Battery with two balance plugs

[NKY Heli Guy]

My 6s 4400mah Thunder Power battery has two balance plugs that hang off of it. The manual states that I only use one of them... I'm assuming its the bigger one that I plug into my balance board. What is the 3pin one used for?

I've not owned a battery of this size before, please excuse my ignorance.


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[flyalan]

What manual are you speaking of? On TP 6S packs you need plug in both balance ports. Your TP balance board should have a port (with two ports) marked 6s.

Alan


Alan Butler
Team Synergy

[NKY Heli Guy]

Ha ha you are right I see that now. Does it matter which one you plug in first?


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[flyalan]

No.  Doesn't matter. I like TP packs except for those darn balance ports.

Cheers

Alan


Alan Butler
Team Synergy

[NKY Heli Guy]

Ok I heard you could melt pins if certain balance plug gets plugged in, in the wrong order. Glad to hear yours did not or that it does not matter


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[flyalan]

I melted pins once on a 5S sky lipo pack. Only because I had plugged the balance port cable in backwards. The little guide tabs on the port connector of the battery had worn and this allowed the connector to go in backwards without much difficulty. Did this under some low light conditions in the garage which contributed. The main battery power plug was already connected. Very nice fireworks :-). Fortunately this only melted the pins of the port on the balance board. It didn't damage the battery.

The upside to TP port connectors is that it is even harder to plug a connector in wrong.

Alan


Alan Butler
Team Synergy

[curmudgeon]

EP Buddy has the 6S Thunder Power to JST-XH adapter.
http://epbuddy.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_11&products_id=296
I used them to connect my TP batteries to my iChargers that use JST-XH type balance connectors.

[NKY Heli Guy]

What does this do for you?


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[curmudgeon]

I find balance connectors in general difficult to remove.  My nails are short, so I would end up removing the balance connectors by the wires.  These TP to JST-XH extensions allow me to leave the TP connectors permanently connected to the extension, so I no longer need to worry about damaging these expensive batteries fragile balance connectors.  On the JST-HX end of the extension, I add protective clips, which reduce possibility of damage to the balance connectors.  There are no such protective clips that I am aware of for TP connectors.
http://epbuddy.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_13&products_id=228

[NKY Heli Guy]

Sweet thank you! I'll have to check out that store next time I'm in Columbus to see the Crew play!

[James Mineo]

Ok I heard you could melt pins if certain balance plug gets plugged in, in the wrong order.

A general rule of thumb would be to plug the main power leads in first then your balance connectors. This way if there's going to be an arc or pop you can take it up with the main power leads and not the sensitive balance leads. Then when you're done charging, you unplug the balance taps first then the main power leads.

I have seen people plug in to their chargers with the balance taps first and the leads will go like a fuse on a bottle rocket. And like someone said before, these batts are spendy!

My 2 cents...

James

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[RichL]

+ 1 James.  Plugging in the main connector first allows large voltage differences (if there are any) in individual cells to equalize somewhat.  If you plug in the balancing lead first the cells still try to equalize but through a much smaller gauge wire hence the "bottle rockets".  Large differences in cells generally occur for a couple of reasons IE: Aging pack, Charging without balancing, Fast charging and Storing batteries fully charged for extended periods of time.

Rich