iMAX B5 charger

[stumpe]

Guys

I have a belt cp and just brought this charger for use in the field to charge my lipo 3 cell batterys, stupid question i know but what type of battery can I use with the imax charger to charge my lipo.

I am thinking a 12V moterbike battery, but not sure about amp etc

Please can someone help out



Thanks

Lee

[mikeyp]

I have this charger but use a 15volt / 5amp adapter. The manual says it uses 10.0 - 18.0 volt and it will tell you if the voltage is too low.. Your battery should work but i dont know how many charges you will get before your motorbike batt flattens.............

Mike

[stumpe]

Cheers Mike for the quick reply, so would it be better to get a bigger battery?

As i am fairly new to heli flying (2 months) what is the 15volt / 5amp adapter used for and were can i get one.

PS what is the charger like!

[jamiem]

for charging at the field you will want at least a car battery. if you think about it logically, your packs will be around 2000mAh, or 2Ah (11.1v). The gel cell you are using (the motorbike battery) will be around 7Ah (12v), so even if you charger was 100% efficient (which is imposible!) you would only get 3 and a half charges! get your self a small car battery, the higher the Ah rating the better

[stumpe]

Imax b5 charger

So when i decied what car battery to get can i then just put clips on car battery and lipos will charge?

So if this sounds a bit daft, just wanted to make sure i have everything before i get over the park for a good few hours and can charge lipos without any problems.

Lee

[jamiem]

as long as its a 12v battery yes

[stumpe]

Sorry guys, one more quick question...

Lead Acid or Calcium?, Halfords have got a sale on Halfords Leisure Battery 70 Ah £89.99 70Ah.

Thanks to everyone for there help

Stumpe

[bramleyestate]

That leisure battery, will be very good, but be warned it will also be very heavy, so if you intend carrying it far, its worth thinking about. Also try to think how many charges you realistically intend to do whilst away from home, probably not that many.
Cheers Jules

[petern]

I think its better just to get yourself a nice stash of lipos charge them at home the night before, i find it better then lugging a car battery out on the field. (but thats just me)

[SRH990]

The problem I had using liesure batteries was that they are formulated for a fairly low current discharge over a long time and will discharge to a lower level than a traction (car) battery. This means that when you charge a 5000 6S pack at 1C you are taking 10A out of the battery, after two packs my 85Ahr liesure battery would drop it's output voltage below 11V and my charger would trip off.

If I was buying another battery I would get a car battery or a minimum 110Ahr liesure battery but I wouldn't want to carry the liesure battery far!