IMAX B6AC V2 Charger Broken Trace

[paradoxum]

Long story short I shorted the balance connector on my imax, took it apart and I've blown the trace on it.

View attachment 84480Is this how it should look? Or does it skip the middle one (by the looks of it?)

If anyone has one and can help just take the screws off the side panels and slide it out, take a picture of that part for me?

Any tips for fixing myself?

View attachment 84482

 

[Iceni]

Because of the price of them I'd just buy a new one and throw that one in the bin. It's not worth the effort in attempting a repair that may cause other issues.
 

An ebay clone is £20-25 delivered.


Looking at the pins from left to right. (Red, Green, Yellow, BlacK) in that order.

The common trace looks to be an earth. (K)

Looks to me like the common trace does not connect to 1, 2, or 3, (left to right) (RGY) but does connect to 4. (K)

That's backed up in this image of a JST pin out.

So it you did want to attempt a repair I would Use a single bridge wire from the far right on the 5 pin (K), to the far right on the 4 pin (K), and remove all possible foil that could cause a short between pins 1-3 (RGY) on the 4 pin.

 

View attachment 84491

 

[paradoxum]

Well I had a go.

I soldered two of the points between the burnt trace, checked for continuity, all good.

Still not working:

https://streamable.com/s6r7nv

Not sure what else to try.

And cheap? They are like £60!

View attachment 84535

Seems to be an issue detecting Cell2. Any ideas? I checked under the board and there's no blown things there.

 

[paradoxum]

Well I did as much as I could and the continuity all checks out but still can't see cell2.

View attachment 84536

I just turned off balance in the settings now I can charge lipos for the time being.

I found this thing: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parallel-Charging-Board-Battery-Charger/dp/B07BSHN8T2

It seems to plug into a difference balance connector on the imax, perhaps this would get around the issue and work?

 

[Iceni]

Cheap.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133949242487?hash=item1f2fff3c77:g:Nh4AAOSw7L5hpZUG

 

No offence, but Just buy a new one.

 

[EDcase]

When originally looking for a one I was warned not to buy a clone.

 

[paradoxum]

When originally looking for a one I was warned not to buy a clone

There's no way I'm gonna skimp on a lipo charger of all things. Whole reason I got a legit IMAX to begin with.

I can get one of those boards for about £5.50 on ebay. I'll try that and see if I can get balance charging working with it. Thing is, I went through every single pin / connection from the small pcb to the main one, and I have continuity in all the expecpted places, and there's no visible damage anywhere else - it was literally a split second as the wire fell down and grazed the connector pins - I doubt it did any more damage than the trace right next to it. There's an electronics store around the corner I can take it to, maybe I'm doing something dumb.

I did find this though:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2664873-iMAX-B6AC-v2-balance-connect-error

Which seems to be basically the same problem but caused somehow else.

Started looking at different chargers anyway.

How about this one?

https://www.banggood.com/Charsoon-Antimatter-250W-10A-ACDC-Balance-Charger-Discharger-For-LiPoNiCdPB-Battery-p-1068233.html?cur_warehouse=CN&rmmds=search

 

[concretesnail]

As you mentioned don't opt for a clone. One of the fpv guys I fly with opened a clone up out curiosity and it wasn't a good thing to seeing long that people are buying these and then charging large lipos with them.

If your looking at a new charger I'd suggest looking at hobby shops. I use hobbyrc.co.uk a lot and the customer service has always been great. They stock sky rc and idst chargers, both of which are solid and worth a look.

 

[EDcase]

Got mine open:

View attachment 84547

It does look the same as your jumper version so something else must have blown without showing any signs.

As a replacement I would suggest to look at the SkyRC range.

Something like this: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/skyrc-s65-ac-charger-65w-438918

 

[Iceni]

When originally looking for a one I was warned not to buy a clone

When I first started I was warned in the same way.

But then I actually started to look about and see how many clones there actually are in peoples kits. And just how few forum threads have been generated from dodgy clones.

As a get out of jail card I don't see an issue with a clone. If you ever watch a strip down video the real differences are a slightly smaller PSU in the cloned B6AC a slightly different component selection and it might need calibrating. You calibrate them by holding the dec and start as you power on. Then you can compare the screen reading against a good multimeter and adjust the unit to match.

 

 

[paradoxum]

When I first started I was warned in the same way.

But then I actually started to look about and see how many clones there actually are in peoples kits. And just how few forum threads have been generated from dodgy clones.

As a get out of jail card I don't see an issue with a clone. If you ever watch a strip down video the real differences are a slightly smaller PSU in the cloned B6AC a slightly different component selection and it might need calibrating. You calibrate them by holding the dec and start as you power on. Then you can compare the screen reading against a good multimeter and adjust the unit to match.

 

Thing is, the amount of money I spend on my guns, I'm not gona skimp when it comes to a lipo charger when they're "only" £60 (yes expensive but I see it as an investment, and well, this has been running great for like 3 years until I fubard it.

If I wanted to get a new charger but a really high-end one with extra testing suites etc (planning to get a whole electronics setup with oscilloscope and everything for fine-tune testing things) any brands or ones I should look for? The higher priced ones seem to just mostly have multiple charging outlets rather than any additional features from what I can tell, and while being able to charge two at a time would be good I'd never need 4+.

This is what it looks like now. I cleaned it up with iso alch and made sure there was no leftover trace or bits of solder anywhere.

I burnt another trace myself by accident so I fixed that too. It was pretty easy actually. I know it looks a mess, but it all checks out with a multimeter from the pins on the 'outside' to the 6+1 solder points going from the smaller PCB to the large main one.

I'll just paste what I posted on rcgroups forums asking for help:

I was connecting a new battery with a conector I didn't have using this cable:

https://i.imgur.com/YFKliqY.jpg

I had the battery hooked up to it which was wrong, and the pins from the cable dropped down out of my hand and grazed the lipo balance connector for a split second. There was a tiny puff of smoke and a spark. Thought I'd just killed my new £50 battery.

TLDR;
It can charge/discharge LiPos with the 'balance' setting turned off in system settings, with it on, it complains about a bad balance connect error even when I try to charge a lipo without balance (discharging works fine however).

I found a thread that talks about inserting the balance connector the wrong way and shorting it and burning some traces on the board and it looked like an easy fix so I opened it up.

Yep, broken trace:
https://i.imgur.com/sVhh9eG.jpg

I tried my hand at fixing it and quickly realized it was stupid to try and solder to the trace, and skipped to the end points of each. In doing so I burnt another trace, but I fixed that. This is what is looks like right now:
https://i.imgur.com/2KcfiBr.jpg

It's messy, but I fixed the broken traces.

I used a multimeter to check from the pins on the outside to the solder points between the connection PCB and the main one, and I get continuity in all the expected places, I tried from various points in the connection too just to be sure, and there are no cross-connections.

I have removed the board completely and even took a look under the LCD, examined it carefully with a torch + magnifier, and I can see 0 signs of visible damage anywhere else.

I saw this on amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parallel-Ch.../dp/B07BSHN8T2

Might this work since it may be able to bypass the 'bad' connector? (Even though as far as the multimeter is concerned, it isn't bad.) It's worth a try for that price versus buying a new one anyway right?

Does anyone have any suggestions / help?

Thanks in advance,
para

 

[Iceni]

There is a discharge mosfet on the board that should have a leak to ground that runs through the balance connector. It might be worth looking for that and seeing if it's blown and giving a dead short. I've no Idea where the mosfet is but I know it's there from a conversation I was having with a mate a few years ago.

 

[paradoxum]

There is a discharge mosfet on the board that should have a leak to ground that runs through the balance connector. It might be worth looking for that and seeing if it's blown and giving a dead short. I've no Idea where the mosfet is but I know it's there from a conversation I was having with a mate a few years ago.

I just found a video on that and was about to check them:

 

[Rogerborg]

As a replacement I would suggest to look at the SkyRC range.

Something like this: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/skyrc-s65-ac-charger-65w-438918

Cheap and newer technology, that's where I'd be going now.

 

[paradoxum]

Alright, I'll get that if I can't fix this + the balance breakout board thing doesn't work (Don't have high hopes but could still be useful with any charger).

I recorded a video of me testing the continuity with all the pins, can someone check it looks good?

 

[paradoxum]

I did a better video:

so as far as I can tell the actual board with the plugs is completely fine, so the problem must be elsewhere further down the line, and that balance connector board won't help at all.

 

[Rogerborg]

At this point, I'd send it to Big Clive, and move on.

 

[Iceni]

lol big clives already done it.
 

 

[Rogerborg]

lol big clives already done it.

And now my life's complete.

Because Big Clive is sweet.

(Super sweet!)

Thank God we live this quiet little red-neck podunk white-trash

In-ter-net town.

 

[EDcase]

If interested: