New battery : top LED (100%) only flashing, Red LED off

[ajohnsonlaird]

I just started charging up four new TB48 batteries on the SPC4500 SmartCharger. I just put the batteries in without powering them on, and they all started normal charging LED patterns ("walking" green pattern with red LED on).

After a while, one of them stopped normal charging, the red LED went out, and the "top" (the 100%) green LED started flashing the letter S in Morse (dit-dit-dit, pause....dit-dit-dit, pause....).

I tried removing it from the charger and reinserting it. Same thing. With the battery removed from the charger, just briefly pressing the red LED, shown lower green on solid, next one up flashing. Reinserted it into the charger, same thing.

So I powered the battery on and *then* inserted it into the charger. It's now charging ok.

I've not finished searching for the meaning, but does anyone happen to know what the top green LED flashing like that means? (I suspect it means "there has been an error--see if you can guess what's wrong!" )

Andy.

 

[Scotflieger]

I just started charging up four new TB48 batteries on the SPC4500 SmartCharger. I just put the batteries in without powering them on, and they all started normal charging LED patterns ("walking" green pattern with red LED on).

After a while, one of them stopped normal charging, the red LED went out, and the "top" (the 100%) green LED started flashing the letter S in Morse (dit-dit-dit, pause....dit-dit-dit, pause....).

I tried removing it from the charger and reinserting it. Same thing. With the battery removed from the charger, just briefly pressing the red LED, shown lower green on solid, next one up flashing. Reinserted it into the charger, same thing.

So I powered the battery on and *then* inserted it into the charger. It's now charging ok.

I've not finished searching for the meaning, but does anyone happen to know what the top green LED flashing like that means? (I suspect it means "there has been an error--see if you can guess what's wrong!" )

Andy.

Checking the User Manual, a flashing top LED indicates a Temperature problem. Three flashes indicates an over temp (>40C) which would explain way you were about to continue after a delay. I have not heard any beeps before. One of the advantages of the SPC4500 I can insert a warm battery into the charger and it does not start charging until the battery has safely cooled. In this case the top green LED will flash with no red LED.

 

[ajohnsonlaird]

Checking the User Manual, a flashing top LED indicates a Temperature problem. Three flashes indicates an over temp (>40C) which would explain way you were about to continue after a delay. I have not heard any beeps before. One of the advantages of the SPC4500 I can insert a warm battery into the charger and it does not start charging until the battery has safely cooled. In this case the top green LED will flash with no red LED.

Thanks, Scot. As luck would have it, I checked the manual and found that. There were no beeps -- my reference to Morse was that it was flashing the letter S. Sorry for the confusion.

I thought it might have been an over-temp alarm, but the casing of the T48, was barely warm to the touch, so I suspect it was a false alarm. I noted the battery number so I can keep a suspicious eye on it for future performance.

I just wish the SPC4500 had a "take from whatever voltage you're at to storage voltage" capability. Not sure I like the self-discharge-while-in-a-foam-case idea, but my prior and current experience is with honkin' big LiPo's of the 6s 16,000 mAH sort.

Andy.

 

[The Editor]

I just started charging up four new TB48 batteries on the SPC4500 SmartCharger. I just put the batteries in without powering them on, and they all started normal charging LED patterns ("walking" green pattern with red LED on).

After a while, one of them stopped normal charging, the red LED went out, and the "top" (the 100%) green LED started flashing the letter S in Morse (dit-dit-dit, pause....dit-dit-dit, pause....).

I tried removing it from the charger and reinserting it. Same thing. With the battery removed from the charger, just briefly pressing the red LED, shown lower green on solid, next one up flashing. Reinserted it into the charger, same thing.

So I powered the battery on and *then* inserted it into the charger. It's now charging ok.

I've not finished searching for the meaning, but does anyone happen to know what the top green LED flashing like that means? (I suspect it means "there has been an error--see if you can guess what's wrong!" )

Andy.

Sometimes I have seen batteries 'throw a bit of a wobbly' and the LED sequence doesn't exactly do what is expected.
The turn the battery on first trick is usually used when the pack is already charged to 95% or greater and it is used to 'top off' the packs in that instance.
For wharever reason, your pack may have thought it was 95% charged and then refused to go any further or enter a charge state until you turned the the pack on. (I don't mean you showed it pornography and whispered dirty things to it).

 

[ajohnsonlaird]

Thanks, Ed. I measured the voltage directly and also the walking-LEDs suggested that the pack was at only 30% charge when the first charging attempt failed. That's when I turned the pack on and showed it a picture of President Trump. I think that got the battery's attention. Certainly it flew fine today.

I'm impressed how nicely the I1 handles itself in Atti mode (even though I think Atti mode is a misnomer -- it's just Altitude Hold).

Thanks
Andy.