Lipo / Dead Cell
 

Awhile back Brian G and I had some issues with my Hyperion EOS 71 charging my 5s Lipo 8000 Maxamps. The charger would always read "output voltage too low". Well, I came to the conclusion it's the PS as it tones way down once I hit the start charge button, like it REALLY starts to draw juice.

Then I noticed.......

One thing I noticed while charging and balancing, is that all my cells are balancing except cell 3? How do I test to see if it is one or another that is bad? I have the 2s2p and 3s2p. How do I know if cell 3 is actually taking a charge? So after awhile of charging, it started to alert and saying "input voltage ERROR"? ARG, not really all a big deal as my 989 will charge with no issues, but makes me wonder what is setting the Hyperion off. Maybe it's detecting something the 989 can't?

Another wierd thing is that when I started to charge, it went from 4 amps to "0"? So I unplugged it all, and replugged it, started the charger and it went to .5 amps and stayed, so I plugged in my balancer (LBA6) and then the amps started going up. It went to 6.54 amps and stayed...is this because my taps may have had dirt or something in them????

Any ideas on these weird issues would be great guys, thanks!

you charged it without the balancer and then it went from 4 to 0 A?

Here is something you can do to test, but you need to be VERY careful; Pull the balancer plugs slightly loose, so you can put the pins of a multimeter between them, and measure the voltages during the charge process of the bad cell. Compare them to the good cells, and if they differ a lot, it seems that the cell is dead. Since a charging process is happening in series, and if one cell isn't charged at all, the cell must be dead or completely full. Simple by measuring its voltage you know which one of the two option it is.

Do you balance the packs every charge process or every now and then?

Serum, thanks. I do balance while charging on "stand alone", I have the LBA6. Is there a way to measure thru the taps and know which one is cell 3?