Caaine

Hi,

I just purhased a A123 battery pack for my 1/10 RC (E-Firestorm) and got the A123 charger as well. When I plug it in my car cigarette lighter or straight to my car´s battery. The Error light illuminates and stays on even before I hook up my battery.

Is there anything to do? Got the item shipped to Iceland, so getting it replaced will in all cases include shipping costs, so I was hoping there was a "fix" Maybe even something I did wrong? I am supposed to be able to plug it in my car, right?

EDIT: BTW, I plugged the battery in the car in the state I got it delivered and it totally rocked, soo much better than my 3600Mah NiMH fully charged and fresh. But I can´t charge it...

Rgds,

everydayflyer

They are shipped at approx. 50% state of charge and you have overdischarged it which means it it now way out of balance. You should have reset the LVC on your ESC.

Info here may help

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7709151/tm.htm

Always first fully charge LiIon,LiPoly,LiFePO4(A123) , Nicad and NiMH batteries before using them.


Charles

Caaine

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I have a Sidewinder ESC and had no voltage cutoff. I only ran the pack a short while and monitored heat and so on while I did it. As soon as the car slowed down, I stopped using it. Since I couldn´t charge it, the charger was broken, when I got it... but curiousity made me connect it anyways, ack.

spade111

My Feedback: (1)

Hi there,

I've also just got the a123 sonic charger, and 5 different a123racing packs. Each one shows the error light in every case on the charger. I've tried several different pc power supplies, and several different 12v supplies. A truck battery appeared to work sufficiently without showing an error light. The charger is basically useless if I have to put a 12V truck battery into my charging kit. It looks like A123racing is answering support questions again though. I'll keep you posted as to how they handle this, though Fastbaja5b didn't seem to have much luck.

~wavesport

snellemin

I use PC power supply with the hypersonic charger with no issues. Make sure your 12V line puts at least 12A and you'll fine.

spade111

My Feedback: (1)

Yeah, I've tried 4 different supplies now. I've got one last Antec in a tower here, with a listed 16A to the 12v line. I'll let you know how that goes.

spade111

My Feedback: (1)

Success!!

The antec seems to work ok. No more error lights.
It looks like the pack I've on there right now is full up, as the 'charged' light stays on, while the 'charging' light is blinking. Does this mean that the cells are being balanced? Or from the 'charged' light on status, should I conclude it is good to go?

I guess my question is, (and it is a bit ambiguous in the literature) that if the 'charged' light is on period... are the cells properly balanced? Or is the indicator flashing 'charging' significant enough to keep the pack on the charger longer?

Long story short... should the 'charging' light stop blinking when it is balanced up?

spade111

My Feedback: (1)

Wow, I'm gonna keep answering my own questions here. Maybe I should learn some patience (that's not what the internet teaches you!). Alrighty, the charged light comes on, and the charging light slowly stops blinking after a while. I will assume that means the balancing has taken effect, and the pack is ready for use.

The resting voltage on this 3s pack reads something crazy like 13.6 volts. (that doesn't sound right does it?)

I'm just going to test this on another meter.

Note: A high quality loaded input voltage seems important on this charger. Overloading the rail past 16v, causes a slight drop in input voltage (from 12.1 to 12.0V) coming from the PSU, and that is enough to throw the error light.

spade111

My Feedback: (1)

More like 10.8v - pfft. nub

spade111

My Feedback: (1)

At the cost of annoying anyone who reads this thread.... initial impressions thus far are quite positive.
In comparison to other batteries I've enjoyed, these do not get hot, are quite punchy, fairly heavy and awkward (anyone else feel the hard to spell irony?), a bit of a pain in the ass to get the right charger working, and nice and flat. Everything everybody says they are... plus the goofy qualities that you need to overcome.

Like a smelly dog that brings you beer. Except not a dog. And doesn't bring you... okay nothing like what I said.

More as it happens.

~wave

Caaine

Hi,

I got a 14A PSU from a computer and tried that and the error light went away! But the heatsink inside reaches nearly 80° - is that normal? I have it open and I am blowing air with a fan into it while I am charging.

Waiting ... waiting... while it charges

Thanks Spade for answering questions I would surely be asking myself in a few minutes.

Rgds,

lex54

I just purchased a new Hypersonic charger, two 2-cell and two 3-cell A123Racing packs. The packs measured about 6.6V and 9.9V each when I opened the packages. When I tried to charge either 2-cell pack, I got an error light on the charger, even though the Dean's plug and balance plug were connected correctly. I did not get an error light with either of the 3-cell packs. The entire time the packs were on charge, the charging light was flashing and the charged light was on. I left a 3-cell pack on for nearly an hour, but it was still at 9.9V when I took it off.

My power supply is rated at 12A and is putting out 12.4V. I also tried my fully-charged car battery with the same results.

I charged one of the 3-cell packs up to about 11V on my lipo charger and it worked perfectly. Am I doing something wrong or are the charger and/or batteries defective?

Thanks,

Joe

snellemin

It could be an old pack that has been sitting for a while in stock somewhere. Overcharging them a bit will usually balance them out, once it starts to drop voltage at rest.

AlphaDOG

A123 powered