B6 Lipro Balance charger faults

[solentlife]

I've had excellent use for last few months out of the B6 charger ... then couple days ago the mains adaptor failed ... 12V, 5A.

I then ran the charger of my emergency starter pack with mains charger connected - so voltage etc would stay up and pack give best.

I took of my yacht a 100W 240V to 12V transformer with smoothing diodes etc. Output is actually 16V with no load and within range of the B6 (11 - 18V).

Now I am getting strange error messages come up when charging up packs after use. ie 3S 2280mAh pack ... Wattmeter says 47% remaining after use ... connect to B6 on the 12V starter pack. Confirm to charge at 2.3A (1C) ... and it starts but shortly after says : INPUT VOLT ERROR.

If I try on the transformer .... the message comes up "BREAK DOWN"

Before I look at contacting seller ....... anyone else have any clues about this ??

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(11-09-2011 18:30)solentlife Wrote:  I've had excellent use for last few months out of the B6 charger ... then couple days ago the mains adaptor failed ... 12V, 5A.

I then ran the charger of my emergency starter pack with mains charger connected - so voltage etc would stay up and pack give best.

I took of my yacht a 100W 240V to 12V transformer with smoothing diodes etc. Output is actually 16V with no load and within range of the B6 (11 - 18V).

Now I am getting strange error messages come up when charging up packs after use. ie 3S 2280mAh pack ... Wattmeter says 47% remaining after use ... connect to B6 on the 12V starter pack. Confirm to charge at 2.3A (1C) ... and it starts but shortly after says : INPUT VOLT ERROR.

If I try on the transformer .... the message comes up "BREAK DOWN"

Before I look at contacting seller ....... anyone else have any clues about this ??

Just tried it in back of my XC70 - where I have a live 12v supply and all worked fine ... so it appears that myabe my transformer is not smooth enough ...... and my starter pack is not up the job ....

!! At least I now know that my B6 is OK !!

I can still charge as my single non-programmable chargers supplied with my RTF's work fine on both power supplies above ... but of course they are not pulling such amps as the B6 ...

[Richard]

I was surprised to see max was 18v, normally that type of charger is 15v. At least you have alternative supplies to keep you going.

I like the look of this power supply: http://robotbirds.com/catalog/product_in...ts_id=4886

[solentlife]

Here's page out of manual :



Clearly 11 - 18V

Lets be honest 15V is only just the upper limit of car normal alternator output and often in fact can be higher when after starting the engine / battery is low after long time standing .. the alternator will fire up to 16+V .... our chargers have to be able to handle that.

Seller has offered me replacement regulated adaptor ---- I have to pay 2 quid post. I'm not so bad about that as initial price was VERY low anyway !

[Richard]

Being able to handle 18v is great feature when the pack voltage is above 12v, it means the step up voltage circuitry doesn't have to work so hard when supplied by an 18v supply. Good charger that B6 really is...

[solentlife]

Now sorted ...

I forgot that my ITX Computer upstairs has a 12v 5A regulated adaptor ... so that is in use now and all's well !

I also have a Leisure battery from my boat that is past it's heavy duty days and can provide back-up .. it shows 12.9V so is good enough.

[QuackingPlums]

(11-09-2011 22:56)Richard Wrote:  I like the look of this power supply: http://robotbirds.com/catalog/product_in...ts_id=4886

If you have one of those 4-way chargers (aka "4x B6 clones in a box") then for the money you may as well get the 600W version - I did and haven't looked back!

This thing never breaks a sweat even with my 4-way, another single B6 and all my 12V pit-bench gear plugged into it. Weighs next to nothing too, compared to my 100W linear PSU with the whopping great big transformer in it...

[Richard]

Bet you got a generator at the field too