<div>Ken,</div> <div> </div> <div>Glad you dodged the bullet!!!</div> <div> </div> <div>BTW, could you tell if the pack was hot? Just curious.</div> <div> </div> <div>I have the same charger, and have been pleased with it. I purchased two temp sensors for it, just as an added safety measure. It will shut off if the temp gets too high. I also charge in an ammo box. I have a TP balancer that I use to check/balance my TP packs. For my non-TP packs, I use a voltmeter to check the cell balance before I start charging, and afterwards as well. I plan to get a Blinky balancer, and am looking for a plug/adapter for the TP balancer so I can use it with non-TP packs.</div> <div> </div> <div>I suspect you may have had one cell in the pack that was lower than the rest, causing at least one cell to overcharge.</div> <div> </div> <div>I read somewhere that if the open-circuit voltage is below a certain value (3.3v? -- can't remember off the top of my
head) then you should start out with a low charge rate.<BR><BR><B><I>Ken Thompson <mrandmrst@comcast.net></I></B> wrote:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2873" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We've all heard the stories, here's mine that I posted on the Flying Giants,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV id=post_message_54127>Ok folks,<BR><BR>This is the deal...<BR><BR>I am finishing an Extreme Flight 300-E. I want to run 2100mAh 3-cell Li-Po's, so I grab the 2 I already have and check them out. One has almost no charge at all, I kind of knew that already, I had trouble with this pack last year. The second one showed about 9 volts and change. I hooked it up to my Accu-Cycle Elite and went to do a discharge so I could check full capacity on the charge cycle.<BR><BR>The charger told me the
pack was discharged already, so I set it up for a charge and let it run for 20 min. or so, just to make sure it was working ok, everything looked good so I let it charge and went inside. Now keep in mind this battery is sitting on a wooden bench next to my Pattern plane and my new Extra.<BR><BR>I went out in the garage this morning and heard the charger doing 3 fast beeps, pause, 3 fast beeps. I said,"Oh, shoot!" and went to the bench, the pack was 2.5 times it's normal size!!! I didn't think to look at the charger to see what the screen said, I just shut it off, unplugged the pack and ran it outside and threw it on the lawn. I went back to the pack in about 5 min. and cut the Deans connector off, can't waste one of those, and the pack will sit out in the rain all day.<BR><BR>Now before all of the comments come like,"You should know better than to charge Li-Po's without them being in a can!!!!" I know, I know...<BR>I've been using Li-Po's since the first Kokam packs came
out, never had a problem charging them, never even got warm. This is the first time I've used this charger on them, so I think I must have done something wrong.<BR><BR>Now I need to make a trip to the LHS and spend a couple of hundred bucks on new 2100 mAh packs, this time with balancers.<BR><BR>I dodged a big one this time!! I never even checked to make sure the house insurance was paid...by the grace of God, it's only the pack that was destroyed.<BR><BR>This could have been a very bad day, folks, PLEASE take this as an additional warning when you charge your Li packs.<BR><BR>Flame suit on, go ahead...I've got it coming.<BR><BR>It sure helps a ton to go to church and say my prayers!</DIV><!-- / message --><!-- sig --> <DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>_______________________________________________<BR>NSRCA-discussion mailing list<BR>NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org<BR>http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>