Lipo PCB?

[SHÖCK]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

Did you read the notes on ehobby?
"- Prevent 11.1V Li-ion or Li-polymer battery from ``Over-Running``"

Sounds to me like it protects from over-current draw instead of overdischarge. Congratulations, you bought a $14 fuse

If it is an over-current draw protection board, then it may think your AEG is drawing more current than it's supposed to.
The smallest king arms lipo I saw is only capable of providing 15.6A continuously, makes sense they would design their protection board to their smallest rated battery. Plus a safety margin, so it would cut off before it got to 15.6A
And of course there's peak discharge and continuous discharge rates, it takes more power to get a motor going than it does to make it run, so your motor might just be spiking above 15.6A on startup, triggering the board.

Man, I hate the terrible translation. What are you supposed to interpret "over-running" as meaning? It's just a fuse?

A 15.6A cutoff would be disappointing. It wouldn't work with a lot of airsoft batteries. That's really low and terribly conservative.

The battery I have right now is a 2000mAH 20C Lipo Battery: 2.0AH * 20C = 44.00 Amps Max Constant Draw

[bananabotdan]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

Did you read the notes on ehobby?
"- Prevent 11.1V Li-ion or Li-polymer battery from ``Over-Running``"

Sounds to me like it protects from over-current draw instead of overdischarge. Congratulations, you bought a $14 fuse

If it is an over-current draw protection board, then it may think your AEG is drawing more current than it's supposed to.
The smallest king arms lipo I saw is only capable of providing 15.6A continuously, makes sense they would design their protection board to their smallest rated battery. Plus a safety margin, so it would cut off before it got to 15.6A
And of course there's peak discharge and continuous discharge rates, it takes more power to get a motor going than it does to make it run, so your motor might just be spiking above 15.6A on startup, triggering the board.

Im confused. On king arms site they describe the device in question as a true PCB (http://www.kingarms.com/productpage.asp?prodid=1418). This is further backed up by the fact that they sell cell balancers with their charger for specific batteries (http://www.kingarms.com/productpage.asp?prodid=1419). WHAT THE HECK?

[ThunderCactus]

Well hang on there, just because you lipo is capable of 44A continuous draw, doesn't mean your going to use it all
However, at 400fps and at high speed (around 1200rpm), you draw ~17A continuously, and your peak amperage on startup is alot more.

Originally Posted by SHÖCK

Man, I hate the terrible translation. What are you supposed to interpret "over-running" as meaning? It's just a fuse?

A 15.6A cutoff would be disappointing. It wouldn't work with a lot of airsoft batteries. That's really low and terribly conservative.

The battery I have right now is a 2000mAH 20C Lipo Battery: 2.0AH * 20C = 44.00 Amps Max Constant Draw

[bananabotdan]

^ It seems odd to me that king arms would sell a battery with similar if not "better" (Higher MAH) stats than shocks (http://www.kingarms.com/productpage.asp?prodid=1410) that would not work with their own PCB.

[ThunderCactus]

No, your not listening
The rating of the battery has nothing to do with how much current is being used by the system
It's your motor that draws the current out of the battery
You could have a 12v car battery capable of 1200A continuous hooked up to your AEG, your motor's still only going to draw 17A

So if your gun only draws 10A, and you have an over-current draw protection board set to 15A, you can put ANY battery you want on that gun, within reason.

[bananabotdan]

^ So what your saying is that shock's motor is drawing to many amps from the battery tripping the system. Why would king arms even make a device like this if it is pointless other than for the purpose of being an over glorified fuse? Furthermore why would the board require a connector for the three cell charging and monitoring cable when all it is do ing is cutting off power at a certain amount of amp output, couldn't this be done simply with the power cables? It just does not add up to me why would a company like king arms produce an overcomplicated useless product.

[m102404]

the balancer is a balancer (supposed to be anyways...I wouldn't trust it).

The other unit is supposed to be a low voltage cut off. Meant ONLY for 11.1v LiPo batteries it's supposed to cut off, and require a manual reset (there's a little button under the shrink wrap), at just over 9v. That's irrespective of whatever Amps/discharge rate the pack is capable of. You cannot use a 7.4v lipo with that cutoff (if you don't understand why...don't use LiPo's).

I have one...but I've never taken my LiPo's down to that voltage range. Even at all day games I've only every needed to swap out a LiPo once (I forgot to charge that one...and had a fully charged spare ready to go). It's evident when the battery starts to run out of steam...the ROF/trigger response is slower than "normal". Closest I've gotten in normal use is ~3.2v/cell and that took forever (game + lots of gun work/testing the next week).

When you're running your battery the measured voltage of the pack will dip from it's "standing" voltage. If the pack is low enough to begin with...it'll be dipping into the range that'll trip the cut-off. Your gun, your setup, your battery (life/condition/quality)...will be different from another guy.

If you have a run-away gun because of wiring/electrical issues then yes...you could severely "dump" your battery if you can't get it unhooked. The pack will overheat...boiling the chemicals and producing gas (puffed pack)...if the pack integrity is compromised (i.e. cheapo pack, nicks/scratches, you stick a big metal rod into it), you're going to have problems. If you pay no heed to the warning signs and just go along as normal and charge it back up again...then you're running some risks there too.

Honestly...it's not rocket science. If you've got half a brain it's understandable and there's TONS of good resources out there to read, cross reference, etc....

If you're:
- not going to do any research and cross reference the information out there
- believe what you read in one or two posts in one or two random threads
- going to cheap out on a charger and use clone of a clone of a knock off electronics that are cheaper than your socks
- going to be careless/cavalier with your stuff (i.e. I used to just chuck my batteries into my gear bag at the end of a game...I don't with LiPo's)
- going to be lazy/inattentive when using (discharging) or prepping (charging/balancing) your batteries
..........then you shouldn't get into LiPo's.

If you:
- do your research, cross referencing and are confident that you understand things
- take care of your stuff and realize that batteries are "smart" items that you need to take care of
- buy good quality batteries and a good charger
....then have at it.

[SHÖCK]

All I know is that I've bought two of these on separate occasions, tried them with 4 different 11.1v lipos, tried them in 3 gearboxes with different motors...

And it's the same result everytime. They don't work. They always cut-off the power unless I am holding down the reset switch.

Am I doing something wrong? Am I supposed to hold down the power/reset before attaching the battery or something? I've tried everything that I can think of.

[m102404]

Junk 'em and use the fancy computer between your ears

[Azathoth]

Originally Posted by SHÖCK

All I know is that I've bought two of these on separate occasions, tried them with 4 different 11.1v lipos, tried them in 3 gearboxes with different motors...

And it's the same result everytime. They don't work. They always cut-off the power unless I am holding down the reset switch.

Am I doing something wrong? Am I supposed to hold down the power/reset before attaching the battery or something? I've tried everything that I can think of.

I swear I posted somewhere earlier that those are balancing boards not cutoff boards. Engage the grey matter and decide to chuck or keep.

[SHÖCK]

Originally Posted by Azathoth

I swear I posted somewhere earlier that those are balancing boards not cutoff boards. Engage the grey matter and decide to chuck or keep.

I swore we weren't talking about the balancing board. We were discussing the cutoff board. Open your eyes and read?

Balancing board is a mini-tamiya to a 4-pin lipo connector. Cutoff board is two mini-tamiya connectors with another 4-pin connector branching off.

The two cut-off boards I have from Huang simply do not work with any lipos/gearbox combinations that I have tried. I am trying to figure out why this is. I've played over a year with lipos without using any sort of device to monitor voltage aside from my ears (ROF) and an occasional voltage check on a charger. It wouldn't be hurt to be able to get these things to actually work though. I have had one lipo start to bloat due to a loaner gun and friends not listening to instructions.

Do you see how this thread is confusing?

Azathoth is saying they are all balancing boards (he is thinking of the board on the king arms website)

Thundercactus is saying that they are just expensive fuses (he is probably referring to the one carried by airsoft parts)

m102404 is saying that they cutoff boards (probably referring to the one on ehobbyasia)

I'm saying the one I have from Huang doesn't appear to work for any of the above functions :P

[ThunderCactus]

Well all of us agree they are crap, so buy something from wolfdragon lol

[bananabotdan]

I think your safe at least impact wise with modern lipos. lol
YouTube- AATV vs. LiPo Battery
I am not saying that you should be careless though.

[SHÖCK]

Originally Posted by bananabotdan

I think your safe at least impact wise with modern lipos. lol
YouTube- AATV vs. LiPo Battery
I am not saying that you should be careless though.

I'm disappointed that they didn't try the battery again after smoking it.

I've done that to lipos with less than a pokey stick BTW.

One errant rail bolt screwed a few millimeters too far did the same thing.

[Azathoth]

Originally Posted by SHÖCK

I swore we weren't talking about the balancing board. We were discussing the cutoff board. Open your eyes and read?

Balancing board is a mini-tamiya to a 4-pin lipo connector. Cutoff board is two mini-tamiya connectors with another 4-pin connector branching off.

The two cut-off boards I have from Huang simply do not work with any lipos/gearbox combinations that I have tried. I am trying to figure out why this is. I've played over a year with lipos without using any sort of device to monitor voltage aside from my ears (ROF) and an occasional voltage check on a charger. It wouldn't be hurt to be able to get these things to actually work though. I have had one lipo start to bloat due to a loaner gun and friends not listening to instructions.

Do you see how this thread is confusing?

Azathoth is saying they are all balancing boards (he is thinking of the board on the king arms website)

Thundercactus is saying that they are just expensive fuses (he is probably referring to the one carried by airsoft parts)

m102404 is saying that they cutoff boards (probably referring to the one on ehobbyasia)

I'm saying the one I have from Huang doesn't appear to work for any of the above functions :P

I am talking about the board carried by huang and which he started to retail near the start of last summer. I said poorly translated it's actually "suppose" to be a balancing board. I do see how someone can get really confused with this thread.