Hi @wjwalker,
While it may be technically possible to charge within an enclosure, there are risks that come with doing so. As I understand it our official line is that
I suppose the “best practice” then is “don’t charge in the enclosure”.
Not certain what you mean by this. The balance connector provides a set of connections to the different cells of the battery, which can be used to read the corresponding voltages. There aren’t sensors built in to that - the charger measures voltages across pairs of the wires, and uses them to balance the charging so the cell voltages are kept even. Bypassing the balancing would be risky, and could cause damage to the battery, or even cause it to light on fire.
It should just plug in and work, so that sounds like an issue with either the connector on the battery, or the connector it mates to on the charger. I’d recommend you look carefully at the battery connector to ensure all the wires are fully seated in it, and if you continue having issues please contact support@bluerobotics.com to determine the cause and/or sort out a replacement battery or charger as appropriate.