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godale03

godale03

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Hey Guys,

I have some IB4200 matched packs that are showing no voltage. They were brand new..... I have only had them a few months. Well... me being the rookie that I am, failed to charge them at all since I had them built. They have never been used and when I grabbed them off the shelf to zap them this winter... I got an "Open Err" message on my 989. Is there a way to bring these packs back? Or am I out $200. Thanks guys.

Tom
 
You should be able to charge them no-problem. The cells should be almost as-if you just got them.

Did you try the charger with a different pack, and see if the error carries over?
 
I was able to charge the other packs that I had no problem. Using a volt meter I am showing no charge in any of the cells. If I can bring them back... how would I go about doing that... withoug causing any more damage than I may have already caused?
 
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You put these into packs right? Are you sure that all the cells are connected with a copper braid/Pro Wire/wire?
 
The cells are connected using battery bars. I did not build them. My LHS built them up custom for me at the store when I purchased them. They have never seen any action other than that.
 
sounds like an open short, even sitting they should never voltage down to 0. use your meter and check each cell and connection and see where the break is.
 
Acutally I took it to my LHS to have them check it out, as I do not own a volt meter. I am only as good as the info they provided me. The packs looked good to me. They have made packs for me in the past and they all worked well. It just seems weird that both packs are doing the same thing. Now I am by no means an expert on this however, so I could be wrong. Didn't IB have some problems recently with their cells?
 
I have had issues with my reciever packs not taking much of a charge. About the only thing I do is charge a bit, drain, charge more, etc. Eventually, the packs "warm up" and take a full charge.

In your situation, however... If it's showing an open circuit, the most likely cause is a bad solder joint, or maybe even bad connectors. It could also be a cell that has a charge, causing a one-cell false peak. If you have a battery tray and the cells are assembled "side by side", I'd recommend placing them on the tray to make sure they're drained down to .9v/cell. This requires exposed contacts.

Another thing to try, if your charger supports it, is a one-cell-at-a-time charge method. This might allow you to track down which is bad.

Failing that, it is possible that your cells are bad. Unlikely, but possible. I personally have some 2400mah nicads (I know; "get with the times!") that take a charge perfectly. But nimh has a tendency to self-drain, and therefore reverse themselves. Even then, they should come back after a charge.

If the cells are bad, I would suspect that the cells were over-heated during the assembly process. It doesn't take much to totally fubar a perfectly good Sub C.

Now, as for you not owning a multimeter....

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92020

Ya got no excuse now, amigo ;). I have this very same one; works great.
 
Thanks man... I will see what we can do here. If I have any issues I know where to go for answers! Thanks for the help.

Tom
 
No problem amigo. As long as the cells didn't hiss (vent) during assembly, they should be fine. Altho, sometimes they go bad without venting.

Otherwise, they should be fine; the cells are shipped/sold with zero charge in them. Safety reasons and all that fun.
 
Well I took the batteries to a buddy of mines house and hooked it up to his charger... I am not sure which one he had... he had it decaled up, but it was nice. Had a nice digital read out and was about the size of war and peace! LOL Anywho.. they were registering 0 volts in them and his charger was able to push a charge to them. For some reason mine would not charge them that low. Well I brought them home here and ran a cycle through my charger and it worked like a champ. So I guess we are good to go. All cells showing 1.2 volts each. Talk about a load off of my mind! Thanks for the help Heartbreak and crew!

Tom
 
He was probably using a Competition Electronics Turbo 35 charger. Best there is.

4200 packs will self discharge very quickly.

You need to check them every 2 weeks or this will happen again.

It happened to mine, but I was able to bring it back using my Hyperion charger.
 
No problem amigo. Any cell, be it nimh or nicad, will be a stickler to charge once it hits that point-of-seemingly-no-return. Just be patient, and burp it along, and it'll wake up.

I like to think of this as "hungover cell syndrome".
 
Thanks for the info Rob my friend. You were right.. it was a Competition charger. I will keep looking in and running a cycle through these batteries every couple of weeks.


Heartbreak.... thanks again my friend.

Tom
 

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