Li Poly charging, rhetorical question.

On 6/20/2004 8:00 AM Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

Perhaps the charger circuit for LiPo is bad on the Triton ?

| On 6/20/2004 8:00 AM Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these | great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge: | | Perhaps the charger circuit for LiPo is bad on the Triton ?

Indeed. In case people missed it, I had a similar problem with Triton. By putting a volt meter on the battery I was charging while charging, I found that the Triton's displayed voltage was about 10% higher than reality. It did this for LiPoly and Pb cells -- but when using the NiCd and NiMH programs the displayed voltage was right on and it charged just fine.

I sent it back to Great Planes, and they fixed it, and didn't charge me even though it was three months out of warranty before I noticed it.

You might want to check that -- measure the voltage of the battery being charged, and compare it to what the Triton reports. If it's off more than 0.05 volts while it's currently charging at less than 0.2 amps, send it in.

Hate to jump in when I'm not 100% sure about something.....but....

I think I have read that early Triton's did not have firmware which allowed for charging Li-Poly's. The early ones would charge Lithium Ion cells, but not Lithium-Polymer. It is only the later models of the Triton that have firmware updates to accomodate Li-Poly cells.

That would explain why some will charge Li-Poly's OK while others cannot.

Then again, maybe not..................

You know, Ted had me worried about perhaps something's wrong about the circuitry in my Triton. And Doug, thanks for suggesting that I may be able to sending the charger in. I've had that charger since about early last fall, so it probably has the new circuitry. Would it still be under warranty?

I just returned from the field for a beautiful day of flying and one of my 3S Thunderpower battery is now charging.

Wish I could report on how my Kokam 3S is doing (The one I had problems earlier), it will have to wait until the Thunderpower is finished. I will be back in about an hour.

Wan

| You know, Ted had me worried about perhaps something's wrong about the | circuitry in my Triton. And Doug, thanks for suggesting that I may be | able to sending the charger in. I've had that charger since about | early last fall, so it probably has the new circuitry. Would it still | be under warranty?

You could always ask them. But the warranty is one year, so it sounds like it would be.

As for the bad circuitry, I've never heard that before. And I got one of the very first Tritons made. Of course, on the other hand, it wouldn't change Li-Poly (or Pb) cells properly at first, so maybe ... I always assumed it was just a defect with my unit, but I guess it could have been all of them.

Doug, I'm back as promised. Last evening I first charged the Thunderpower battery and it took an extra try to get it up to voltage of 12.66.

Then I charged the Kokam battery and it also took two tries and it's up to 12.66 volts.

I have no other concerns except why does it take the Triton two tries?

Wan

I discovered this weekend that my Worley charger wouldn't charge my lipos either. It said they were fully charged but they were far from it. I finally put a meter on my car battery and it was only putting out 11.2 volts! I put the charge on a friends car and it charged just fine. You might want to double check your INPUT voltage.

Hmm... As "jeboba" said, my friend did ask me to try another electrical oultet. I used the same outlet but a different outlet receptacle and was able to give both my batteries a full charge. Granted it took two tries for the Kokam and the Thunderpower was given additional charge to bring it up to 12.66 volts.

So if I used a "pure" input source from a 12 V car battery, it would be bettter?

Wan

I received one of the first Tritons for test and review. It would charge Lithium Ion as well as Lithium Polymer. In both cases the charge was quite conservative taking the cells to about 90-95% of full charge. This has not changed as far as I know.

-- Red S. Red's R/C Battery Clinic