I think @MoeStooge does similar things with lipos. One smaller Ah pack with high discharge close to the esc and than a low discharge high Ah pack in parallel behind.
Don’t know about his charging routine thou but I’m sure he could give you some more information about all that.
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The long wires are for linking the packs? Do you beef up that end of the parallel connection also?
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The nickel strips are doubled on those series connections. 10s8p + 2s8p
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Good info to have!
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What you decided to go with for the balance connector? The big 13s plug?
Yeah that massive 16 pin one. Will be mounted to the side of the monster box and connect to the plug in the photo.
Ive got some gx20 connectors on the way, but I reckon they will be really hard to solder to as they are much smaller
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I just finished soldering the BMS, so I tried connecting the charger, it immediately sparked and the charger got fried and started smoking. I tried changing the charge port out, that didn’t help. Any ideas what the problem could be?
Photos are worth a thousand words. Have you checked your polarity?
If it just sparked after you connected the charger I would double check the polarity on the charge port.
I’m 90% sure it’s right, but should I try changing it around anyway?
If your charger released the magic smoke then I’m pretty sure changing polarity now isn’t gonna help! But it might help the new charger 
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But if I buy a new charger, how do I know it’s not going to do the same?
Check the polarity coming out of your charger matches what you have wired up in your board
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Connect the charge port to the charger without connecting wires.
Than measure the polarity on the pins which come out of the charge port.
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What Andy said is an excellent way of checking 
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You’ll need to be 110% sure.
In additon to the tips given, obsessivley checking polarity with your voltimeter every time you hook something up is how I keep the magic smoke where it belongs
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The barrell connectors made it harder to measure the voltage, it was a mistake to use them. I’m just going to order the new charger with an XT-60 on it.
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