Hyperion 1420i blew up.

[alex12342011]

So I have a 14s 10ah pack, composed of lithium manganese cells. I charged the pack succesfully with no issues the previous day, and all of the cells were balanced. The battery read 58.8 volts hot off the charger. Now today, I wanted to cycle the pack. I plugged in my main and balance leads, dialed in the correct settings (Capacity at 10ah, # cells at 14, lipo) set the charger to discharge, and away it went. First I noticed the fans humming louder and louder, then there was a pop followed by the smell of burnt PCB. Immediately I disconnected everything, and sat puzzled as to why this happened . I then remember that the software set the discharge rate to 10.0A, it took the capacity of the battery pack and discharged at 1C. When the fans were getting louder, the amps onscreen were reading about 1.4amps. 58.8*1.4 is about 80 watts, which turns out to be the maximum discharge capability of this charger.

Did it really blow up because it was trying to throttle the amps slowly to 10.0A?

Do you think this was user error (me not verifying the discharge setting), or was it the charger's fault (charger setting 10.0A by default, way over the 80watt maximum for a 14s pack)?

I am trying to get this covered under warranty, as I bought it less than a month ago.

 

[alex12342011]

Oh I forgot to mention, immediately after the pop the display read "output circuit error". When I try to power the charger now, I get the standard greeting "Hyperion 1420i Net3 charger...etc" followed by a blank screen.

 

[cal3thousand]

Doesn't sound like you did anything wrong to me. At least anything that shouldn't be protected.

 

[dnmun]

you can open it up and take pictures to see what blew up. the guys you wanna return it too will look at the pictures and decide what to do with your claim. or you can fix it.

parajared had a balancing charger that blew up too. might be similar.

you can look at the pictures in jeremie's thread on the 3S lipo baby charger and that is what the inside of yours will look like too.

but you were discharging the pack.

the discharge side may be some kinda big resistor that a mosfet delivers current to and you may have just cooked the mosfet.

 

[kfong]

I would just contact the seller and make a warranty claim.

 

[alex12342011]

you can open it up and take pictures to see what blew up. the guys you wanna return it too will look at the pictures and decide what to do with your claim. or you can fix it.

parajared had a balancing charger that blew up too. might be similar.

you can look at the pictures in jeremie's thread on the 3S lipo baby charger and that is what the inside of yours will look like too.

but you were discharging the pack.

the discharge side may be some kinda big resistor that a mosfet delivers current to and you may have just cooked the mosfet.

Oh it was very tempting to open it up ! But I mailed it back to the dealer right away before I even had a chance, as I was afraid that would void the warranty.

 

[dnmun]

aw shucks, i thought we would get to see inside.

 

[motomech]

aw shucks, i thought we would get to see inside.

Well, I can provide some pics,....and unfortunately, a dead 1420i.
Deffinately my fault, in fact it's embaressing what happened.
Without going into too much detail, with the charger powered up, one of the charge leads came into contact with with the case of one of the non-isolated[un-modifed]HP sever power supplies. Needless to say, the magic smoke came out.




The large blue cap[220 uF/35V] and the obvious resister were blown up.
I replaced the cap with one of the exact value, but the 77 Ohm resister I couldn't find. The two resisters in series have a value of 76 OHM .
The 40 A fuse was undamaged.
There was no other obvious damage.
When I attempted to power up, nothing.
I really would like to get this charger fixed. I was thinking about buying another to help me trace values, but I'm not sure that would help. I'm pretty clueless about these things.
Sorry about the poor quality pics. I think I can get some better ones up latter.
Anyhow, any input would be appriciated.

 

[dnmun]

why did you have to replace those parts. were they exploded or just did not look right?

have you checked for open traces in the AC current path and did you look to see how far the AC gets into the case, through the diodes and is there high voltage DC on the input caps when you power up? use 200V DC range on each cap.

 

[motomech]

why did you have to replace those parts. were they exploded or just did not look right?

have you checked for open traces in the AC current path and did you look to see how far the AC gets into the case, through the diodes and is there high voltage DC on the input caps when you power up? use 200V DC range on each cap.

why did you have to replace those parts. were they exploded or just did not look right?

Yes, they were exploded.

have you checked for open traces in the AC current path and did you look to see how far the AC gets into the case,

No, I haven't. I'm such a noob that I thought since the Power supply supplies DC, that it would remain DC all the way though.
I wouldn't know where AC stops and DC starts.
Edit-I have 27V to the input leg of the replaced cap, nothing on the out-put leg
I'm wondering if I installed that cap backwards.

 

[dnmun]

oh right, a DC converter. thought charger. like AC.

the cap is open anyway.

 

[motomech]

oh right, a DC converter. thought charger. like AC.

the cap is open anyway.

Yes, the cap is open.
I failed to note the direction when I installed the replacement cap, perhaps it's backwards. The arrow is on the out-put side[can be seen in pic,]

 

[dnmun]

can you remove the heat sink for our viewing pleasure?

do you have a voltmeter?

looks like there are three big schottkys in the middle, not sure about the 4 devices on the ends, but having more of the circuits exposed will be neat and maybe it will help to explain to you what you are looking at.

 

[motomech]

Ok, working on it.
yes, I have a voltmeter

 

[motomech]

Removing the heatsink really didn't expose anything.
Is this a pic you can work with?

 

[dnmun]

cannot see the parts and there is not enuff focus to follow the ground and positive supply there. you can do that with the voltmeter from the red and black wires on the left side. where do the doubled up red and black wires go to? which capacitor did you replace in the picture and can you find the negative trace to the capacitor? or the positive.

need the part numbers on the mosfets eventually i guess but for now just a better picture so we can tell you where to measure.

you said you were discharging a battery when it conked out because you shorted the lead from one of the cells to case?

 

[Confusered]

Hey guys, sorry for bumping this old thread again, but I'm having problems with the exact same charger. After a month of flawless use, it gave me the error message "Output Circuit Problem" whenever I try to discharge, charge or store a Lipo/NiCd/NiMh. Basically, it can't charge. I have tried using the balancer only, and the balancer works fine. So I took it apart and couldn't find any burnt traces.

There was once when I accidentally plugged a 2S Lipo into the balance board, but into the 3S socket by mistake. There was a spark but I quickly yanked it out. There was a burning smell, but the charger continued to work OK for the subsequent few times. This was the only "mishap" that I encountered with this charger.

Then one fine day, when I was charging a 2S Lipo all the same, I realised that the charge terminated normally at 8.36V, with no error message. It just ended as per normal. I was not satisfied, so I left the same battery plugged in and I charged it for another time. After the charge termination alarm sounded, I checked and found the voltage of the battery at 8.24V. When I tried charging for a third time, the charger gave me the error: "Output Circuit Problem". Since then, it shows me this error message after the "Battery Check" screen everytime I try to charge, discharge or store any type of battery. But if I use the balancer, it works ok.

I can read all the part numbers on all of the components no problem.

I have taken pictures here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/smfhhymhoch7cdj/mY7ATgHQTb/Power

Please have a look and please advice me on which components to check on. Do tell me if additional photos are required.

Thanks!

 

[dnmun]

when you had plugged the 2S into the 3S spot, did it make a spark because you had it on 2 and 3 instead of 1 and 2? or did you reverse it and make a spark?

was the charger powered up when you shorted it before?

can you read the part number on those transistors or diodes standing in the row there. it looks like they are mosfets so if we can see a picture of the underside it will help.

we have to be able to see the traces on the underside and be able to refer them to the top.

is that fuse open?

if those are mosfets can you use the diode tester to measure the body diode?

 

[docnjoj]

I too am having difficulties with my Hyperion in that it refuses to charge one of 2 6S A123 packs. I certainly wont buy another. I am gunnna test it off my car battery and then, against my better judgement , I will buy 2 6S Lipos for a test. The R/C Forums are filled with problems with this charger. I'm on my second one through warrantee from AllERC( good folks, by the way but this is not a good product to sell) but I also have a Thunder 1220 which works perfectly and charges my batts at 12S fine.
Here is my thread on the topic
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=48804
"output circuit error " problem. I didn't blow anythig up as far as I know. Theis charger is only 2 weeks old and never worked with one battery, but works fine with the other.

otherDoc

 

[dnmun]

you did not mention that on your thread.

is the second battery that refuses to charge being charged in balancing mode or in straight charge mode?

it sounds like you have a problem with the balancing leads if one charges and the other doesn't.

if the charger is in balancing charge mode it needs to see each of the cells through that balancing lead but if in charge mode then it doesn't need the balancing leads to work.

whatever happened to the guy who started this thread? and this latest guy? why do people ever come here and ask questions if they have no interest in it? such a waste of time.

 

[999zip999]

Yes having trouble with the balance value as I check befor charging now and have to jiggle the balance plugs to get a even read or a Read I like. I like ? Plus what amps should I discharge at in the charging balance mode it's at 5 amp now ?

 

[agniusm]

Looks like a lot of people starting having problems with those RC chargers. I wander what is the cause? Is it a design flaw? My iCharger blew up a year ago. I was connecting 6S balance wires when something inside popped. Never bothered to send it back as it would cost half new charger.

 

[dnmun]

i looked at the balancing section of the icharger so this may be relevant to your problem. there is an npn transistor at the very bottom that connects the B- lead from the sense wire plug to the negative output of the charger on that big black wire. you will see it connected to ground through a 47 ohm high power surface mount resistor that goes to the through holes close to the edge to the ground plane on the back that connects to the black plug. it is on the edge between the end of the sense wire pins on the under side. next to the red plug, and the trace carrying the base signal for that transistor runs back up around the end after coming off the 821 surface mount at R90 and goes up to the microprocessor . i measured the 821 ohms at the end of the trace where it terminates at the through hole under R102. next to the processor. it connects to the third pin from the corner on the edge around that corner.

that is the transistor that is turned on when you select 'balanced' charging instead of regular charge.

you should examine that transistor for the forward bias between the base and the emitter and collector. it could be open and then your balancing harness would not make connection to ground so it would fail to charge.

i am gonna order those SOIC regulators and try to make this dead icharger board light up. it would be rewarding to see the display ignite.

 

[agniusm]

The thing is charger works normally but as soon as you connect balance harness display returns error. This looks like common problem with these: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1641740, http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?p=2866031 and here on ES: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=27582 - same as my did, spark, then error. I will check that out again, and see that transistor along with some photos. I haven't spotted any burns etc. Would be good to get it back to life as i would like to discharge my A123 4S car battery which was used in ~ -15 temps to see what real life effect it had during one winter season.

EDIT: I found some basic testing on balance port, attaching it here if someone with little electronics knowledge like me having trouble with these 106, 206, 306 iCgargers

 

[dnmun]

yes, when you connect the sense wires to the balance port that series of shunt currents has to go to ground and it has to go through that transistor.

from looking at the transistor i think it could be damaged by shorts in the wiring above it in the balancing network. so if the transistor is open, then the bias on all the balance wires would be pushed up and the uprocessor would recognize that and give you fault error.

you can look at the wiring of the base of your sense wire plug on the pcb and see what you think of that transistor. i think it has to conduct in order for the balance series to work. maybe not.