Can this dead LiPo battery be salvaged?

[Flyboy666]

I lost my plane in a tree yesterday and retrieved it today. I removed the Spektrum G2 battery, and it is completely dead. It will not even register on a battery tester, and when I connected it to my charger, the charger flashed a "Unknown error detected" on the screen.
Is there any way to resurrect this battery, or is it dead and gone?
Thanks

 

[9x19]

Which charger do you have? Spektrum Smart or something else?

A generic charger that ignores the smart lead could be used to put just enough charge into the battery that it will register on the smart charger.

 

[DavidB1126]

I heard most people charge it on nimh mode for a minute to get the voltage up back to normal, and resume charging on lipo balance charge. But its a G2 smart battery so I got no clue if it will be able to charge on nimh charge due to the smart technology.

(*nimh charge at your own risk*)

But that's just what I seen / heard before. By no means I am an expert

 

[Chubaka]

More than likely you'll need to do the above. Is there any corrosion on the gold? I have a charger I have to play with or I get random errors. After a few damp sessions is when it gets worse.

 

[tntpoof]

if lipo is really dead at zero voltage there is no reason to try and bring it back. a simple 1 amp charge in nimh mode will bring it up to 6volts then stop the charge switch to lipo mode with balance

 

[Flyboy666]

Thanks all. I have this charger: https://www.spektrumrc.com/product/s1100-g2-1x100w-ac-smart-charger/SPMXC2080.html

I believe that I can change the battery type to Nimh. But the connection will still have the balance lead integrated into it.

Are you suggesting that I change to NimH and plug it in? If so, should I specify a certain charging voltage or set some other parameter?

 

[bill_delong]

correct, remove the balance lead and charge it as NiMh for no longer than a minute, IF the voltage rises then you can re-connect the balance lead and complete the charge on LiPo mode.

If the battery was left discharged for longer than a week then shunts may have formed and the battery is at risk of catching on fire during the charge cycle if shunts are present... this is huge risk that I wouldn't take if the battery was up in the tree for longer than a week

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808a-how-to-awaken-a-sleeping-li-ion

 

[tntpoof]

set charger @ 6 cell nimh 1 amp

 

[Flyboy666]

Thanks. A couple f/u questions:

1) I see no way to remove the balance lead on it; it's a G2 battery and the balance lead is a separate wire (I think) but it cannot be removed. Curious why the balance lead matters anyway, as it only balances after it has charged fully, which I am not going to do under NiMh mode.

2) It's a 3-cell battery, so why would I set it on 6 cell as suggested above?

 

[bill_delong]

Thanks. A couple f/u questions:

1) I see no way to remove the balance lead on it; it's a G2 battery and the balance lead is a separate wire (I think) but it cannot be removed. Curious why the balance lead matters anyway, as it only balances after it has charged fully, which I am not going to do under NiMh mode.

2) It's a 3-cell battery, so why would I set it on 6 cell as suggested above?

I don't know if you can trick the charger into pumping it on NiMh with the G2 harness, maybe ask a friend who has a standard charger to pump the pack for you on NiMh with his charger.

6S-NiMh = 1.2V x 6 = 7.2V

2S-LiPo = 4.2V x 2 = 8.4V

Assumption was made you had a 2S pack, not sure all NiMh chargers have a cell rating, I think they just use current where the one's I've used limit to 2A

*** Side note... I am not a fan of proprietary connectors, this is a good opportunity to replace your G2 system with a new charger and battery that uses standard EC5 connectors and traditional balance harness

 

[9x19]

In Nimh mode, it probably doesn't use the balance lead at all, only way to know for sure is set the charger, connect the battery, and hit start.

 

[Flyboy666]

I must be living right. I turned the charger on, plugged in the battery expecting to take the advice you guys gave me ... and the charger recognized the battery and started charging it.

It was originally at 0% and told me 8 hours to charge, but it quickly got up to 5% and then fully charged in about an hour. It also went through the balance step, so it worked fully.

Unless anyone has other thoughts, I am going to leave it fully charged, but the self-discharge function of the G2 battery is set to start in 72 hours to bring it down to storage voltage. I'll check it in three days to ensure that it does so. So basically, I will let the battery function as it's supposed to and hope for the best.

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[WickedFog]

It would be nice to know how much damage the battery has sustained. There will be some. But without being able to check the internal resistance, it's hard to say if it's safe to use or not. I assume that charger doesn't give you an IR reading on the cells?

If it were me, I'd just toss it rather than risk using it. But if you do intend to use it, never walk away from it when it's charging. And never charge it near anything flammable. They burn over 3000°F (hot enough to melt steel) and spew flames and toxic fumes that will choke you out when they go.

 

[J’sCrawler]

I must be living right. I turned the charger on, plugged in the battery expecting to take the advice you guys gave me ... and the charger recognized the battery and started charging it.

It was originally at 0% and told me 8 hours to charge, but it quickly got up to 5% and then fully charged in about an hour. It also went through the balance step, so it worked fully.

Unless anyone has other thoughts, I am going to leave it fully charged, but the self-discharge function of the G2 battery is set to start in 72 hours to bring it down to storage voltage. I'll check it in three days to ensure that it does so. So basically, I will let the battery function as it's supposed to and hope for the best.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Are you going to use it soon? I’ll be honest I have left batteries fully charged for some days at a time.

 

[Flyboy666]

No plans to use it soon, because I have to repair my plane. The G2 batteries have an automatic self-discharge function that starts after 72 hours if they are not used. So in three days, it should start to discharge down to the storage voltage of ~ 3.8V (for this battery.) That's what I meant in my prior post.

 

[J’sCrawler]

I like what both these guys just said, @bill_delong and @WickedFog, proprietary connectors and “smart” technology take the knowledge out of the equation for you, rendering you ignorant to types of batteries and different voltages. It’s always a pain to charge the thing. It is a risky business not knowing the Internal Resistance of the cells in the battery. For the longest time I was riding dirty like that.

 

[WickedFog]

The smart batteries are actually dumber than a regular lipo. They tried to simplify lipo care, but what they have done is make it more dangerous because people don't need to educate themselves on lipo safety. Lipo charging and care should be the very first thing people educate themselves on before buying any lipo. In my opinion, the smart tech should be outlawed.

But the companies (Traxxas and Spektrum) make the chargers and batteries proprietary so you are stuck paying way too much for their crappy batteries. They're making a killing selling this junk to unsuspecting people entering the hobby, and it's shameful.

 

[J’sCrawler]

The smart batteries are actually dumber than a regular lipo. They tried to simplify lipo care, but what they have done is make it more dangerous because people don't need to educate themselves on lipo safety. Lipo charging and care should be the very first thing people educate themselves on before buying any lipo. In my opinion, the smart tech should be outlawed.

But the companies (Traxxas and Spektrum) make the chargers and batteries proprietary so you are stuck paying way too much for their crappy batteries. They're making a killing selling this junk to unsuspecting people entering the hobby, and it's shameful.

Yea, that’s what I was saying

 

[Lostinthewoods86]

The smart batteries are actually dumber than a regular lipo. They tried to simplify lipo care, but what they have done is make it more dangerous because people don't need to educate themselves on lipo safety. Lipo charging and care should be the very first thing people educate themselves on before buying any lipo. In my opinion, the smart tech should be outlawed.

But the companies (Traxxas and Spektrum) make the chargers and batteries proprietary so you are stuck paying way too much for their crappy batteries. They're making a killing selling this junk to unsuspecting people entering the hobby, and it's shameful.

This came up while I was typing something else…but this right here (from a newbie like me to this) is good stuff! I’m glad I found this place when we started this rc adventure a few months ago. I was about to go down this path of least resistance…

I do got a question about this though…since we are new and have new batteries, what’s the point that IR becomes a concern?

 

[WickedFog]

This came up while I was typing something else…but this right here (from a newbie like me to this) is good stuff! I’m glad I found this place when we started this rc adventure a few months ago. I was about to go down this path of least resistance…

I do got a question about this though…since we are new and have new batteries, what’s the point that IR becomes a concern?

Typically, I like to document the IR of my batteries when I get them. That way I can keep an eye on it. Typically 1-4 milliohms is where I want mine to be. But like for a crawler - 10 milliohm wouldn't be terrible. But say for my 6s Kraton, which eats batteries, I wouldn't want to go much over 4 milliohm. I am sure it is safe to do so, but our Kraton has almost $1000 worth of M2C upgrades on it, and I'd cry if it melted

Usually, before your IR gets too bad, you should notice the battery starting to puff. Not always. But I have noticed that on every battery I have had that has gone beyond my safe IR levels.