iCharger 106B+ 'Connection Break Down' (Over Voltage Repair)

Z

ZOMGVTEK

100 kW
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Jun 5, 2009
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I just received a used iCharger 106B+ from a forum member, and its saying 'Connection Break Down' on anything you plug in. It's reading the cell voltages, and WILL go into discharge modes, but the current stays very low and it never does anything.

Any ideas whats going on? Its reading the input, output and cell voltage properly, but will never charge or really do much of anything.
 
The power supply is fine. The cables are fine. I can tell you this with a very high degree of certainty. I have used several supplies, several output cables, inspected the board, everything looks fine.

Something has electrically failed, probably not mechanically.
 
You might want update your iCharger firmware. I have see this 'Connection Break Down' bug issue on RCGroup forum.
 
yea sorry for stating the obvious. Changing the firmware does sound like a good idea.. upgrade or even downgrading may give you different results.GL
 
It had 3.14 on it, I flashed 3.14 again and its still not charging.

Wire Cut, Motor Break-In, Charge, Discharge, all do not work at all. Discharge modes don't say 'Connection Break Down', but they don't discharge.

Internal resistance shows 157mOhm on cell 1, and 0 on the rest. With the balance lead disconnected it shows 0mOhm pack resistance.
 
That's usually an error regarding the main charge lead.

Only 1 cell showing on a ... 6s or so? not good..
Balance connector is worth a look. Also check the monitor mode to see if it is reading any voltages at all from the cells..
 
Monitor mode is showing proper voltage on all the cells, and the overall output voltage is correct as well.
 
Here's a little video of the charger in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQwMr5KXKr0

The fan is set to ON, and the beep is off.
 
Hold on a sec.
You've got probably a 1 amp supply out of the wall ( 12w? ) and you're trying to charge at 10 amps x ~12v? ( 120w? ) O_O

It does take a long time to detect the battery but even if it COULD charge the battery, you'd overload the power supply hardcore..

Run it off another 3S-4S lipo batt as the power supply.. just to see.
 
Its a 1.5A supply, and I suppose it didn't make it terribly clear that the issue happens on a powerful supply by using that little guy.

I've used a car battery bank sitting on a float charger, more than capable of hundreds of amps, as well as higher power switching supplies. That is NOT the issue, without question.
It's not taking any power off the wall, and its not putting a thing into the pack.

It MIGHT be discharging cell 1, based off the voltage sagging a touch at the end of the video. Regardless, its not working right. Not even close to it.
 
Look like your power switch DC is not enough ampere cuz you set 5A cause the power supply cannot supply 5A.

Please check your power supply if it can supply 5A?

Try lower 5A to 1A and charge LiPo battery again. Does it still connection break down?
 
Dang it, i'm trying to rule everything out ... :|

So your last options should be:

1) yell at seller
2) open up unit and check for continuity between connector to battery and the circuit board itself. Perhaps the output leads have corroded from outdoors use... who knows..
3) yell at seller again

In that order.
 
I suppose I should have recorded the video on a bigger supply. I'm damn sure the supply is not the issue. Changing the current has no impact whatsoever. It never feeds any current into the pack whatsoever. A healthy charger throws a bit of power at the pack and sees how it reacts during the checking phase. This does nothing but sit there for a while, then complain. I used the small supply since it was a second power input, and the low power capability of the supply has no impact on the chargers operation. Should the supply not be substantial enough to power it, it will drop out and the charger would reboot, or there would be a low voltage error.

I had hoped someone would have had this issue and know what part to replace. This is nearly 100% surely a hardware issue. I did open the charger, it looks perfectly fine. There is nothing cooked, suspicious, or otherwise questionable. I tested out anything I could easily test, and nothing is out of the ordinary. One of the little chips must have an issue, and its probably one of the ones with the numbers grinded off.

I'm in the yelling at seller phase right now. Nothing sketchy going on there, It was purchased in March from HK. Do I yell at HK or Junsi?
 
What i find is that the higher the resistance the wire, the longer this 'check' takes on my icharger 1010b+.
Course... that's on a non-broken unit :p

For that power supply i would pump in maybe.. an amp..

iChargers have a 1 year warranty so.. hm.. i think i would bug HK first.
 
I would get in touch with junsi. He is very helpful!
 
I sent Junsi a PM on RC Groups. I will wait a few days before contacting Hobby King.
 
This is what he told me...

Please check if the input voltage you used is over 18V, if yes, you can do as following:

First, the overvoltage will cause the burnt of D16, change it with another one with the value of 20V.
Second, please check the component Q26, which near the DC input port, change another one if it is burnt, which the model is BC807.
Click to expand...

The initial supply used was around 16V, but it sounds like a semi-common issue that gets this result.
I will have the parts in a few days.
 
Wow, that's golden. A real answer from someone who knows the unit inside out..

It's been told that cheap power supplies, when first turned on, can create some pretty big voltage spikes, which these ichargers are sensitive to, causing them to blow in strange ways.

I know that when i first got into lipo, i bought a cheapo 12v radio shack power supply that runs at 14.3v nominal. When i first turned it on, probably after sitting in a closet for years from the previous owner, it dumped out about 40 volts for a few seconds to my multimeter, then tapered down to 14.3v.

Good luck with your fix ZOMG, i guarantee you this charger will be worth the time spent.
 
Damn, I hope my 106B isn't heading south now that I'm spoiled with all the functionality. The other day mine gave a Connection Breakdown error, when nothing happened with the connection. It must have reset and has run just fine since then though. I run an exterior fan blowing at my RC chargers just to be darn sure they stay nice and cool at all times, which makes a huge temp difference, since those little internal fans are tiny crap on all of them, but those AL cases can shed plenty of heat with active exterior flow.
 
I replaced D16 and Q26, and its working again.

6239763656_e8f12b02d4_b.jpg

Here are the exact parts used...

The first thing I had it hooked up to was a 24V meanwell turned down to 16V. Apparently it has a sufficient voltage spike on power up to cook the charger. These things are a bit more sensitive than I assumed.
 
I have a protek 106b, and I over volted it. This thread has the most info I have found, but i am kinda lost as far as repair. I am not much on electronics, but I can solder small stuff well enough. I just don't really know what I am looking at. Can anyone help me out, or fix it? Thanks
 
I do have the same problem but I´m a bit confused. I do not want to order the wrong parts.
D16 is a zener diode, is it? Something like this? http://docs-europe.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/002f/0900766b8002f341.pdf
Q26 is a PNP fet? Something like this? http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1702509.pdf
Thanks for your support :)
 
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