jw637362

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Have a strange one here.
Assistance PLEASE!!

I have the Thunder Power Model tp-425 12 v charger,
I have been charging my Electrifly 3 cell 1500 mah 11.1 v battery for quite some time and has worked great, no problems.

I just purchased a Kokam 640 Mah 3 cell - 11.1v battery today and the charger wont read it...
It just switches from 2 cell to 3 cell, back and forth for 2 minutes and then starts blinking and beeping that it has faulted.

After I purchased the battery, I changed the plug to the required BEC for my application, then I placed it in my helicopter and ran it for 5 minutes to check performance. Worked awesome.

Also, it states no where in the packaging or on the pack at what amperage to charge the pack, My Electrifly states "charge at 1.5a" right on the pack.

The only diference between the two physically is that the Electrifly has a built in - Safe charge protection curcuit -
Any Ideas!!!!!!

Thanks a bunch,
jeff

jw637362

My Feedback: (1)

Nevermind, since no responses, I took the Kokum Back to the store and traded it for an Electrifly 640 mah 11.1 volt.
Works just fine and charges.

jw637362

My Feedback: (1)

Me again, the charger quit again. It is a faulty one and from what I gather, it is common for this charger. I emailed Thunder Power for their warranty department to either repair it or exchange it.
Never had a thread all to myself before...............[&o]

jeff

Flypaper 2

Jeff:
You need to charge the batt at 1C ,that is, the rated capacity of the batt. Your new batt should be charged at 640 ma. Your 1500 ma. batt. is actually 1.5 amps and that's what you set your charger at. I don't doubt that your Safe Charge circuit is working and won;t let the charger charge at that high of a rate as, if the batt. didn't catch fire, it would certainly be ruined. So set your charger at .650 ma. and it should work. Should take around 1 to 1.5 hrs to charge. Hope this helps.

balsabuster2003

At Least you won't get any bad advice that way!

jw637362

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the replies,

@ balsa buster - never bad advice, just different - advice is only bad if you act upon the advice given by a moron.
besides it is just lonely with no replies.

@ Flypaper - the charger has the following preexcisting c.c charge rates:

0.3 A
0.5 A
0.8 A
1.3 A
2.0 A
2.5 A

1 - 4 cells - I charge my 1500 Mah 3 cell at 1.3 A / 3 cell and it takes about 1.5 hours to charge fully from a spent battery, have charged it about 12 times. Works great.

The new battery 640 MAh 3 cell gets charged at 0.5 A / 3 cell due to it being the closest charge with out going over the required charge amps.
The Kokum battery did not specify what amps to charge and that made me a little nervous (lipo newbie) but since then I had taken the battery back and traded for an Electrifly 640 mah 11.1 v. which stated no more than 640 mah charge rate.

The main problem I was having is that the charger would not read any cell, any battery pack and kept faulting and turning off. I emailed Thunder power and they stated to send it in for warranty repair, I also called them and asked about the problem and they stated that due to the high volume being sent out, little glitches in the charges are being seen and they will fix the problem. It is a common one for them. Intermittent cell read or something like that.
I tried it again and it just finished the charge on the 640 Mah battery at 0.5A in 45 minutes. But I m going to send it in anyway to have them fix it or exchange it. Might be something more serious and I DO NOT want a fire

Jeff