APC Matrix 5000 question(s)

Tue Aug 1 23:10:33 UTC 2006

--On July 28, 2006 9:33:59 AM -0400 "Robert E.Seastrom" <rs at seastrom.com> 
wrote:

>
>
> up at 3.am writes:
>
>> I left for several hours and came back to the house stinking like burning
>> rubber.  The new batteries are apparently melting the terminal rubber
>> insulation.  I had to throw it back into bypass mode and unplug that pack
>> (the only one with new batteries!)
>
> By "terminal rubber insulation" do you mean the insulation on the lugs
> that bolt to the terminals on the batteries?  If so, this is a sign
> that you either didn't clean the contacts or didn't bolt them together
> firmly.  Those batteries need to be initially charged, and they draw a
> lot of current when doing that...  which heats up any kind of high
> resistance connection in the chain.
>
>> Any ideas to the cause?  The status screens looked ok. ("no bad
>> batteries" again)
>
> By the way, you probably ought to replace all the batteries in all
> your packs regardless of what the battery status monitor says.
>
>                                         ---Rob

Yeah my other thought here was that one or more of the other packs had 
totally dead shorted cells, that'd cause excessive heating on the other 
batteries too.