jayseas

Newbie.I know nothing about chargers or lipos for starts.But here's my problem.I purchased a SKYRC E3 2s,3s lipo balance charger, i also purchased a zippy compact 25c 2200 battery.So the first time i hooked up the battery to the charger the charger just kepted blinking all three red lights four times and stopped 1 second cycle, which the paper work on the charger says the voltage of a single cell is too high or too low, so i disconnected the battery and reconnected it to try it again.This time i the charger had all three led red lights steady which means the battery is charging, it took about and hour for it to charge got all three steady green lites.So i installed it into the plane and have been testing the setup for off and on for the last several days,well the battery got to the point where it wouldn't turn the motor but would run the servos, so i figured i would recharge the battery, well here's the problem, i hooked it up to the charger and all it would do is keep getting the three blinking red lites 4 times 1 second cycle, indicating the voltage in a single cell is to high or to low, the battery was connected to the charger for only maybe a minute at a time, the battery is puffed up some now, the battery never got hot nor even warm when using it the first and only time it worked, and never got hot or warm when on the charger.Both charger and battery were new.How do i know which one is bad the battery or the charger?Getting very discouraged with electrics, gas is so much easier.Need help any advice welcomed.
Jim

trax de max

LED chargers are rubbish, Personally I think they should be banned, they don't tell you anything about a lipo such as voltage. An inexpensive 50Watt four button charger would of been so much better.
Anyhow it's a learning experience, Not sure if i'm right here, but i think you didn't use a low voltage cut off draining the cells too low, Or is set too low stressing the battery out.
If you have a cell monitor or volt meter to check the voltages that might show something. Lipo's are simple enough to use but do take a different type of care than the nickel batteries.

jayseas

Thanks for the comments,and i have found out there is alot to know when using lipo batteries man what a pain, but i have done more reading and found out you can only drain a lipo so far, around 3 volts per cell, so i checked the battery with a meter and it was 8 volts, so thats why it wouldn't charge, so i found on the net you can recharge the lipo back to 9 volts with a nimh charger, and then charge it normally with a lipo charger, Well i tried charging it back to 9v with a nimh charger.I charged it back to 9v and hooked back up to the skyrc lipo charger and it is now charging up on the lipo charger.I know there is some danger to this, i had the battery covered with a metal cover trying this, but it has seemed to work.And know i didn't have a low voltage cut toff, didn't know i needed one, didn't know you could drain the lipos batteries to low.There is alot to learn about lipos.Right now nitro/gas sure seems alot easier, fill the tank fly.Oh well will keep trying to figure this electric stuff out.

trax de max

You'll soon get the hang of it, When the cells go low it shortens the life span considerably. Some are still ok for a while, while others are worth getting rid of.
First thing i'd do is get a better charger, one with a display. This makes things a lot easier. Many to choose from and often ends up a this V that debate on forums. But have a budget and see what their is.
Another handy item is an alarm/cell monitor such as this http://spcracingbatteries.com/index....&product_id=52. It looks like many of the ebay ones but spc check the accuracy of each one before dispatch.