I was wondering if some people have had experience with the Thunderpower balancer TP-210V. I have only charged my new 10s 5000 Extreme(F3A) pack eight times (all with the Thunderpower balancer. I use a Schulze 636+ charger.). What i have noticed is that the pack has gone out of balance, not badly though. I have used the balancer for every charge.

The balancer shows i have an imbalance of between 0.03 and .02 of a volt. No problems here. I would have thought the balancer would have brought the pack into balance in a very short period of time (within a few minutes to a hour charge time) . I left the balancer on for over 25 hours (not on the charger) and still it indicated cell number two was over voltage. I then metered all the cells. All the cells are 4.17 to 4.18 except cell number two which reads 4.26 volts(too high and not good for the pack as it has been overcharged)

I understand the balancer has a max bleed current of 450mah total. So am i correct in thinking, each cell has the ability to bleed off 45mah max?

So my question is. Is my balancer stuffed?. I think so.

I'm also not happy with the fact i have effectivly being overcharging one cell. Not good for my new battery

Thanks

Chris

Chris, it sounds defective. Normally one requires a better-than-average voltmeter (like a $80 Fluke) to determine how well the balancer is balancing. In this case, it's inaccuracy much easier to detect. I consider a difference from high cell to low cell of 20mV very large. You're seeing around 90mV.

Thanks for the info. I was measuring with a Fluke meter, unfortunately it only reads to two decimal places.
If i had another jumper i would have tapped into the lines going to the balancer to see what current if any it actually was drawing
I'll pop an email off to Thunderpower to see what they have to say

Chris

Chris,
Check if the balance conectors wires are Ok.
I bougth 4 Batteries TP5000 10S which I charge with Orbit Charger and decided to Balance them every 10 flights (also Orbit balancer)
Well when I was doing the Balanced charge, I saw a very extrange behavior of the balancer lights so well I decided to check each cells
separately and I found a loose wire, I opened the package and found all the weldings to be "cold welded" and the white wire loose,
know let me tell you that this happen in two yes 2 out of 4 Batteries

Thanks Joaquin,

The fact the balancer is showing over voltage at cell two and was trying to discharge it, means it must have a connection at least. Are you saying that the balancer connecting wires have had bad connections. I am assuming that you are referring to the connections inside the pack. The connector end would be crimped, so i couldn't imagine it being a problem. A bit of a pain having to disassemble the battery. Having to source that size heat shrink etc

Thanks

Chris