for 7.2A charge and the charger is defaulting to minimum charge rate.
Mike

 

[Tim Logan]

Thank you Steve - yes, I had checked the termination voltage. It is 4.2v.

 

[Tim Logan]

Mike, thank you for helping. The power supply is a PC power supply recommended by Icharger. It puts out 14v at the terminals. Icharger accepts a 14v to 28v range. Here is a picture:

 

[Mike Hughes]

Did you try bumping it back some on the charge rate like I suggested earlier? You said it will charge your 5000 and I assume you charge at 1C. Try 5A..

 

[Tim Logan]

Hi Mike -
Yes I did and the results were the same.

 

[Tim Logan]

The only other thing that is different from the past is that I am using 8mm anti-spark connectors. They were soldered with a good soldering joint and after I soldered them I checked voltage and voltage was good. The charger lead was a commercially made lead from OSE. Is it possible that something in the connectors is inhibiting amp flow? I cannot imagine it is - or even if it is a sensible question but trying to cover all bases. I would say it's the battery itself - but not likely when two new identical batteries show the same results. I've sent a note to the Icharger folks to see if they have a suggestion,

 

[Mike Hughes]

I wonder if there is something internal on those anti spark connectors that the charger is seeing and causing the issue with charger. I am not familiar with those. You can always unsolder the leads and make a jumper to take those out of the loop.

 

[Tim Logan]

Thanks Mike - When I bought the Zeee batteries, I bought 4 of them. Two of them still have the factory EC5 connectors and two have the replacement OSE 8mm connectors. I just tested the EC5's and they immediately ramp up to a 7.2A charge rate. This makes me wonder: if the battery wires got too hot during soldering, could that have created a problem? Is there anyway that too much resistance can be created when soldering? Temp was 700° with a 100W iron - all seems normal to me - but grasping at straws here.

 

[Wasted wages]

An easy way to tell would be to test the voltage drop across the contacts while under charge. IE: positive to positive

If there is loss thru the connector you will see it on the meter.

You would have to either have points of contact to probe or "pin" the wire insulation to take readings from...

 

[Tim Logan]

Thanks to everyone who participated in this discussion. I am pleased to say that just now I SOLVED THE PROBLEM! I hope my answer prevents confusion for any future users of OSE 8mm anti-spark connectors. Here's the deal:
The female connector has what I believe is a red insulator ring about half-way into one of the two receptacles. I'm guessing this has to do with the anti-spark feature.
When you connect male to female this ring causes a natural resistance - enough to make you feel the two plugs are solidly held together. Au contraire! Thus is the fooler - you MUST seat them further than that first "stopping" point. Once you do that, the charge ramps up to 7.2A immediately.
This probably sounds like a no brained now - but at the first "step" they feel very solidly (physically) connected and, if it were not for the red ring, they would be. If you seat them further, they are a VERY tough to pull apart.
If you consider these connectors, they are very well made and great quality BUT you must seat them 100% and they are murder to separate . Thanks again to all the really helpful folks who answered.
PS I'm feeling a little stupid right now .

 

[Mike Hughes]

NICE!!!!

You would think they would have instruction on there site or something. I have never used those before so was not sure how they work.
Mike

 

[Tim Logan]

Hi Mike -
I will say this about OSE. They are great at answering questions and they ship amazingly fast. I try to buy as much as I can through them. They are a great resource. When this problem began I did not really think about the connectors - but I'll bet you anything, if I had sent them a note, they would have asked me if the connectors were 100% seated ! Thanks again Mike.