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Battery blinking blue light

You can use any 5v source as the battery voltage is 4.2v (charged - one cell). What you don’t know if the charging current. It won’t be much (not over 300ma) and you could measure the current (DC) if your meter has a current setting - most do. YOU MUST MEASURE IN SERIES not directly across the battery, but in series with the charging source. Set the meter to a 250 ma or less setting.

It’s not necessary to do that, only if you are interested.

I’d guess a laptop would be 100ma or less. If you have a cell phone USB charger it will have the 5v current written on it - very small print. iPhone chargers are 100ma or 200ma, and written on the charger.

I’ll caution you, one cell might be ‘bad’ and the chances of restoring it are not very good. Just watch it close.

iPhone chargers are 1A or more
 
You will see a picture soon it sounds like. Basically you’ll have 2 wires, a positive (red normally) and negative (Black normally). These will connect to ONE cell at a time. The red to the red (positive to positive) and negative to negative. This will charge ONE cell independently of the others. You don’t want to leave it charging more than about 20 minutes at a time, checking the voltage after each 20 minute interval. When the voltage is up to about 2.8-3 volts put the battery on the Breeze charger, it should charge and balance then.

And while this may work for a few charges remember the cell went bad for some reason. It will go bad again. Keep a close eye on it.
Curious if anybody has seen this. I was checking for voltage and between pin 2/3 I got continuity. Any idea?
 
Curious if anybody has seen this. I was checking for voltage and between pin 2/3 I got continuity. Any idea?

Refer to the diagram in this post Battery blinking blue light. If you have the meter set to read voltage you will not be able to read continuity in that setting. If you are reading 0.0 it means that cell is totally dead and was likely left on the charger while the charger was unplugged from the power source. The balancing circuitry in the OEM charger will drain energy from the cells when left in this condition.
 
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I have 4 batteries and I have always wondered am I recharging to much. I normally recharge when the percentage is about 20%. I put the battery in the charge and let it charge till the blue light is solid.

I may not use the drone for several weeks, and every time I fly the percentage is always starting at 97 or 98 % and I can fly for 7-9 minutes depending on if I use the video camera or not. This weekend I did the normal and for some reason all of my batteries did the same thing.

Connected drone to phone and phone to controller. took off and percentage showed 97% all of a sudden the percentage started dropping all the down to 10 % and the low battery warning came on by that point I had already lowered my altitude to about 2 feet and pressed the land button and it landed. this happened to all 4 batteries one after the other.

Can anyone tell me what is happening, I don't have a volt meter t check.
 
Hi, it is strange that this is happening to all four batteries at the same time.
Generally, it is not good to keep your LiPo batteries fully charged, that leads to fast and irreversible degradation of the internal chemistry, causing the kind of capacity loss you observed. However, it is odd that this appears so synchronously, so there may be something else playing in.
What happens if you recharge and discharge only one of your batteries repeatedly? (Leave the others discharged for the time being). Keep an eye on the battery while recharging, the risk of battery fires increases with degradation.
I have 4 batteries and I have always wondered am I recharging to much. I normally recharge when the percentage is about 20%. I put the battery in the charge and let it charge till the blue light is solid.

I may not use the drone for several weeks, and every time I fly the percentage is always starting at 97 or 98 % and I can fly for 7-9 minutes depending on if I use the video camera or not. This weekend I did the normal and for some reason all of my batteries did the same thing.

Connected drone to phone and phone to controller. took off and percentage showed 97% all of a sudden the percentage started dropping all the down to 10 % and the low battery warning came on by that point I had already lowered my altitude to about 2 feet and pressed the land button and it landed. this happened to all 4 batteries one after the other.

Can anyone tell me what is happening, I don't have a volt meter t check.
 
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PS: and it would probably be good to find a friend with a voltmeter, or grab one yourself in the next DIY store. They are not that expensive.
 
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@Drattazzi,

@robbie2 is absolutely correct about leaving your batteries at a full charge for more than about three days. I have three batteries for the Breeze and before I got a third party charger that would allow me to put the batteries at a storage charge level (3.80 to 3.85 volts per cell or 11.4 to 11.55 volts for our 3S Breeze batteries) I would fly to 30% then land by 20%. This would put the batteries close to that voltage after they cooled down. I then charged them the night before I planned to fly.

It sounds like your batteries have developed at least one cell that has a high internal resistance (IR) and causes the fast discharge of the batteries. Are they taking longer to charge and spending more time in the balance charge phase at the end of charging?
 
View attachment 10811
This is and end on view of the Breeze battery.

View attachment 10812

This is a USB cable I modified to supply +5VDC to pins that will fit in the connector on the Breeze battery connector.

View attachment 10813

This is a diagram of the battery pinout. Use a multimeter to measure the voltage of each cell. Use the modified USB cable with a USB power source to charge the cell with the lowest voltage for a minute or so.

Now place it on the Breeze battery charger to see if it will start charging. Repeat several times if necessary to get the battery pack to the point that the charger will charge the battery pack. If the battery pack will not charge after several attempts, and good batteries work with the charger, the pack is bad.

The Breeze charger is a balancing charger. The last few minutes of a charge cycle you will see the light flash green and red and finally solid green when fully charged.

EDIT: 24 May 2018

Lately there has been several posting with bad Breeze batteries where 1 or more cells have been run down below 1VDC or even to 0 volts. For a cell to run down that far, it has suffered major trauma for a LiPo battery. Chances of recovering a battery in that condition is very unlikely. It should be used with great caution and never left charging unattended.

The simple rig pictured above was intended for use on s LiPo cell that was just below what the stock Breeze charger would accept and charge.
A LiPo cell at 3.2 VDC is theoretically at 0% charge and 100% at 4.2 VDC. That is only a 1.0 VDC difference. I would only recommend using the above setup on cells at 3.2 VDC and above.
This hack worked for my battery. Thank you so much for the info
 
This hack worked for my battery. Thank you so much for the info
Thanks, but I don’t consider it a hack. I have equipment to supply the needed voltage and current on my electronics bench, but wanted something cheap and easy so anyone could do this.
One nice thing is it can be placed in the Breeze case and be handy should you ever have the problem again.
 
Thanks, but I don’t consider it a hack. I have equipment to supply the needed voltage and current on my electronics bench, but wanted something cheap and easy so anyone could do this.
One nice thing is it can be placed in the Breeze case and be handy should you ever have the problem again.
The photos were perfect I had parked my breeze for over a year and worked as the thread said it would
 
The photos were perfect I had parked my breeze for over a year and worked as the thread said it would
The next time you are going to not fly for a few days, fly the Breeze until you are at 30% then land. Do this with all batteries you have charged. When they have cooled off they will rebound to around 11.4 to 11.5V which is storage voltage for 3S battery packs like the Breeze. They should be OK for 3 months or so then charge and fly again to 30%. Your batteries will last longer for you.
 
I am going to try this as my battery is also having blue blink issue. does it matter if i get the polarity wrong? as in Plus and Minus on wrong end.

thanks guys.
 
I am going to try this as my battery is also having blue blink issue. does it matter if i get the polarity wrong? as in Plus and Minus on wrong end.

thanks guys.
Most definitely bad to reverse polarity. Plus to Plus and minus to minus. Use a DC voltmeter to check the cable polarity, then use the diagram to determine polarity of each cell.
 
Most definitely bad to reverse polarity. Plus to Plus and minus to minus. Use a DC voltmeter to check the cable polarity, then use the diagram to determine polarity of each cell.

Thanks, I've just tried it with a 2.1amp and each cell was back to 3v range within just few minutes.

They were 0.18v 0.4v and 1.9v before this.

Afterwards it charged fine in the charger but now I read 7.2amp on each cell , is this right?

thanks for your helpful guide!
 
Thanks, I've just tried it with a 2.1amp and each cell was back to 3v range within just few minutes.

They were 0.18v 0.4v and 1.9v before this.

Afterwards it charged fine in the charger but now I read 7.2amp on each cell , is this right?

thanks for your helpful guide!
You should be reading 4.2V on each cell. Lipo cells will never get to 7.2V without exploding. Double check your readings.

From your precharge readings it sounds like the battery was left in an unplugged charger. When the charger is unlocked lugged and the battery is left connected the balancing circuits are still attached to the battery and will drain the voltage to levels well below 3V. This caused irreparable damage to the cells and lowers their lifespan and ability to hold a useful charge. Be cautious using the battery to fly until you determine how long it will last by hovering near the ground for several flights.
 
The simple rig pictured above was intended for use on s LiPo cell that was just below what the stock Breeze charger would accept and charge.
A LiPo cell at 3.2 VDC is theoretically at 0% charge and 100% at 4.2 VDC. That is only a 1.0 VDC difference. I would only recommend using the above setup on cells at 3.2 VDC and above.

Thanks DoomMeister! I was able to use an old phone charger to get my battery operational again. The cells were reading below 2v and I was able to get them all above 3.2v and the charger is charging it now. All my batteries are normally fine but I noticed my son left this particular battery in the charger unplugged for weeks. I wonder if the charger bridges all the terminals and drain them when not charging.

I'm going to make he doesn't do that again. All my batteries are from 2016 and they all charge fine.

Maybe other people are accidentally leaving their batteries in an unplugged charger?

Thanks!!!
 
Have one battery I haven't used in over a year due to Blue Light when trying to charge. Tested the cells as follows: .8, 3.7, 3.7. Cut a USB cable and stripped the wires and found the 5 volt output. Going to solder pins tomorrow and try it out 2 minutes to start. Will post results
 
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Have one battery I haven't used in over a year due to Blue Light when trying to charge. Tested the cells as follows: .8, 3.7, 3.7. Cut a USB cable and stripped the wires and found the 5 volt output. Going to solder pins tomorrow and try it out 2 minutes to start. Will post results
Once you get the cell at 0.8V up to 3.2V it will charge.
 
Charged the low cell with the UBS cable mod. for 6 minutes and got it up to 3.6. Plugged it into the breeze battery charger and it went to the red light and a while after that it went to the red green flashing light for balance charge. It was on the charger for about 3 hours balance charging and the charger was getting slightly warm, so I took the battery out before it got to solid green. I checked the cells as follows: 3.99, 4.05 and 4.05 Not sure what to do next. Should I have left it on the charger longer?
 
It seems that cell is having issues balancing with the other two cells. Try using the USB cable mod to bring it up to the same voltage as the other two cells then place it in the charger again. It should finish balance charging within 30 minutes. If it fails to balance charge in that time check the individual cell voltages again and report them here.

This battery may be finished after that length of time with the cell at such a low voltage.
 

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