kropyls

Hay every one. I'm fairly new to the hobby. Anyways have a Blade CP Pro, what a great machine but needed a bigger one because I can't see to well and I am all thumbs. So I picked up a Blade 400. Wow love it, however I have had it only six months and have gone through three batteries (E-flite 3s 11.1v 1800mAh 20c(36 Amp)).I have a three cell balance charger from E-flite (input:11.5-15v DC output 1.8A). Today I charged an old battery cycled maybe three times and a first charge on a new battery. The old battery was at 11.2V before the charge and after the charge it read 12.0v not 12.4v which only took about ten min to reach. When I put it in my bird I didn't even get it of the ground and had no power. So I checked the voltage and it reads 11.28v. It has no ballooning, I have never dropped the voltage below 11volts. Because I am fairly new and learning I still preform basic flight. Is there issues with this brand of battery or am I haveing a streek of bad luck?

CHELLIE

Like you said its a old battery and its just worn out, discharge it, with a car tail light bulb, hook some wires to the light bulb, with some roach clips, errrr alligator clips and recycle it, that old battery might cause a fire if you try to keep charge it, so its best to get rid of it, batterys are cheap, and you deserve new lipos the Zippy, Rhino and turnigy lipos work great, no need to buy the more expensive e-flite lipos. thats all i use and love them, they work great. my rc club uses these lipos too and love them. hope that helps, Chellie

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=11908

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=9368

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=10290

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=7453

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=9937

CHELLIE

also your motors might be worn out, if they are brush motors and 6 months old, they may be dirty with carbon from the brushes, you might be able to clean the motors out with electric spray cleaner or pressue water, remove the motor first and set the gear clearance with a piece of paper between the pinion gear and main gear, if they are a brushless motor, check the lower bearing, brush motors have 2 wires going to them, brushless motors have 3 wires going to the motor, also check your 1 way clutch, hope that helps, Chellie

some things to check for

http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=145310

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_95...tm.htm#9626792

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTGfMLwglOw

Saddlebum

You don't say how many cycles are on these batteries but it reasonable to say that 100 cycles is fairly common with a good battery/charger combination.

That said, I am suspicious of your charger. When I went from my cheap E-Flite charger to an FMA CellPro 4S I not only got faster charges but got better balance and the ability to bring a deeply discharged battery all the way back to useful again.

For short money, you can pick up the new 4S Gold. I'd try that before I replaced my batteries.

...The Bum

tampaflyer

get a good charger.. if the charger charges the battery wrong you could have killed a cell.
get a charger that you can see each cell during a charge...that way you know what is going on in the battery.

had a freind that the charger went bad, thought he was fully charging that battery, would take off fly for about 1min and it would fall out of the air. bec kicked in. when i put the battery on a checker ..DEAD cell.

the charger charged 2 cell fully , not one...but the esc draws from all.

once the cell was dead... the pack had to be disposed of or rebuild with a new cell.

kropyls

Ty you all for your input. I did mention how many times it was cycled however. I am leaning towards Tampaflyer's and Saddlebum's input about the balance charger being cheep. I thought I would try again last night, it took about an hour to charge. Watching the opporation the whole time ,looking for swelling, smoking or over heating. The charger glitched so I paniced and unpluged it. Everything seems ok not hot ,no smell,no ballooning,so I checked the voltage this time it reads 12.64v. It seems the ballance charger is over charging now. The battery seemed to work fine, I flew for three and a half min. and checked the voltage again getting 11.74v.

slipstick

12.6V is what you should have (4.2V x 3). I wouldn't worry about the extra 0.04V - most meters aren't that accurate .

Steve

kropyls

No I'm not worried about the extra .04v however the ballance charger did not shut off, I unpluged it because the charger glitched then kept chargeing.