Imax B6 Charger shows "CONNECTION BREAK"

[raptair]

Hi,

I have a new RosBot 2.0 (not Pro). I followed battery installation and charging instructions from tutorials website. The first charge took about only 1.5 hrs which did not match what instructions mentioned. The charge lasted about 15 minutes. I got the wifi set up and started to ‘sudo apt update’ and it ran out of power. I charged again, this time it went for about 3 hrs which seemed right. The charge held for a little longer, maybe 20 minutes. Got all the software installed, but as soon as I started to run demo, it was out of power again. I tried to charge a third time and now all I get is CONNECTION BREAK on the imax B6 charger.

Below are two images showing how I initially set the charger according to instructions, and then what happens now when I try to start the charge process.

Charging Setup

Charging Error Message

The batteries that shipped with the bot are XTAR 18650 Li-ion 3500mAh. I tried disconnecting the balance charging socket from charger but still got same result.

I’m not sure what the error message CONNECTION BREAK is trying to tell me or what the real problem is. What might I be doing wrong here? What do I need to do to get the bot to charge?

Thanks,
Tim

[radeknh]

Hi Tim,

this error can be caused by unbalanced batteries. Could you please check the voltage of the individual cells? It can be done during charging, when you press “Inc” button. Please find the detailed instructions in our manual:

Charging%20manual%20for%20ROSbot.pdf

On the page 2 you can see the transition diagram.

Please let us know about the results.

[raptair]

Hi,

Thanks for response. I will try to follow your instructions, however I cannot check during charging as you suggest, because it will not initiate the charging process. The pdf link you provided is the one I have been following. As soon as I start the charging process by pressing and holding start/enter button for two seconds, the readout says BATTERY CHECK WAIT…, then I get the CONNECTION BREAK, a loud beep, and it will not charge. Pressing Inc button at that point does nothing. I have to press stop button to start all over.

The manufacturer of the charger is different from pdf, but I assume they operate the same. The charger in the pdf is Redox Beta and mine is a imax B6.

I have purchased several more batteries and external chargers to charge batteries separately and place in robot to see what happens. So far, the first set of externally charged batteries I placed in robot drained almost immediately. I have some more batteries arriving today with 2 more external chargers to try out. I will charge the new batteries as well as original batteries that came with these chargers and I think these chargers have feature to indicate voltage on cells. The two new chargers are XTAR, same as batteries that came with robot. I will test these freshly charged batteries in robot as well.

I will report back in a day or so with the results on all of this.

Thanks,
Tim