Originally Posted by Lazy Ace

I disagree completely. They may look just like the good ones and may do the job most times unless they fail but the workmanship and materials leave a lot to be desired.

I must say I don't buy my pigtails/connectors etc from GH so I am not familiar with the quality of their products.

I do assemble a lot of my own using north american supplied parts.

Dennis

Originally Posted by Boatcrazy

Funny people are always ready to jump on Hobbyking.
I have been using there electronics(servos/motors/ESC/lipos )since I returned to the hobby 5 years ago and have to say Ive only had a couple of very minor problems and no more than anything I have bought at the local hobby shop.
People seem to forget that alot of the stuff HobbyKing sells and what the other major suppliers sell come from the same factory and just badged.
I think its automatically assumed that if I pay big dollar for something its got to be superior but in todays market thats not always true.
Sorry for hijacking the thread.

Originally Posted by Lazy Ace

Not something that would instill confidence charging lipo batteries another hobby klunk product.

Dennis

Originally Posted by htse

The hobbyking parallel charging board is known to have burnt out problem. Luckly mine doesnt have that problem.... but they are known for having some defective ones

Originally Posted by Max

Parallel charging can be done safely provided you have become fully familiar with the care and charging of Lipo batteries. Once you get to know the in and outs of Lipo's and RESPECT the danger and work safely to avoid it, THEN you can consider parallel charging.



I do not recommend parallel charging for newcomers because of this exact reason- You made a beginner mistake and look what happened. I very strongly suspect you plugged the packs incorrectly to the balance board. Either that or you got a bum balance board from HK- If you can, post a picture if the fried section of the board and show us which ports you were plugging into when the magic smoke was released. I can provide a batter analysis of the cause of you can. Also take a picture of the backside of the board showing which circuits were fried.

Some general rules to follow:

• Make sure all packs to be balanced charged are within .1V of each other
• Check and DOUBLE CHECK the negative balance lead of each pack before you plug it into the parallel charging board.
• Check and DOUBLE CHECK the negative balance lead gets plugged INTO the negative post (pin 1) on the balance board. Do this for every pack you plug in.

I generally charge at the cumulative pack rating for the packs.
IE if I charge 3 2200's, I will charge at 6.6A (Assuming your charger can handle 6.6A)

You can also parallel charge multiple capacities.
IE- 2 2200's and one 1000 can be parallel charged at 5.4A. But again, I emphasize that parallel charging should be best left to people who have aquired a significant level of experience in Lipo charging.

Lately, I do a lot less parallel charging because I now use an app that tracks the battery condition by entering the charge capacity each time I charge and discharge a pack. So to get accurate charge data history, I need to charge each pack individually. Each pack has its own unique serial number and over time, I can glean a ton of info on the pack condition and how I run it to know the overall condition of the pack. I get around the multi charge by having more chargers, each charging one pack at a time...LOL. PS- 4 port chargers are great for this

By all means, keep asking questions. Its the only way to learn

Originally Posted by Raisin

As far as I know, the packs were close to 0.1V of each other (all cells were between 3.7 and 3.8v). After plugging in the 4th battery, my charger displayed a voltage error and then I looked back at the board to see the spark. I've had the batteries for years so I doubt there is a problem with their connectors, and the board only allows the balance plugs to fit in one way. This wasn't the first time using this board either, so this is most likely my own error. In the photo, those are the lines that burnt. I checked the solder on the back and nothing seems amiss. Lastly, what app is it that you're using? Sounds like it would be a good idea.