Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Went to discharge for the first time and heard a 'pop', charger said "voltage overload" and before I could unplug anything, second charger popped. Both are now dead. They were wired to my Iota DLS-55 power supply.

What the heck happened?

rcacro

More details? What was discharge current? How many cells? What type of discharge?

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

You may need to check the voltage of the DC input. The "voltage overload" msg points at something.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

DC Voltage is 14.4V.

Over voltage message came from charger letting battery voltage through to power side.

I have another small charger. Just hooked it up, got no power (everything else still plugged in). Power leads to one iCharger got really hot. Unplugged both iChargers, small charger works fine. Tried hooking up iChargers individually - got big nasty sparks with one and had to disconnect immediately, got small spark that stopped with other charger, no charger powers up.

VerneK

Joe,
It sounds like you've isolated the ichargers as the problem if your other small charger works fine on the Iota. I'm not familiar with the icharger so I can't be much help. I'd just triple check everything to make sure it was hooked up properly including a review of the manual. After that, if there's no user error, you'll have to send them in.

Verne

VerneK

Joe,
I just went back and reviewed your posts on power supplies. If I'm reading it right, You powered your ichargers with the Iota and charged some batteries with it. You said you were going to Radio Shack for some supplies to set up some sort of a buss system or something. I assume your problem occurred after that. I'd go back to square one and try hooking up the charger(s) straight to the Iota without any of the other stuff in the game. If it works, you've isolated your problem(s). Just a thought.

Verne

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

I recall reading warnings on not connecting two chargers (10s? or 4s?) to a single power supply to avoid short circuit. Not sure if your problem bears similarity.

For now, you may check if the two iChargers are OK by using a different power supply. Test one at a time.

In my setup, I use one power supply for each charger.

wagen017

sometimes I use the discharge function on the iCharger (I have 2 1010b+). Since the power dissipation is only 30W it discharges with 0,5AMP maximum. Of course on a lower cellcount that amperage is higher.

Maybe the problem is with the single DC source.

Volkert

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Chargers are both shot, power supply is fine.

I will send them in, I just hope something is covered under warranty.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Looks like they are covered! Dale at EPbuddy.com is awesome. He is an authorized iCharger (Junsi) retailer and provides amazing service

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

How well will fuses work inline with the chargers? What amperage should I use?

petec

My Feedback: (58)

Joe,

How were the chargers wired and what exactly were you doing? Just PM or e-mail me as I am REALLY curious. My original iCharger 1010b is still going strong with 0 issues. I have found them to be rather robust.

BTW - I'll be in Cincy 11/1-11/2 for business.

Pete

can773

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Joe,

My experience discharging into power supplies (DLS-55 and some other server supplies) is not great either. I have never blew up a charger but have had a lot of odd smells and blank screens! I now only discharge into a dead 12V car battery, and never had problems doing that.

Good to hear they will fix up your chargers.

VerneK

I have 2 Cellpro 10S chargers hooked up directly to an Iota 55 amp power supply and it's been great for three years. I know of many others with the same setup which is quite common with electric pattern fliers. We typically have four, 5-cell batteries charging simultaneously on the two chargers (2 batts each) on the single Iota power supply. Before that, I had two TP 1010 chargers hooked up simultaneously to the same power supply without a problem. I'm not electrically inclined, but I can't imagine having two chargers hooked up to a single power supply being a problem unless the power supply isn't powerful enough to handle the load. That would be like having to choose between using the radio or the heater in your car, but not both at the same time.

Verne

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I had the two red wires hooked together into the Iota positive terminal, the two black wires hooked together into the negative terminal.

One charger was hooked up to 10S and set to discharge; started out at like .45A, then started to flicker a bit. Other charger was disconnected on the load side, but connected to the PS.

I had a problem once before where the power came disconnected with a battery hooked up. Re-powering the charger blew it up, as I guess they can not handle the dV that way. Maybe something similar happened here? Wires between charger and battery got hot, wires between charger and PS got hot.

I haven't put a meter on the PS yet, but it's brand new and charges everything (up to 2x10S) perfectly - no heat, no smells, no indication of anything wrong.

Seems like the discharge feature sent a voltage spike through the charger, out the power wires, and into the other charger.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

If ANYONE needs an iCharger or support, DEFINITELY talk to Dale at EPBuddy.com. Best service I have ever experienced, good prices, fast FREE shipping.

Dave Harmon

Joe....
I've just been looking over this thread and wondering just what might have happened.
I went here http://epbuddy.com/index.php?main_pa...products_id=45
and clicked on the link that went to RCGroups and read some of the posts.
If you will look through a few pages you will find that there is some talk about letting the smoke out of the charger and power supply if discharging in the regenerative discharge mode.
Apparently there are 3 different discharge modes.
My guess is that you discharged in the regenerative mode which takes current from the 10s battery and tries to put it back into the AC power supply....your Iota 55.
There are several warnings about trying to do this....especially when using a switcher type power supply such as all Iota units.
Definately something you would not want to do unless you had a discharged car battery connected in place of the Iota.
I couldn't find a manual on the icharger but you will probably find some warnings in your manual regarding regenerative discharging.

Dave
NSRCA 586

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I am a billion percent sure it was NOT in regenerative discharge mode. I cycled through the settings twice the day before, and once the day of the issue. I am fully aware of what regenerative discharge is and what it does, and having just spent 10% of my net worth on a power supply I made sure not to take that risk

cloudancer03

My Feedback: (22)

yikes!!!I was just about to buy the DLS-55 from Iotoa.and then hook up to a Icharger 106 ..then maybe get another charger as the ps is 750watts.am I crazy now I am not sure I want that.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

don't let my experience stop you. i'm sure it has something to do with me, my charger, and my setup. Tons of people use this setup with no issues. I contacted the iCharger rep and have 2 new ones in the mail already.

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

I discharge my 10s packs via the ESC and the motor on the plane. It takes a couple minutes to get the pack to down to 50%, with a moderate throttle setting. I do this only only when I know I'll not use the packs for a month or longer.

The cool breeze is not a bad thing to have at the end of a hot summer flying day.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I think this will be the plan. Had no problem running my slimers down at the end of the day.

Mike Wiz

My Feedback: (2)

I never use my chargers to discharge batteries. All they can really do it turn the power into heat and that's not good for the charger. If you can't discharge them with your power system consider making yourself a block with 6 or 8 light bulbs on them to run the batteries down, but then you've got to monitor the voltage yourself.

Some high end chargers can discharge your flight batteries by taking the current from the Lipo and putting it back into a 12v battery. In fact, I think my new FMA Power Lab 8 does that but I haven't used it yet.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Can you use a balance-plug meter while the batteries are charging/discharging?

My batteries had been sitting for a few weeks, I just wanted to cycle them to freshen them up. I will work on an alternate (cheap!) discharging system in the mean time.

Thanks for all the help!

CustomPC

Take a look at this thread for a very simple discharger that uses 6-8 bulbs as the load and a simple automotive horn relay with a Cell Log to auto cut-off.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1131817

The picture below shows the unit i made using that thread as a guide. It draws 100W or about 8A for a 6S pack.