SkyRC MC3000 help thread

The PC software does work, but the Bluetooth LED has never been on with this MC3000, even without the PC connection. Not the end-of-the-world but is nice to have.

No clue. I just checked my MC3000 (with two fans). As soon as I open the iPhone app, the blue LED lights up. That means both the MC3000 and the phone app have to be working.

The only thing I can think of - is to install the app on another phone, to see if it's related to the phone. You might try rebooting your phone, just in case the phone's bluetooth module is acting wonky.

Thanks I think you solved it. I could swear that on my previous one the Bluetooth LED stayed on, but maybe not. So when I had brought up the iPhone app, nothing, but it must have been looking for the old charger Bluetooth. I killed the app. then restarted it the app. and sure enough, I get a Bluetooth light and connection. Its weird that there is no pairing security, but it does work now. Thanks.

Yeah, even when I turn off the phone, the Bluetooth LED stays on, so maybe Bluetooth LED means it has found a phone and paired. On the MC3000 side, you need to turn off Bluetooth and back on to clear that. On the phone you need to kill the app. to clear the pairing. Not typical Bluetooth behavior but whatever works I guess.

Anyone had problem that keys stopped working? All of them.

Nope.. I just noticed that my second bay terminates earlier than the others... :(

why cant i save changes made in my windows software cycle from c/d/c to d/c to the mc3000 slots?

I have a multi-cell battery pack from a Shark cordless vacuum cleaner, has 15 or so NiMH cells in series. I want to build a rig to test each cell’s capacity, 4 at a time, non-destructively, by piercing the skin of the pack with needles. The batteries will still all be in a series circuit for this test, however.

So, I am curious if each of the 4 channels in the MC3000 is completely independent, and able to perform this test?

I can't be totally sure as i don't have it at hand right now but i am 99% positive (*) that the 4 channel are NOT independent so you can't test several batteries from the same pack without disconnecting them.

(*) From a designer point of view it would add design and production costs with no real benefit for that kind of charger

Ok i have verified and while each channel use it's own converter for the charge they are not isolated converters and all use the same 12V input so i confirm that trying to charge batteries that are externally connected would not work properly (worst case might be a short on 3/4 of the batteries)

One curiosity of this charger is that if a LiIon battery has been discharged to too low of a voltage, the MC3000 doesn’t want to charge it. What I have to do is connect a charged cell in parallel to the battery sitting in the charger, then start the charge cycle on the MC3000, then I can remove the “jump start battery”.

This is really annoying. Is there an alternate solution, or can somebody recommend a different charger that I can use to “jumpstart” these cells, or basically any high quality charger that will charge a flat battery?

You need to press & hold the number slot button until it recognises the cell it will then charge as normal.
But it’s your job to tell it how low to discharge it ,is it a protected cell? If so don’t go lower than 3volts because protected cells usually trip at 3volts.

Not exactly. The DW01 protection IC, very often used in single cell BMSs, trips at ≈2.4 V. Cell voltage then quickly raises above 3 V (with high to moderate discharge loads) or close to 3 V (with low loads). Related: Discharge protection test @ lygte-info.dk

Yup! From the article above:

All of my protected cells trip at 3 volts.

Oh geez. Super annoying :wink: I have some cheap 18650 battery holders with wire leads which I connect in parallel to the battery in the MC3000 to get the charge started.

I’m hoping to find some kind of decent charger online that will give a low voltage liion cell a charge without giving a damn about the starting voltage, since this practice of encountering low voltage cells is rather uncommon, but a huge pain in my ass when it does!

On the skyrc mc3000 you have to hold down the number slot button of the bay that the cell is in, it will then activate that cell.

This is copied & pasted from the manual,

I’ve placed a flat top protected 18650 battery in the bay yet the slot info is stilldisplaying NO BATTERY. How to proceed?- Check if the battery is inserted with correct polarity. Check if the battery terminals do makeproper connection with the slot metal contacts; shift, suspend, or tilt the battery, if needed forsecuring the connection. 0V-batteries are displayed as NO BATTERY, so check if the batteryprotection is tripped; click the slot number button to release the protection

Isn’t that just a feature to reset a tripped protected cell? I’ve tried this on a unprotected 2v 18650 and it just doesn’t work to charge that battery, the charger still aborts with some kind of voltage warning.

It works with mine , maybe the charger is telling you the cell is no good!

Try pressing the number slot button repeatedly.
Edit
Did you hold it down for long enough until it recognises the cell?

I need help. I just received my new MC3000 a few days ago. I’ve saved six charging programs, and I can see why this charger is so highly regarded. The charger seems to be charging NiMH and Li-ion cells correctly. I have a problem, though: I can’t get the charger to copy the program saved to one slot to all of the other slots.

I have tried the following procedure several times: 1) saving one of my programs to slot 1; 2) clicking the Slot 1 button and the up arrow button at the same time. When I complete steps 1 and 2, above, instead of copying the program saved to slot 1 to the other three slots, the charger saves “Program 12” to three slots I have not programmed. I have not created a Program 12. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong, and I have no idea why the charger is doing this. Can someone help?

Thanks in advance.

This mean that the default pgm for slot 1 is pgm 12 instead of pgm 1

To set the default pgm for slot 1 you have to

  • press the stop button until you enter setting
  • scroll down with down arrow and find the "SNB# 1 Memory" line
  • press enter
  • up or down arrow until you reach the required pgm number
  • press enter
  • Long press enter to save and exit setting