Battery charging issue

Flyingmedic · Mar 27, 2020

Hi Guys

I appear to have an unusual battery error that I cannot find a solution for.

with the battery in the charger (and I have tried pushing hard etc) it alternates between blue, red and green light with beeping.

Anyone have any idea what is happening here?

DoomMeister · Mar 27, 2020

It would really help to know what model of aircraft and charger being used.

Just found your intro post. I’ll move this to the TH discussion forum.

DoomMeister · Mar 27, 2020

Sounds like the OEM charger and when new it and the battery can have mating difficulties (no snickering). It can take a little more force than you might suspect the first few times.

If you are sure the battery is seated fully it may have cells below 3.2 V. Use this post Battery question and measure the cell voltages.

Flyingmedic · Mar 27, 2020

Have slammed it in, gently pushed etc. I have a video of it but can’t post it.
I’ll hunt down my voltmeter and check cheers

Flyingmedic · Mar 27, 2020

DoomMeister said:
It would really help to know what model of aircraft and charger being used.

Just found your intro post. I’ll move this to the TH discussion forum.

sorry Typhoon H with standard charger and batteries that came with it

DoomMeister · Mar 27, 2020

This photo may give a clue. Read the meaning of the LED codes at the bottom. It appears your batteries are near full charge and have entered the balance charge phase near the end of charging.

Once the battery reaches full charge you should get a solid green light.

Flyingmedic · Mar 28, 2020

DoomMeister said:
This photo may give a clue. Read the meaning of the LED codes at the bottom. It appears your batteries are near full charge and have entered the balance charge phase near the end of charging.

View attachment 20894
Once the battery reaches full charge you should get a solid green light.

I did read those but did not match the sequence I was getting, all the lights are coming on and the beeping as well.
Reading elsewhere it appears it may be the charger is faulty.

KEITH KUHN · Mar 28, 2020

Flyingmedic said:
Hi Guys

I appear to have an unusual battery error that I cannot find a solution for.

with the battery in the charger (and I have tried pushing hard etc) it alternates between blue, red and green light with beeping.

Anyone have any idea what is happening here?

I gave mine a shot
Of contact cleaner.

Flyingmedic · Mar 28, 2020

KEITH KUHN said:
I gave mine a shot
Of contact cleaner.

Not heard of contact cleaner before, it’s not something I’ve come across before

Flyingmedic · Mar 28, 2020

I should say the batteries work fine in the Drone, one is 15v and the other 14v

Mrgs1 · Mar 28, 2020

Flyingmedic said:
I should say the batteries work fine in the Drone, one is 15v and the other 14v

That's not fully charged battery voltages.

Mrgs1 · Mar 28, 2020

Flyingmedic said:
Not heard of contact cleaner before, it’s not something I’ve come across before

This is what I use.

Flyingmedic · Mar 28, 2020

Mrgs1 said:
That's not fully charged battery voltages.

Yes that’s correct, someone earlier in the thread had been saying that the beeping was possibly because of full batteries.

Mrgs1 · Mar 28, 2020

Flyingmedic said:
Yes that’s correct, someone earlier in the thread had been saying that the beeping was possibly because of full batteries.

14volts is that before taking off or landing at that voltage?

Flyingmedic · Mar 28, 2020

Mrgs1 said:
14volts is that before taking off or landing at that voltage?

Landing
No way I’m flying at less than 14 volts

It was showing as 14 volts on the ST16 and if I remember correctly empty battery.

my reference to the voltages on the panel etc is that it has me thinking the batteries are fine it’s the charger causing the issues be it faulty charger as referred to in some groups or poor connection but it’s driving me bonkers trying to make the battery connect properly

h-elsner · Mar 28, 2020

My guess is the balancing failed. That may point on a a defect cell (one of the four cells at the battery). 15V or 14V are too low. Full means 4.2V per cell, 16.8V the battery without load.

The stock charger is not the best choice. Better to get a charger that have a storage function (bring the battery to storage voltage) and has more power to balance the cells.
Balance means that all cells have the same voltage. A delta between the cells of more than 50mV (0.05V) is bad.

br HE

Flyingmedic · Mar 28, 2020

Che

h-elsner said:
My guess is the balancing failed. That may point on a a defect cell (one of the four cells at the battery). 15V or 14V are too low. Full means 4.2V per cell, 16.8V the battery without load.

The stock charger is not the best choice. Better to get a charger that have a storage function (bring the battery to storage voltage) and has more power to balance the cells.
Balance means that all cells have the same voltage. A delta between the cells of more than 50mV (0.05V) is bad.

br HE

cheers

I am indeed discovering that,just need to get some money to buy the charger I have spotted on eBay that appears to have been mentionEd a few times in various places.

that’s after already buying 2 new higher capacity batteries and wanting a new neck strap (none with it) and a hard backpack as will be travelling with it. Pretty sure there was something else!

Mrgs1 · Mar 28, 2020

Third party charger needed and leads, are you in EU? Higher capacity batteries can give only a slight improvement, it can be disappointed to some expecting a dramatic improvement.