Careless charging cost me my charger...

[Mimbulus]

Thought I'd post this, not cos I need to be told - as I learnt this myself - but more as a cautionary tale.

So my Trex500 has 6mm bullet connectors for connecting the battery to the ESC. It came with these and three batteries all pre soldered. They seemed wonderfully robust and made a very positive connection, were well shrouded etc etc - so why should I? I discovered why I should have yesterday.

The "issue" with them was always that they were somewhat unique, the male being slightly longer than any female 6mm bullet I could find leaving an exposed gap and others simply did not fit. So I had not been able to make up a charge lead for them. Instead I used croc clips connecting the charger to the battery. This was my mistake. Even though I had a "jig" to keep the clips separate, one really very minor slip and I knocked the charger, dislodging the jig and bringing the croc clips together for a moment. A single spark and the charger is kapput.

New charger on order, but Spent last night soldering up EC5 onto the ESC, batteries and a charge lead. Something I should have done from day 1.

Oops. Lesson learnt.

Mim.

[RcRotaryMadness]

Sorry to hear about the charger going up...

I always work on the theory of "Sods law"

If theres a chance of shorting it'll happen to me which is also why i fitted EC5's to all mine... took ages to change all the connectors but is worth it..

[Vikki]

Bummer! Thanks for putting that out for others to learn. As you said, you can be really careful but life will still nip you on the bum to remind you who's the boss.

[Snaaakeey]

When I 1st started using 12s helis I had a pack for the 6hv (2 X 3000mah 6s shrink wrapped side by side in stead of in line) ready to charge. I was tired (not good) and the battery connectors on the lipos were the red ones that come standard with turngy ( not polarity protected...........) So I plugged one battery straight into the other! The dead short I created must have pulled anywhere up to 300+ amps, both connecters exploded under my fingers. The bang was like a fire cracker going of! Shrapnal pinged off the walls and ceiling! The 2 connecters and an 1" of 10awg wire had simply vaporised!

Wont be doing that again! (EC5)

The lipos were suprisingly fine and 2 years later they are still in use.

We all have a brain fart once in a while. It wont be your last lol!

[RcRotaryMadness]

The bang was like a fire cracker going of! Shrapnal pinged off the walls and ceiling! The 2 connecters and an 1" of 10awg wire had simply vaporised!

LOL I can imagine the scene - dangerous but funny -

[trexamanic]

I was checking the batteries I got when I bought my 450 and a little tug and this was the result. I'm not very good at soldering but I give it a really strong tug test. Double check any battery you buy second hand.

[Gixxer]

I was checking the batteries I got when I bought my 450 and a little tug and this was the result. I'm not very good at soldering but I give it a really strong tug test. Double check any battery you buy second hand.

That looks like it was soldered with a 5 watt soldering iron by a 5 year old child. Desperately bad soldering!

[xygax]

Sh1te soldering..... its conventional to heat the whole work not just shove a cold wire into a bucket of molten solder.... thats what you get for doing that...

STeve