Current problem with charging PL8

[Argypak]

Hi Guys,

Today I noticed while a couple of packs that they were taking a long time to charge.
On closer inspection I saw that the charger was only charging at 1 amp?

If I use accurate charge or faster charge, the PL8 won't charge past 1 amp
On the preset 3 it will charge up to 30 amps

I am using 2 HP 1100Watt power supplies and trying to charge 2 x 5000mah 6S packs.

Let me know if you need more information.


Thanks in advance

Argy

[mkovalcson]

What voltage is your power supply putting out? 12V x 2 = 24V ?

I've noticed that the PL8 seems to get confused when the input voltage and charging voltage overlap.

Fully charged 6S batteries end up around 25.3 V total and if you can set your DC power voltage to 13V each or 26V total that may take care of this issue.

The other issue is if the PL8 thinks something is wrong with the battery, the temperature is too low, etc..

I've got mine set just about 26V which should be just below where my 7S batteries are going to be after a flight, but well below where I will have them storage charged. Hopefully I won't have issues with them.

[Argypak]

The input voltage is 25.6 volts. I also loaded the software and did some more testing and found that it starting charging up to 6 amps, but in the software it would say max auto amps.

[Gregor99]

Don't use auto modes. Manually set the charge current.

[Argypak]

I understand that but it's been working fine up until now


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[ahahn]

If you are using one of the "C" type modes, then the Charger bases the current on what it thinks is the pack capacity--trying to correlate the voltage and current output with the pack resistance.

If something in the pack or the balancing connector is misbehaving, then the charger might be thinking the pack is smaller than it actually is and start charging at a lower current. I'd be looking at each cell voltage to see if one cell is not keeping up with the others.

These things (poor connections etc.) can change with time.

[Argypak]

Thanks , that makes sense


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[Ace Dude]

I always manually set the charge current as recommended above.

[Argypak]

So just to confirm, I've been running the manual mode since this post and have had zero issues


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[Gregor99]

Thanks for reporting back. The auto modes worked very well with LiPos from several years ago and in lower current scenarios. With modern LiPos and charging scenarios the manual rates provide a much more consistent result. This is one the reasons the auto modes are disabled by default in Revolectrix most recent charger, the Dual Powerlab.