kg9dk
I just loaded up my 5x battery pack and had zero volts out. All batteies are new, but chcked them any way. After figuring out how the 5x battery pack was wired it ohmed out ok. This does not compute..... begin putting batteries in and measuring the votlage as I installed a battery.
The problem showed up doing this. On the 5x battery pack I got with my kit there were 5 raised plastic bars next to the postive terminals . What was happening is the positive button of the battery was resting on plastic bar and not making contact with the terminal.
My solution was to cut off all the plastic bars. 5x battery pack works now.
What were the plastic bar for??? I can only guess that they were to align the battery positive button with the battery pack terminal.
john.kg9dk
Hey John,
Is I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about off the top my head, is there any way that you could post a photo? I know there have been a couple other ones that the batteries wouldn't slide around in therefore you had to kinda roll them to get them to make full contact. I haven't heard anything about little posts though.
Thanks,
-Colin
Colin,
I will try to add the image. If you can zoom in you can see where I cut off the plastic bars. I took this image into my layout software and measured the distance between the metal eyelet and the edge of the plastic bar. One measured .050" the other one was .125". Probably would not had to cut the one that measured .125 but did then all while I was at it.
john
@kg9dk
Hi John,
I know exactly what you are talking about and see this problem quite a lot in battery holders. The positive end of some AA batteries are not quite long enough and different brands can be different lengths. Some of the battery holders have those small plastic tabs just a fraction to long, a quick fix for this problem is to put a small drop of solder on each positive end of each battery(this must be done very quickly as you don't wan't to heat up the battery to much). You will need to clean up each end with some fine grade emery paper then wipe with alcohol(not Jack Daniels, keep that for celebrating your successes) mentholated spirits.
What kind of batteries are you using?
I always use hard wired NiMh packs or Lithium Polymer (LiPo) packs with voltage regulators because of this(you cannot have your battery pack fail while your model is running as this equals disaster especially RC models that I'm into).
You could try and put the solder on the positive terminals of the battery holder but I have found that this is quite hard to do without trashing the holder as it melts very easily.
Another way is to fold up some small pieces of aluminium foil(quite a few layers and slip them in the positive ends with the battery pulled back. You could also try removing some of the plastic in the battery holder with a Dremel(small tool grinder).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Never use Lithium Polymer (LiPo) battery packs unless you have the correct balance charger for them and have an understanding about these batteries as if not treated correctly can explode and catch fire easily.
Hope this helps.
Rich
Hi Rich,
Thanks for the input. I have solved my problem by clipping off the plastic bars. I am using Alcaline Energizer for now later will switch to a recharable. I have some digital Ni-MH 1800mAH.
John
I love lithium , balance chargers are great but often I have charged them under their C rating , for example mine are 30c turnigy 2.2 ah 11.1v and that's worked fine , but I do have a turnigy 3s balance charger I rotate them out and leave them on overnight (cuts off automatically). Lithiums are waaaay lighter for the output.
hello I had the same issue with my 6 battery holder that came with the EZ-B v4 dev kit. pretty frustrating to not be able to power up your new toy. I made my own holder. well to whom it may concern... battery holder isn't making contact.