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Old 04-14-2006 | 09:41 AM
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Default RE: Adding A Balancing Plug To A 3 Cell Lipo

Converted both Dymonds over to the 4 pin Blinky plug last night and it was easy as pie. You can find 4 pin Molex plug (or cut down a Molex with more pins) in many junk devices such as computer parts. I don't know if it matters but I kept all four wires the same length as I've read Blinky is so sensitive that any variation between each wire could cause it to be slightly off balance (which shouldn't matter anyway as it will get things real close regardless). Anyway, removed the shrink wrap from the Diamond packs and found a small circuit board on one end that all three cells are soldered to on it's underside. On top of this board are traces and solder which makes it much easier to solder your wires to. Didn't need any special aluminum solder or anything. The furthest negative pin to one side of Blinky is the main negative. Solder this wire from the Molex to the negative pole on the pack (the same trace that the main negative battery wire is soldered to). The next pin on Blinky goes between this cell's positive lead and the negative lead of the next cell (which are soldered together as "one" since the pack is in series). Doesn't matter if you solder it to the positive or negative between them. Just find an easy spot clear of shorts. The third pin on Blinky will go to this second cell's positive lead (or the negative of the last cell...doesn't matter again because these are also wired together in the pack). The fourth and final pin on Blinky is the positive and will to the positive lead of the last cell (the trace that the main positive battery wire is soldered to). Blinky of course has more pins on it's board but these are used for packs with more cells. Just start with the furthest negative side of Blinky and your 4 pin Molex should go on right there with it's next three pins in order with no gaps. In other words, the positive last pin of the molex does NOT go all the way to the other side of Blinky where the board is marked positive. Just pins 1, 2, 3, and 4 are used for a 3 cell series pack.

Be very careful while soldering. I used some flux to help the solder grab the wires off the Molex cable and the proper surface areas on the board. I'm experienced at soldering yet even I can make mistakes...and did. I dropped a blob of solder between two traces on the board and instantly ran outside with the pack and pitched it in my garden. I waited ten minutes and then approached it wearing goggles and gloves. Luckily the area where the solder had dropped was a small redundant trace line that wasn't needed and was thin enough to melt the trace away and stop the short before the cells went nuclear on me.

After I was done with the solder work I hitched up Blinky to make sure all was well. I then covered the entire circuit board and wires with shoe goo (a thick rubbery glue) to prevent the wires from moving or a short should a wire break free. After this dried I wrapped the pack three or four times with clear packing tape, being sure to leave the top and bottom sides of the pack open as the original shrink wrap did to allow the cells to receive are flow. I would have prefered using battery heat shrink wrap but didn't have any of the proper size. One cool benefit to using the shoe goo and clear packing tape is I can see right through them to the wires and circuit board should a problem arise.

To balance the packs I plugged them into Blinky first. All three lights should come on for about five seconds to indicate that all three cells are above the safest lowest battery voltage for lipos. After that Blinky will go into balancing mode. If a light comes on it indicates that cell is of higher voltage than the other cells and is draining it to match them. This may go on for several minutes or more until Blinky gets all 3 to match (it brings down the other 2 cells to match the voltage of the lowest cell). When this process started to slow or stop I then left Blinky plugged into the pack and then charged the pack with my Celectra lipo charger. As the charger does it's thing Blinky will again get more active as it constantly controls the voltage level of all 3 cells during the charge. Once the charge is complete Blinky should be showing no lights or maybe the occasional one as it tweaks the cells even more. So long as you aren't seeing lights coming on frequently (almost all the time) the pack is pretty well balanced and ready for flight. If the lights are on frequently but keep switching between all three cells then it also means the pack is near balance. If, however, the same one or two lights keep coming on at a pretty good pace it's getting that one (or two) cells down to the lower voltage of the third cell. For the most part the leds should be off more than a few minutes at a time if the pack is well balanced.

Took all three packs out for a flight yesterday and they performed well with no problems. Really glad I took the time to buy Blinky and convert my other two packs to the Common Sense/AstroFlight Blinky balancer.