I have a Novak smart tray that acts crazy. Plug in, set cut off, insert batteries and they act like they are dead shorted, even without starting the unit. Gets so hot it blisters your fingers taking the batteries out. As far as I can tell I am not setting it to dead short. This unit is about a year old, never been used until now. Any ideas?? Is this worth fixing??

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As a rule of thumb - put your POSITIVE battery connection on the lower right tab of the tray. THe rest of the pack will line up propely from there. You can't go wrong this way. At Least I have not yet!
I've done the same thing you have before and did not damage the tray or the pack. BUt, I caught it right away.
Scott

The pack is a 4 cell, and in the instructions it tells me to put it to the far left, with the neg. pole to the bottom, which is where I put it.... Anyone else discharge 4 cell packs???

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EASY. You have to put it in tray where Positive will be at right lower bottom. But It can only have 1 battery bar joining the 2 center cells on the bottom. and on the top it will have 2 bars joining the cells. This is the correct way. If your pack doesn't go that way, it is assembled wrong for the smart tray. I have a pack in my hand and the tray in front of me. If this doesnt make sense post your e-mail and i will shoot a pic to ya.

He is right, I run 4 cell and the only way the tray will work is to have the two battery bars to the top. The 4 cell pack HAS to be in the right hand corner. If you put it all the way to the left it will read it as if it was a 6 cell and all the lights will light up and you will not see them go off. Put it to the right and only 4 lights will light up. if you put it to the left all 6 will light up and never go out and you will not know if its down to .9 or dead short or whatever you set it to, atleast with the new tray I have. Beleive me I learned the hard way a freind f'ed mine up.

He is right, I run 4 cell and the only way the tray will work is to have the two battery bars to the top. The 4 cell pack HAS to be in the right hand corner. If you put it all the way to the left it will read it as if it was a 6 cell and all the lights will light up and you will not see them go off. Put it to the right and only 4 lights will light up. if you put it to the left all 6 will light up and never go out and you will not know if its down to .9 or dead short or whatever you set it to, atleast with the new tray I have. Beleive me I learned the hard way a freind f'ed mine up.

Gee it works for me if I put a pack in with only one battery bar on the top.

Having got some used packs that were assembled differently than my usual layout, I tried putting the pack in so the polarity matched the markings on the tray, disregarding the battery bars. It works fine no matter where the battery bars are. The only thing important is the polarity.

As far as I can tell the battery bars are totally irrelevant. I say this because I am rematching some used cells and after I cycle 6 loose cells in a cycle tray, I put the loose cells (LOOSE CELLS - NO BATTERY BARS) in the Novak Smart tray (with proper polarity) and turn it on and it discharges each cell individually.

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When using 4 cells they have to be in the left side of the tray. Batteries bars don't matter, each cell has it's own circuit. the first cells nedds to be positive towards the top negative towards the bottom. Then each cell after that needs to be opposite of the previous one.

my tray will work with 2 battery bars at the bottom and the battery sitting in the middle
lee

Better yet contact Novak for support since your getting many different answers. It seems that anyway your tray will take your batts will work, I know from using mine this is the only way it works to the right. I have seen in the pits people puting 4 cell to the right and left and having the same questions/answers as you have had.