Battery parallel charging Board issue....

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mikegriffin84

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Arrma RC's
  1. BigRock
I bought a parallel charging board and charged x4 5200mah 3s 2c using the balance charge setting on my charger. All 4 batteries charged the 3 cells in each battery to 4.12, 4.20, 4.21. Is this a bad way to run a battery? Is this normal when charging in parallel? Is there something wrong with my parallel board?

This seems like a pretty large difference of .09 from the lowest cell to the highest cell. I am starting to wonder if the parallel board was a waste of money.... I thought it would be nice for charging all of my batteries at once I have 4 that are identical and then 2 more sets that are identical. With my 4 channel charger, I put the parallel board on one channel and charge my others batteries on my other 3 channels.

Thanks.
-Mike
 
So now I am wondering if it is just the Dynamite Prophet Sport Quad charger that is reading a little off....
 
That is just the way para boards work, it will always balance the cells that way. I find that para boards are more trouble than they are worth.

Sorry I misread your post, I thought it said 4.18 not 4.12v. When using my para board I would have one battery with the cells at 4.19 and 4.21 and the other at like 4.18 and 4.20 that is normal.
 
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I've read about this with several balance boards and chargers. Most consistent from what i've seen and experienced, was with an Revolectrix/FMA parallel board. I charged parallel almost exclusively and have never had any issues, unless it was with the batteries.

My setup is a Revolectrix Powerlab Duo 8x2, FMA Parallel boards, and a bump controller. Usually charging 4 batteries at a time, 2 on each channel. So far with the SMC batteries, it's been near perfect everytime plus or minus .01-.02 roughly.

What charger and parallel boards are you using?
 
I have a Hitec X2 700 and charge 6 gensacearespammers 2s batteries at a time on each channel and haven't had any issues like this. I bought all of my stuff from progressiverc.com and didn't go with balance boards exactly. I would imagine that these are the exact same though, just not mounted on a board.

http://www.progressiverc.com/parallel-6x-balance-adapter.html

http://www.progressiverc.com/parallel-6x-bare-charge-cable.html

What batteries are you using and where did you get your parallel boards from? Are the voltages that you are saying from the charger or is it from an external Lipo checker?
 
Using a Dynamite Prophet Sport Quad 4x100w

Using batteries from RCJuice.com. Great batteries and no issues noticed until using the parallel board: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071LTD9RF/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The readings are from the charger.... I was wondering if maybe that is less accurate than an external meter? Is there a good external lipo checker you recommend? Will that give me more accurate readings?

The only thing that has changed is the parallel board.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
Below is the battery checker that I have. I cannot vouch for it's accuracy however how I haven't really had any issues in the past.

I'm not an electrical engineer or anything, so I am just guessing here. I'm wondering if you don't have one cell that has a higher resistance that is throwing it out of whack and not allowing it to fully charge. Again, don't have any knowledge or experience or anything. Just giving an idea to check the cell resistances of each battery if your charger is capable of doing so.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/DYN4071
 
Below is the battery checker that I have. I cannot vouch for it's accuracy however how I haven't really had any issues in the past.

I'm not an electrical engineer or anything, so I am just guessing here. I'm wondering if you don't have one cell that has a higher resistance that is throwing it out of whack and not allowing it to fully charge. Again, don't have any knowledge or experience or anything. Just giving an idea to check the cell resistances of each battery if your charger is capable of doing so.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/DYN4071
I will definitely check the cell resistance's. I. Wondering if it is just a weird reading the batteries are pretty new and maybe have 10-15 cycles and the all read exactly the same all 4 batteries. They read 4.12, 4.2, 4.21. this makes me worry less because it is 4 batteries saying exactly the same thing. They hold a charge about as long as I expect so the performance is unaffected by these numbers.

Below is the battery checker that I have. I cannot vouch for it's accuracy however how I haven't really had any issues in the past.

I'm not an electrical engineer or anything, so I am just guessing here. I'm wondering if you don't have one cell that has a higher resistance that is throwing it out of whack and not allowing it to fully charge. Again, don't have any knowledge or experience or anything. Just giving an idea to check the cell resistances of each battery if your charger is capable of doing so.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/DYN4071
I think the external tester would remove any concerns I have.
 
Ah, sounds very likely to be the parallel board then. I'd only recommend the FMA one, although it's pricey. However if you don't need to really parallel charge, I'd always says it's better using separate channels.

Progressive RC also make there own, that I have used with great success. But I like the FMA version better.

Trying double checking all your contacts and cleaning them. I've read that to be a common cause as well, although something I haven't experienced *knock on wood*

FMA:
http://www.progressiverc.com/fma-multi-port-safe-parallel-adapter-for-jst-xh-t-plug.html

Charger readings tend not to be as accurate. Although if your consistently using that, then you would have a proper baseline.

For external meters, I use the ISDT and Wayne Giles ESR meter.
http://www.progressiverc.com/isdt-bg-8s-battery-checker.html

http://www.progressiverc.com/universal-esr-analysis-meter.html

For me Parallel charging saves time. Unless you feel the need, maybe stick to individual channels. If parallel is a must (or you really want to) then go with the FMA or PRC boards.

Have you tried charging at a lower c rating?

Another thing to try, charge everything on the parallel board. But measure the batteries individually on each channel? Could be some interference with the board that's giving you one wonky reading per cell.
 
Parralell is nice because I have amassed a decent amount of batteries... 8 to be exact I only have 4 channels. By pairing the batteries that match on a board I can charge or storage charge all of my batteries after a days run. I. Going to hold off doing this until I get a tester that way I can better diagnose if there is actually an issue and reliably monitor the situation. Thanks for the help.
 
Parralell is nice because I have amassed a decent amount of batteries... 8 to be exact I only have 4 channels. By pairing the batteries that match on a board I can charge or storage charge all of my batteries after a days run. I. Going to hold off doing this until I get a tester that way I can better diagnose if there is actually an issue and reliably monitor the situation. Thanks for the help.
Well you don't necessarily need an external monitor, as long as you have the same tool to measure whatever batteries than your good. If your readings were consistent prior to the board, then I'd say you can continue to use the charger to measure. I would say just don't use those cheap buzzer type checkers, I have 8 of them. All will measure my batteries with wildly different numbers.

If your dead set on external, I'd recommend the ISDT in the link above. Reasonable price and can be updated. The Wayne Giles is the most accurate in theory, but again there's no standard baseline to assure it's accuracy. Also the most expensive. But it will give you the resistance of each cell, and it's proper c rating, along with max draw amps the battery can supply.
 
That is a good point @Vedak that if you don't need to parallel charge it is better to charge each pack individually. I have over 30 batteries and an 8s machine. I don't have 20 hours to charge all my batteries so that's why I parallel charge haha.

I agree to not use the cheap buzzer type checkers for accurately checking the cells. I use them for in my vehicles while running, but that is just as a back up secondary measure and don't rely on them completely.

Can you please take a picture of what that ISDT checker looks like when it's operating? I have the Dynamite one I listed above and don't like how it cycles through everything and have been eying that ISDT.
 
That is a good point @Vedak that if you don't need to parallel charge it is better to charge each pack individually. I have over 30 batteries and an 8s machine. I don't have 20 hours to charge all my batteries so that's why I parallel charge haha.

I agree to not use the cheap buzzer type checkers for accurately checking the cells. I use them for in my vehicles while running, but that is just as a back up secondary measure and don't rely on them completely.

Can you please take a picture of what that ISDT checker looks like when it's operating? I have the Dynamite one I listed above and don't like how it cycles through everything and have been eying that ISDT.
Parallel charging is fantastic, I had no idea about it up until only 2 years ago haha. I was individually charging batteries on a single channel for soo long like a sucker.

The buzzers are good if you can sort them down to the best one. Out of the 8 I have, only one is acceptable for use. Worse had a consistent voltage range being off by almost 2 volts!

I'm too lazy to shoot a vid lol. But here's a YT:
 
Parallel charging is fantastic, I had no idea about it up until only 2 years ago haha. I was individually charging batteries on a single channel for soo long like a sucker.

The buzzers are good if you can sort them down to the best one. Out of the 8 I have, only one is acceptable for use. Worse had a consistent voltage range being off by almost 2 volts!

I'm too lazy to shoot a vid lol. But here's a YT:

I have that checker as well as my isdt t8 charger. Love this thing. 6 packs and always finishes at 4.19v on all cells. My para board is just a cheapo from banggood.com.
 
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