FM Charging plug polarity

[SafetyBob]

I cannot find any of my instructions nor can I find the answer from searching the site (not asking right question?), is the center tap on FiveMega's battery charger plug positive? I assume it is and am soldering it that way in a couple of minutes unless someone tell me otherwise.

Please don't ask why I haven't done this before, I am trying to answer that myself.... guess I just like disassembling stuff multiple times!!

Bob E.

 

[Mr Happy]

Can you not test the socket on the battery pack with a meter?

 

[DMC]

The positive red wire attaches to the short center piece of the plug and the negative black wire attaches to the longer piece. Here are bad picture of how the wires are attached on the plug I am using:

 

[SafetyBob]

Thanks, got it right. DMC, my "art" work is hidden under a nice layer of shrink tubing.

And I sure was right, it is really easy to charge up those packs when you use the charging plug!! No more tearing things apart for me!!

Bob E.

 

[DM51]

If you are doing this with Li-Ion series packs, you should take the pack apart every few charges and charge the cells individually (or in parallel).

If you don't do this, they can get out of balance, with one cell over-charged, another under-charged etc. The imbalance will worsen with each charge/discharge cycle until it becomes dangerous.

I would suggest that as an initial procedure, you should dismantle the pack every ~5 charges to charge cells individually. The chances are with new cells, they will be OK (if the cell voltages read nearly the same) and you could consider extending this to every 10 charges.

However, if at any stage a significant imbalance shows up, you will need to do this individual cell charging more frequently.