PL 6 blown up

[helimadness]

Hi all.
So was charging my batteries for about 20 mins today on my PL6 when it went bang and a puff of smoke came out.
Have used on car battery before but was charging at home on a 24v dc power supply. Have done this a few times before with no problems.
Was parallel charging 4x 2600 mah 6s lipos at total 15 amps so about 1.5c each.
The shop I brought from said you had to program it when using different voltages. He said plug into the pc to do. Thing Is he didn't give me the pc cable at the time as had run out so was going to give to me later.

Totally bummed as brougt it only 2 weeks ago to take to the uk so I don't need to fly with as many batteries.

The input voltage says 10-32 v so 24 should be fine.

Did I just stuff up should I have changed settings.

Problem now is he said will have to send back to the USA from china to get checked. Might cost more to send back and get fixed than it is worth. If it is a warrantee problem then ok but if I have to pay maybe I shoud just try and fix locally? Or bring back to the uk and get fixed there?

Any advice appreciated as I leave tomorrow.

Cheers..

Trex 500 elf pro, vbar
JR XG 7

[matt t]

Did you select dc power supply when choosing what power device you are using ?

[xygax]

I aint fixed one of them yet but the cellpro 4 and 10 were fixable for the most part. if its part of the power circuit its repairable if its cpu related then it will have to go back as the cpu needs speciaist calibration.

Steve

[helimadness]

No I didn't realize you had to select DC power supply. car batteries are Dc and so is my supply. The input says 10-32 v so I thought as long as in that range not a problem. What is the difference?

Looks like im going to be slow charging on holidays. :-(

Cheers
Mark
Good news for the day was my maiden flight with vbar. So smooth. Just flew perfect first time. Very happy with it.

[tourerjim]

When putting 4 on charge & although only drawing 1.5 but its still big demand as this has happen to me, most you should charge on 6c's is 4amps regardless of the amount of batteries

[Sharpedge]

When putting 4 on charge & although only drawing 1.5 but its still big demand as this has happen to me, most you should charge on 6c's is 4amps regardless of the amount of batteries

Not sure I follow this, the pl6 is rated at 1000W and 40A when it is fed with 30VDC. 4 6s packs at 4A will only pull 403W from the charger, now this is right on the limit for 12V supply but only half power when run on 30V.

[jamiem]

You don't have to adjust anything for different voltages, just give it back to the shop and ask for a replacement

[Andy from Sandy]

The idea of selecting the power source is to protect the power source itself not the charger. What you set in the charger is the capability of the power source. The charger will detect the input voltage of the power source and set its available charging curent accordingly. If you set something the charger is not capable of it will protect itself.

As with all electronic devices there are going to be failures. As you are from Aus I would think you should get in touch with the Singapore office of FMA/Revolectrix if your supplier is not willing to do anything or due to sales rules doesn't have to do anything.

[helimadness]

The charger is rated to 40 amps and I had the output set to 15 amps. So is the out put is only 15 amps doesn't this get spread over the 4 batteries. eg 2.6 x 4 = 10.4 amps. So 15 amps output / 10.4 amps is 1.44 c charge.

Please tell me if im wrong. Surly a 40 amp charger putting out 15 amps is fine.

Cheers

[helimadness]

Living in China at the moment. Sorry details a bit wrong.

My power supply is 0-32v 700w I had it set on 24 volts thinking higher voltage would take load off things as less current and the charger should preform better. I was only running at 15 amps as a nice safe charge rate that should be well within the range of all I have.

Plugged the old 70w charger in and finished the charge on the same power supply fine.

Cheers

[waveydavey]

If you set the charge rate per pack to 15A then this would indeed be outside of what the Pl6 can deliver. However, I didn't think you could do this as the PL6 recognises that you have taken it outside of the 40A and adjusts accordingly. Either way it shouldn't damage the charger

[waveydavey]

The charger is rated to 40 amps and I had the output set to 15 amps. So is the out put is only 15 amps doesn't this get spread over the 4 batteries. eg 2.6 x 4 = 10.4 amps. So 15 amps output / 10.4 amps is 1.44 c charge.

Please tell me if im wrong. Surly a 40 amp charger putting out 15 amps is fine.

Cheers

As above it doesn't get split over the 4 packs, if you set it to 15amps and then tell the 6 that you have 4 packs in parallel you would have 60A.

[Andy from Sandy]

International store

REVO Products

Ask your question directly to FMA Direct. The email addresses are on theis page

Revolectrix

[cjcj1949]

The shop is trying to bluff you into giving up. Most good dealers even in china will sort out problems and it is the retailers problem. The fault is not yours unless you do something stupid likeing throwing it in the bath or taking it apart and modifying it. As xygax says it is probably easy to fix. Usually a fet will be faulty. They are easy to find and replace. There is no guarantee that it will be fixable. Perhaps contact the retailer and tell him you will contact fma if he doesn't offer you a refund or replacement. Retailers have a profit margin and part of their job is to handle problems. A charger should be full proof and it should definately not be possible to overload it.

[helimadness]

Hi All.
I chose "no" to parallel packs so assume it only see the whole lot as one pack. Selected 15 amps max charge and that is what it was charging charging at. So only 1/4 going to each pack. Does that sound right?
The guy here is doesn't speak English and my Chinese doesn't go past basic batteries. We did everything through a translator so very hard but used to that. Basically he trys to make excuses for everything so he doesn't have to deal with it. Same problem with 3gx. But thats just china and I can deal with that. I just want to know if I could have done anything wrong. If not I will push him to replace. I have spent a lot with him but Chinese business practice is not to give a cent back. normally the 1.4 billion other people pick up the slack but this is a small industry so will be interesting to see.

Cheers
Mark