Saddlebum

My new 10S can't "see" the 6th cell of my 6S batteries. When connected by the balance plug, it "sees" only 5 cells, charges 5 cells and tells me it has done a 100% charge when the 6th cell is reading 3.74volts.

What's wrong?

...The Bum

newjak

You have to plug in BOTH leads from your adapter board into channel 1 AND 2 into the charger. It will then "see" the 6th cell. I made that mistake without noticing the 6th cell wasn't being charged and ruined a pack. I will post a pic as soon as my camera battery is charged.

Saddlebum

Tried it and you are absolutely right, NJ.

Don't know why that is not in the manual, (or I missed it even after reading it 4 times).

Thanks! ... The Bum

newjak

I missed it too. At least you didn't ruin your pack. I did!

Henry Sistrunk

I made that mistake too. Ruined 2 new 6 cell packs by flying them. Then I discovered that on the harness is a tag that says" Connect for 6S only".
I use 4 of these chargers.
Henry

Henry Sistrunk

Here is my charging station.

Saddlebum

After I got it connected properly, the 10S is struggling mightily to balance all six cells.

Since I started out with 5 cells charged to the max and one cell running about 3.7volts, it has been three hours and the fully charged cells have been bled down to 3.9 and the low cell is up to 3.8 so I think the 10S is actually going to be able to save this battery.

(I'd like to dope slap the dude who wrote that manual, though.)

...The Bum

brazeaum

I purchased a Cellpro 10s charger from FMA Direct and it worked fine for a few months. The charger then became defective and I sent it in for repair. After being told it could not be repaired, I was ensured that I would be able to buy a refurbished unit after waiting a few weeks.

5 months went by and no communication was made from FMA. After poor email communication, I decided to call the owners and boy that was a mistake. They became defensive and told me I'm s*** out of luck. They then demanded that I pay for the broken one to be sent back and told me I was being unreasonable for wanting better customer service.

I found my experience with FMA Direct to be unsatisfactory. Sure their products work great, but don't expect to have issues resolved from the company when they inevitably occur.

-Matt

Jamie Marks

Dear Matt,

When you make a post in a forum with the express intent of posting your dissatisfaction with FMA's service, it is appropriate for me to respond to your post so that ALL of the facts are known by the readers.

The 10S charger in question was purchased in July, 2009. It was returned for service in September, 2011. By your admission, you received an e-mail dated September 29, 2011 from Cindy Marks of FMA, informing you that our tech. department determined the charger was unrepairable because it had been over voltaged. She offered you the option of a 10S refurbished charger for $60. We received no response from you to that e-mail. Six months later, today, you called to inquire about the charger. After Cindy calmly explained the situation to you, you continued to state your dissatisfaction with FMA's poor CS. Your request was for FMA to sell you a new 10S charger for $60. I then took the call and informed you that we would not sell you a new 10S charger for $60 under the circumstances. I did get frustrated with your seeming lack of understanding and what I perceived as a very unreasonable request, but at no time did Cindy or I use bad language with you as you falsely state in your post.

Sorry, but I don't feel good customer service extends to outlandish demands such as yours.


Regards,
Jamie Marks
V.P.
FMA, Inc.

Henry Sistrunk

Great to see this feedback from FMA. I use 4 Cellpro 10S chargers with their power supplies. I have used their repair service on one power supply. My first 10S was purchased in Dec 08. I have had nothing but great service from FMA Direct.
Henry

SteveM732

brazeaum is signing up on all the forums to make a single post to defame FMA, don't expect him to reply.

I believe Jamie that you owned it for over two years not "a few months" and that it didn't "become defective" but that you did kill it.

E-Challenged

Why do some "hobbyists" want to bad mouth a good supplier to the world when the product failure was their fault? Honest suppliers of quality equipment should respond to unfair criticism/slander like FMA did in this instance.

fhhuber

Very late in the game for this comment but it may help someone else down the road.

You can remove the shield at the male end from a servo extension and use that to charge a single cell that is WAY low. This will be much faster than trying to balance a pack with most cells full and one near nominal or minimum safe voltage due to the type charging error that occurred for the OP.

Care must be taken to ensure proper polarity and to prevent a short, but it will work.

The Turnigy 420 charger is handy for this type of thing. While its only a 4S charger that maxes at 2 amps, it charges each cell individually and balances by charging instead of by discharge as with most other chargers.
Fastest balancer I know of.

Balancing by charging just the low cell will save a lot of time.