Hitec H4 Charger Weirdness

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Hey guys,

I'm using a Hitec ePowerBox 50A and the Hitec H4 charger and I'm seeing some weirdness when charging.

I have the ePowerBox set at 17.2V out and I'm using the first of the 10A channels to power the Hitec H4. I figured out how to get it into Balance Mode, even though that was as clear as mud, but now I'm seeing some sporadic voltages during charging. I'm charging a 6S1P 21,000mAh LiPo and I have the balance connector plugged directly into the H4. All the voltages look good until about a minute and 45 seconds in and that's when the charger starts surging its fan and the voltage on C6 bounces around from 3.99 to 4.56V. Percentage of charge starts bouncing all over the place, obviously, since it thinks the voltage on C6 is bouncing. It will also stop charging because it sees those high voltages and throws an error because of it.

Tested this on two identical batteries and also on both ports A and B. Also tried with and without the balance adapter that was included, plugging the battery directly into the charger's balancing port as well as using the adapter.

Anybody had issues like this with the H4? After doing a Google search, it would seem like this charger is known for issues, but I had hoped they would have worked them all out by now.

Thanks for any input you have!

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After a ton of testing, it looks like this is confirmed to be a firmware issue. Charger came from the factory with firmware v1.02, which appears to be known for this kind of issue. They fixed these issues with firmware v1.03, which I either have to buy an adapter to update the unit myself, or send it back to Hitec - neither of which I will be doing. I contacted the dealer and will be returning the charger to them (they are local). Hopefully the next one I get will have version 1.03 on it and I can actually get this S1000 in the air making me money.

Hope this at least helps somebody else with this issue down the road.

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Doing this mostly so this thread might show up on Google for somebody with the issue in the future.

I purchased Hitec's HPP-22 adapter and was able to successfully update the firmware on the H4. I am now operating on Firmware v1.03(1) and all of the voltages are reading perfectly.

Issue I am having now is a warning indicating "Input Voltage Error", even though I have the voltage on my ePowerBox set to 17.2v, with the H4 accepting anything from 11-18v. Even with it at 15v (the lowest the 50A ePowerBox can go) it would still error out. Ended up plugging the H4 into the main DC output posts and so far, at 15v, it is charging beautifully. Cells perfectly balanced, no voltage surges on the cells, etc.

I have an e-mail in to Hitec asking some general questions about their recommendations when pairing the 50A ePowerBox with the H4 - such as why I would be getting errors on my input voltage when I have the H4 plugged into one of the 10A blocks of the ePowerBox, but not when I'm wired up to the main DC outputs at the same voltage. Very weird.

I'll keep updating this thread until the issue is resolved, again, just in case somebody runs across this thread with the same issues.

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