Power-lab 8 consistently shows high resistance on cell 6...

[notorious_benny]

Hey guys, just got my new PL8 with the paralell charging board.

I have noticed that when charging my 5 2650 turnigy packs cell 6 is always showing a high resistance.

It dosnt matter which pack I test cell 6 always shows around 7mOhm compared to all the other cells showing 2 - 2.5.

Now this resistance must be somewhere in the charger or the balance lead, as there is no way all 5 of my packs have a high internal resistance in cell 6 only.....

Has anyone come across this?? I dont have another balance lead or board to try.......

I have tried different batteries on the different balance ports of the parallel with the same result everytime

[yhchoong]

Is your charger set to FMA or XH wiring mode? It needs to be in XH wiring for the MPA and other generic parallel charging boards.

[Tim Marks]

Hi:

Also, please make sure you update to the latest firmware version using the PL8's Charge Control Software. The latest version is v3.31 and we did address a bug related to IR readings in this version; in line with what you describe.

[supa koopa]

I've got the latest version of the firmware and my charger still does this although not as bad. I generally have to just ignore what ever the higher cell reading is, whereever it is. It's always fun watching the 130x batteries with one cell at 29ohm and the other at 55ohm. It does this range of difference on 10 batteries, 5 with 20 cycles and 5 brand new ones. All batteries I have show one cell higher than the rest.

[Gregor99]

Originally Posted by supa koopa

It's always fun watching the 130x batteries with one cell at 29ohm and the other at 55ohm.

What balance board are you using to charge the 130x batteries?

[supa koopa]

it's the mpa board (set correctly before anyone asks) but I'm using turnigy nanotech batteries with the smal jst connectors. I've made some jst to deans cables so I can charge 5 at a time (only cos I had 5 batteries to start off with) not the standard eflite packs.

[Gregor99]

Originally Posted by supa koopa

I'm using turnigy nanotech batteries with the smal jst connectors. I've made some jst to deans cables

Are these the Nanotechs that come with one lead (balance lead which doubles as the 130x connector), or two leads, one with a balance connector and one with a discharge lead? Any chance you have a picture of how the packs are connected to the MPA?

[alexmit]

I am seeing this seam phenomenon with 3 PL8 chargers at my field. Latest FW on all of them. 2 of them using the MPA board. 1 of them when switching to the regular cascading balance boards no longer shows the cell 6 IR as high. The another shows it regardless. I have emailed Revolectrix about this and have yet to get a response. We are all charging 6S packs and seeing this.

[supa koopa]

Originally Posted by Gregor99

Are these the Nanotechs that come with one lead (balance lead which doubles as the 130x connector), or two leads, one with a balance connector and one with a discharge lead? Any chance you have a picture of how the packs are connected to the MPA?

It's the two lead version. I bought a small adaptor lead that connects to the standard 130 battery lead and has the small two pin connector on the other end. No changes to the 130 so I can use whichever battery I want, although I never use the standard battery now as the nano's are smaller, lighter and have more punch. The higher C versions are better.

[GimpyGolden]

Was experiencing this issue using SPA adapters. After confirming I am running FW 3.31 I checked Node Wiring and it was set to FMA. Switched to XH/EH and all is reading close to same IR now.

Really enjoying this PL8 now I am getting to know it better.

[alexmit]

Originally Posted by GimpyGolden

Was experiencing this issue using SPA adapters. After confirming I am running FW 3.31 I checked Node Wiring and it was set to FMA. Switched to XH/EH and all is reading close to same IR now.

Really enjoying this PL8 now I am getting to know it better.

Same thing here. Changed the mode and all is well.

[GimpyGolden]

Seems now my cell 6 is consistently .5miliohm lower than the wrest, on 3 different packs.
Any chance the fix in 3.31 still isn't 100% right? Are you guy's working on an update Mark?

[Duramax11]

I just got my powerlab 8 also. I am in love with it! Once I got the computer software up and running everything is a breeze! This is my favorite heli related purchase so far!

I also had the cell 6 high ir problem and changing the node wiring fixed it for me.