[NSRCA-discussion] Dodged a Bullet Today!!!!

[Dean Pappas]

Hey Evil, 
I'd rather be lucky than good: any day!
And that's why you use a charger that looks at each tap, before charging, in order to determine the number of cells. The same problem exists when dis-charging packs. That's how I trashed one cell in one of my 5Ses.
Dean

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org on behalf of Grow Pattern 
	Sent: Tue 3/21/2006 6:04 PM 
	To: NSRCA Mailing List 
	Cc: 
	Subject: [NSRCA-discussion] Dodged a Bullet Today!!!!
	
	

	 http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4056141/anchors_4064428/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#4064428See picture on RCU.I had a bit of a set back today with my winter fun 40 sized glow to electricconversion. I had wanted to try the Thunderpower 4200 instead of the Tanic3600. I set off to the field with a borrowed Thunderpower 4200 mAh pack. Iset the Astroflight 109 to 2 Amps. It ent to stage 1 and was calibrating toa 3 cell pack and was well on its way to charging the pack, or at least so Ithought . I have done this topping-it-up many times before. I set it on a 2Amp charge rate.I never made it to the field. I heard a light "Phuttt!" about ten minutesinto the journey. I stopped the van and ran back to the back doors. Thebattery was bloated and looking bad. I grabbed the Deans connectors andunplugged it. Dangling it by the lead and as far away from my face aspossible I lowered it to the curbside.I then personally backed up and was about to move my van forward a bit . (Ihad just put 3!
	 5 gallons in it!). Seemed like a good idea to get clear. Neverhad the chance. The pack blew up in a ball of flame about a cubic yard insize and proceeded to burn fiercely. I had grabbed the fire extinguisher butdecided not to use it.The local police joined me for a while and seemed more interested in theplanes in the back of the van than the charred remains. I scraped all of thebits up to keep the country side pretty. Estimated that the grass would growback soon, and went home.Fortunately I was able to get it out of the van before it blew up intoflames etc.Long and the short of it is. "Do not charge a fully charged battery with anautomatic charger"Dodged a BIG bullet today.....Regards,Eric.P.S. If 3 fully charged cells = 12 V plus, and 4 discharged cells = 12 Vplus, then how does the charger know which is which?
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