FMA Direct packs with Equinox balancer.
04-10-2007, 03:23 PM
#1
FMA Direct packs with Equinox balancer.
Hello Electric flyers,
I was wondering if anyone knows of an adapter that will allow me to connect my FMA Direct 3 cell packs to my Equinox balancer. The Equinox seems to work well with ElectriFly and HiModels packs. But the connector on a FMA pack is not compatitable. So I need an adapter. Has anyone made one? Or, know where to get the correct connectors to make one?
I have contacted FMA and Great Planes, neither was very helpful.
Thanks,
DW_Crash
I was wondering if anyone knows of an adapter that will allow me to connect my FMA Direct 3 cell packs to my Equinox balancer. The Equinox seems to work well with ElectriFly and HiModels packs. But the connector on a FMA pack is not compatitable. So I need an adapter. Has anyone made one? Or, know where to get the correct connectors to make one?
I have contacted FMA and Great Planes, neither was very helpful.
Thanks,
DW_Crash
04-11-2007, 10:24 PM
#2
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RE: FMA Direct packs with Equinox balancer.
Here's an idea:
Pick up a CellPro extension cable, CPEXT36, and an Equinox 4S/5S adapter set, LXNGC5, cut the appropriate ends off, and solder them together. This will allow you to connect any Cellpro pack to your Equinox balancer. A little expensive and wasteful, yes, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?
Competition does funny things to companies...
Pick up a CellPro extension cable, CPEXT36, and an Equinox 4S/5S adapter set, LXNGC5, cut the appropriate ends off, and solder them together. This will allow you to connect any Cellpro pack to your Equinox balancer. A little expensive and wasteful, yes, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?
Competition does funny things to companies...
04-14-2007, 06:51 PM
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RE: FMA Direct packs with Equinox balancer.
Hey, just got back from the Toledo Expo! Hotel WiFi didn't work 
Figuring out the wires is a little tricky. There's a thread somewhere here that has a link to someone's webpage where they put up diagrams of all the various balancers. I'll see if I can find it.
In the meantime, MOST node connectors have the same wiring order, just different pin sizes and spacings. The key is to make sure which pin is "most positive, and which is "most negative." These are the two pins that will give you the battery's full voltage when connected to a meter.
Hopefully your pack will have a red wire on the balancing connector. That should be the positive pin. Now hold the red probe from your meter on that pin, and measure the voltage on each black-wire pin, moving away from the red. You should get between 3.7-4.2V, then 7.4-8.4V, then 11.1-12.6V, and finally 14.8-16.8V. A total of 5 pins.
I believe the Equinox 4S balance connector has 5 pins as well, and they're in the same order starting from the red wire. You should be able to connect them in order starting with the red wire. However, before you do, we need to double-check, and hopefully someone will come along and verify what I said about the Equinox.
Figuring out the wires is a little tricky. There's a thread somewhere here that has a link to someone's webpage where they put up diagrams of all the various balancers. I'll see if I can find it.
In the meantime, MOST node connectors have the same wiring order, just different pin sizes and spacings. The key is to make sure which pin is "most positive, and which is "most negative." These are the two pins that will give you the battery's full voltage when connected to a meter.
Hopefully your pack will have a red wire on the balancing connector. That should be the positive pin. Now hold the red probe from your meter on that pin, and measure the voltage on each black-wire pin, moving away from the red. You should get between 3.7-4.2V, then 7.4-8.4V, then 11.1-12.6V, and finally 14.8-16.8V. A total of 5 pins.
I believe the Equinox 4S balance connector has 5 pins as well, and they're in the same order starting from the red wire. You should be able to connect them in order starting with the red wire. However, before you do, we need to double-check, and hopefully someone will come along and verify what I said about the Equinox.
