Rhino pack/ accucel 6 being an S.O.B.

[Boaterguy]

got a 1250mah 20C 3S rhino pack yesterday and threw it on my twin airboat for about 3 minutes today, it's drawing about 20A constant.
I had not charged the pack and hit the cutoff pretty quickly and the battery was reasonably warm (nothing to be worried about, no puffing)
plugged it into my accucel 6 on balance mode and it showed connection break charging at 1.2A
I plugged in a 2S pack quickly on charge at 1A and it worked fine, tried a 3S pack on 4A and it worked fine.
I then plugged a few Led's into the positive of the balance plug and using each negative I got the led's to light up, put a voltmeter to the main plug (deans ripoff from hk) and it moved the needle, the setting was on 250VDC and it's analog so i didn't get a good reading but I know the pack has voltage, the main plug lit up the LED's aswell.
all the connections in the charger (opened it up) look fine, the second pin of the JST female (first negative) is not connected to anything inside the charger, it doesn't look like it was meant to and i have used the 3S jst plug to charge before (and balance). all the others are connected to the second main solder joint on the main charger PCB, wired in parallel, is it the pack or the charger that is broken and can it be fixed?

[siberianhusky]

If the charger balanced other 3s packs then you probably have some kind of connection issue in the balancing tap on the pack that isn't working.
Could be a bad solder joint that isn't making contact all the time.
You could try a fast or non balancing charge without the balancing tap to see if the pack will charge that way.
They key is the other 3s pack charged as you did try one at 4 amps no problems.
Looks like either a warranty claim (good luck!) or cut off the heatshrink and see what is going on.
I don't think the charger is to blame if it works on other 3s packs, I'd be looking at the HK pack, as we all know the QC isn't the greatest from them. The price of cheap I suppose. Somebody else on here just received an order of HK batteries in the last week I think, half of them were nfg on arrival!

[egneg]

I have had the balance tap wires break off where they connect to rhino packs. I just soldered them back on with no problems.

[Boaterguy]

I'll cut it back today, is there a risk of shorting the tabs by cutting the fiber tape with a hobby knife?
the thing is, i put a voltmeter across the little tabs on the jst and they all showed about 3 volts steady.

[egneg]

sounds like they may be drained to low to be charged as lipos.

[Boaterguy]

that wouldn't show connection break, it just recognizes it a a 2S pack and won't let you charge, every cell is at 3.1V, i have an analog voltmeter so I can't get exact readings.

[lenny]

I'll cut it back today, is there a risk of shorting the tabs by cutting the fiber tape with a hobby knife?
the thing is, i put a voltmeter across the little tabs on the jst and they all showed about 3 volts steady.

I use a plastic letter opener for the wrap and tape, Its a little tight but safe and take your time.

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=1449364424317&id=3ebf486117de0d27a728ed9b913fcf6e

[Boaterguy]

got it all apart, forget balancing, it won't even charge at the moment, still getting "connection break"
all the internal wiring is fine, I plugged it into my twin airboat and it spun up both motors without issue, I have the PCB from an onyx 230 (no case or P.S) that I might try next.

[Boaterguy]

onyx 230 says "charge complete" as soon as I start the charge.
It must be the pack, but I don't understand how because the pack works fine
my charge adapter works because I charged other packs with it
What's wrong with it??

[Boaterguy]

put pins in the balance connector and using each individual cell I could charge them all, so each cell is fine.
I tried charging on "balance" mode and got a "connection break" again.
Using just the balance plug, I put it on discharge mode and got "over voltage"
this problem is spiraling quickly out of control, I need to draw up a chart of what works and what doesn't so I know what is to blame, currently I am blaming the combination of the two.

[Boaterguy]

brought it to the LHS and they threw it on their charger, since mine doesn't have a voltemeter
one cell was 46mV below the other two
after it was brought back up, it started to charge so they took it off and gave it to me, threw it on when i got home and charged it all the way up with no problems.