Axial SCX24 Deadbolt battery charging, or not

[PatP]

Just bought 2 Axial SCX24 Deadbolts. I have questions/issues re: charging

Battery 1: Flashes green and red at same time then solid red for a few seconds then blinking red. Will continue with blinking red for hours. Charger connection seems to be seated properly. When I take it off charger, it still powers vehicle but I don't know how long it will last.

Battery 2: Flashes green and red at same time then red for a few seconds then flashes back and forth between green and red. It does not power vehicle when taken off charger.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Of course, no one is available at the vendor or Axial over the weekend.

Thank you.

 

[HumboldtEF]

The included chargers seem to not last long, did you try both chargers? do you have another battery charger you could use?

When its working the LED will be solid red when charging and solid green when done.

 

[high plains drifter]

IMO those included chargers are complete crap. I kept using mine even after the green/ red indicator LED's stopped working. But I called it quits after a couple more charges because the thing was getting hot! Awful chargers and unsafe imo. Axial should have anted-up and provided a better-designed charger.

 

[PatP]

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately I don't have anything that will mate with the battery connector. I tried a different USB mini cable in case that was the problem. But I am gathering that it is the charger itself.

Are there third party chargers that will mate with the Axial battery connector?

 

[HumboldtEF]

I dont think there is a charger that will come with that plug as standard. They used a PH 2.0 plug which is a bit of an oddball.

You could pick up some PH 2.0 pigtails and banana plugs and make up an adapter (this would require soldering)
https://www.amainhobbies.com/betafp...-female-pigtail-cable-8-bfpv-00312657/p861527 https://www.amainhobbies.com/banana-plug-set-with-lead-16-gauge-efla240/p38895

 

[PatP]

Female won't work. Need male on charger side.

Maybe balancing adapter like this https://www.amainhobbies.com/hitec-x4-balancing-adapter-xh-hrc44155/p194320

and charger it would connect to

OR just this https://www.amainhobbies.com/ecopow...e-battery-charger-23s-2a-25w-ecp-1004/p698674

 

[HumboldtEF]

Sorry I didnt find a male PH 2.0 on Amain, you should be able to find those somewhere though.
EDIT wait.. you do need a female, the battery is a male plug.


The plug used on balance connectors is different.

Another option is to just swap the plugs over to JST plugs, thats what I did. though you're kind of voiding your warranty at that point.

 

[PatP]

Battery may have been male once upon a time but mine is definitely female.

Going for the charger. No soldering iron.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Jim85IROC]

Axial produced a massive dud with this truck. My SCX24 had a bum charger right out of the box, so I had to buy some of the PH 2.0 connectors to build an adapter for my own charger. Right away after I started using my own charger, I noticed that the packs were at 3.8 or 3.9v when the truck hit low voltage cutoff, and they were only taking about 160mah on a charge. After a couple more packs, the ESC started going into low voltage cutoff on a fully charged battery. Now my truck just sits there with a junk charger and junk ESC after only 3 or 4 packs. The truck never tracked straight because of the slop in the steering and the lack of proper centering with the servo. Of course, there's also the underpowered motor...

My buddy bought an SCX24 for his kid and also had a bad charger right out of the box. This was the kid's birthday present, and it sat there unused for over a week while he waited for a new charger to come from Amazon.

Horizon should be embarrassed at how bad the electronics are in this truck.

 

[bongsten]

I had an issue when i adapted to my normal balance charger. The battery wont charge, charger quits due to cell imbalance. Gonna look into a better battery dont really want to bother with the stock battery or charger anymore.

 

[REDEYED78]

What batteries and charger are better than the stock ones?? im having the same issues along with 1/3 reverse power