Super Brain 989 Help

[Ericke1]

Almost more than a year ago I bought the Super Brain 989 from Tower, like an idiot I never opened the box for several months, using my old charger. Finally when I opened it I saw the back casing had a slight burn/black residue (like a sticker), but when I plugged it in everything seemed to work so I thought who cares.

After trying to charge a couple of stick packs, on autocycle or charge, it seems to on the lcd screen readings the battery was charging and you could see the progress and it was working but somehow at 1C I noticed it was charging the batteries too quickly. After using the pack, I noticed initially it had a lot of juice but for a short time then it died quickly. I tried a number of packs with the same problem. When I used by old duratrax mini-pulse charger and charged the same battery-it worked fine.

Either my settings are wrong (unlikely) or something is wrong with the charger. I wrote to Model Rectifier to ask if they will service the charger, no response for over a week. I doubt they will repair it-what are my options? Do any of you guys have the expertise to look at this and fix it if I mail it to you?

PLEASE HELP.

:surrender

 

[robmob]

By black casing I assume you mean on the power supply right?

I have a 989 and the casing on the unit is gray and the power supply is black.

Assuming you mean the power supply, you could have a bad one.

Mine has always worked flawlessly. If you want you could send me your charger and I can throw it on the power supply that came with mine and see if works.

I would give MRC at least a few more days to respond first though.

 

[Rolex]

I used to sell and service electronics, and own, or have owned at least one of every electronic device ever invented. (well, almost)

Rule of thumb....
Use it and use it and use it for the first month. If it's going to fail prematurely, that's when it will happen, either through a defective part or something as simple as a cold soldered joint.
I once had an $800 Sony TV fail in less than a week, but during that time I had it stay on constantly. Naturally it was just a simple exchange at the store where I bought it.

If you use it a lot and it's still with you a month later, it will surely live out its' life expectancy and then some.


I have the 977, and the power supply is only 13.5V DC output at 10amps. You might be able to get that transformer through Radio Shack, and certainly through an electrical supply house and just solder on the original DC plug that goes to the charger.

 

[Ericke1]

Thanks guys, actually the power supply and the charger seem to be working, the lcd readings work, the power supply powers the unit, and I'm able to set the charger, for example, to 3.6 amps, 3600 mah, trickle cutoff and everything, no problem-its just that the battery charges so quickly and when I use the pack it dies in 2-5 mins, which means the charger is not charging properly. I even tried the auto cycle mode which takes 20 mins, and same problem. I know my batteries are fine because I have 8 of them and same problem with all of them. Unless I'm doing something wrong, I suspect the charger is faulty. If Model does not reply, Rolex can I send it to you to play with?

What I meant by the "back casing" is the back of the grey charger unit had a square black spot, like something like a sticker was either stuck on it or it burned or something similar happened, but maybe thats how all units look?

I feel upset that I spent so much on this thing and this is what happens

 

[Rolex]

Hmmm. Tough call on this one if all your readouts are fine. Did you buy it at a LHS? If so, bring it in and ask them if you're not inputting the right information, and bring those batts with you.
If it charges some types of batteries but not the ones giving you a problem, I'd guess your not using the right input info.
You have a choice to just start it and let it find out on its' own what type, size and cell amount it's charging, or you can specify the charge rate, number of cells, etc. which sometimes makes a difference. If they're NiCads, try cycling them. Discharge and recharge 3 times, allowing them to cool completely between cycles.
Keep us posted.

 

[hamz9561]

Are you using the temperature probe that came with it? Sometimes if it isn't on the pack properly when I use it my packs or my TX acts the same way with my 989.

 

[digger]

This is the same company that has Enya engines right? http://www.modelrectifier.com/catalog/item91.html

Buddy of mine needed some parts for a .120. Their response was real slow. To be honest, was like they didn't even care.

Hope you have better luck.

 

[Ericke1]

Yeah been using the temp probe, have tried 8 batteries, even RXs, autocycle and everything, will try and bring it to a hobby store since I bought it from Tower originally

 

[Rolex]

Does it do it with ANY type of battery?

 

[Ericke1]

I only have tried NIMH, 3000, 3600, 4200 7.2v 6 cell and 5 Cell 1600 mah RX packs, dont want to try lithium because I dont have a balancer. Rolex you being an electronic rc maven and all dont have any tricks up your sleeves? Maybe I should ship this thing to you, I'm sure if you play with it you will fix it

 

[Rolex]

Rolex you being an electronic rc maven and all dont have any tricks up your sleeves? Maybe I should ship this thing to you, I'm sure if you play with it you will fix it

Try it without the temp probe. That would eliminate one of the variables. I don't use one on mine. Re-read the manual and let it peak charge and/or trickle charge.
Ericke1, I got out of electronics before digital circuitry and chips showed up. I also have a $1200 Hewlett Packard oscilloscope that I no longer have any use for. I even have a $120 Dymond Super Turbo charger with a problem I couldn't correct, and ended up getting the $120 Super Brain to replace it. If it was the power supply or a switch or anything in the hardware, input, output etc, I'd do it for you. But there's pretty much nothing that can be corrected in digital circuitry short of replacing the board.
Your best bet is still to contact MRC and explain to them that it wasn't used for quite a while. If they see it, they might take care of you.

 

[Ericke1]

Ok so far no word from those guys

 

[Rolex]

Just keep us posted.

 

[Ericke1]

Finally heard back, they said to make sure my cutoff voltage was set to at least 1.00v and if it still did not charge the pack, to send my unit for repair

 

[Rolex]

That's good news.

 

[digger]

Yeah, I'm glad to hear it.

How long did it take for them to get back with ya?

 

[Ericke1]

2 weeks