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Should I throw this battery away? Or is it still safe to use it??

riumiybe

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I was replacing my ESC board two days ago, and after everything was fixed and I connected my battery there was a sudden spark and a smell of something burnt.

I checked my battery and it was as it is shown in the picture.

It turned out that the XT160 cable had its + - sides with the wrong red/black coloring. Basically, the cables had their color wrong.

These are brand new batteries out of the box, and I want to keep using them, if it is safe enough.
Also, I want to discharge it because I fully charged it before I connected it to the quad.

What do you think? Can someone give me opinions on this??
 

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If it works it works. May be risky when charging so keep an eye on it for a while or use a fire proof bag. Are you able to check for a high internal resistance? If it is greatly higher than the other batteries don't balance charge. It might also be too weak to power the quad so if you like you can use it for goggles or with a connector a USB battery bank. If the voltage changed a lot it is badly damaged. Always when working on the bench or the first test use a smoke stopper like this...
 
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Video not working. Copy and paste

Why you need a smoke stopper | HOW TO MAKE A SMOKE STOPPER​

 
I think there is no risk if, you keep an eye on it for a while and don't suddenly fly the quad over water in case it loses power, on the first flight. Except maybe to the charger or other batteries when balance charging I'm not sure.
 
Well so could any lipo if you try hard enough. This one seems no worse if supervised/fire proof bagged for the next few cycles. I am likely missing something but how would it burn a house down?
 
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I have, over-charging, short circuiting, cutting in half and not balance charging. This (I would imagine) is just weakened. Maybe it could have melted solder and shorted inside so don't charge unless you read voltage but in the photos it didn't even look too puffed.

Edit: by weakened I mean more specifically increased internal resistance meaning it is harder to gain and lose electricity so don't use connected with other batteries.
 
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If it works it works. May be risky when charging so keep an eye on it for a while or use a fire proof bag. Are you able to check for a high internal resistance? If it is greatly higher than the other batteries don't balance charge.
Don't ever charge a multicell series lipo (any battery with a 7.4V or greater output voltage) without a balancer connected. If damaged, you can drive a cell negative and start a fire.

A shorted battery certainly may have a damaged cell. My advice is put it on your balancer without the power connector connected, let it balance. Then try discharging to 3.65V unloaded, see how well the cells are still relatively balanced. If way off, toss it.
 
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Thanks for the reply!
I ordered my package all the way from Japan and it costed me a bunch so, that is pretty much why I want to stick to a battery as much as I can. But anyways, I'll try doing all the things you suggested to me!
Won't use it until I configure it as safe to use
 

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