A good charger.

[aamacgregor]

I'm looking to get a new Lipo charger. I can't find my old one, but that's ok, because it was a basic esky one which I understand isn't that great anyway, so it's not a big loss.

I would like to get a balanced charger complete with mains adaptor and my budget is around the £60 mark (I could go higher if required but don't really want to if it isn't necessary). There seem to be so many chargers around, but I have no idea which are good chargers and which are bad. So, any help in pointing me to a good charger would be much appreciated.

[Steve-85]

Turnigy accucell 6 is what I have an it's a great charger for me as I only have a 450 so I am using 3s 2200mah lipo's charges and balance one from 30%=full in about 40 odd minutes at 1c. Think it can do more than 1 at a time with a parallel board never tried tho. I would recommend it can be bought from eBay off of a guy called nilesintallrc great service an came in at under £60 I think with the psu included just had to swap from us plug to uk a 5 minute job

There are others it's a hard choice but I didn't have mega money at the time so went for the above but if you have the money and intend on using it a lot then you are better of getting the likes of the power lab, Hyperion, Cellpro 10s

Another cheapish one is IMAX b6 ( quite a lot of fakes of these on eBay be careful)

Someone may suggest better hope it helped

[dani_r]

Hi mate,What heli(s) do you have and/or want to get in the future? It's best if you can future proof yourself as much as possible, or get something that should see you through for a couple of years at least

The Turnigy Accucel is a good charger, as are the IMax B6 range. If you can, it's good to have an external power supply, particularly for the more high powered applications.

I actually use the IMax B6 Quattro:http://www.modelhelicopters.co.uk/sk...arger.htmlThis has been my 'old faithful' since I began in this hobby. It is basically 4 seperate 50W chargers built in to one nice tidy unit. It can charge 4 different types of battery at the same time, or any conbination you want. I have a 400W home-made converted power supply and this thing and it's great! I charge my 3300mah 6S lipos in about 90 minutes on this. Provides a nice slow charge which is better for the lipos. All this parallel 4C charge rate stuff kills lipos much quicker than just doing it nice and slow. And because it does 4 at the same time that's a double bonus!

As I have quite a few packs now I will actually be looking to get another one. But I'm keen to try the HobbyKing version which is more powerful with 4 seperate 100W chargers instead of 50W.HobbyKing R/C Hobby Store : Turnigy 4x6S 400W Lithium Polymer Battery Charger

I have no doubt it will be as good as my Imax one, and because it's more powerful, means larger packs can be charged reasonably quickly should I want to go the 550/700 5000mah pack route.

FYI there is a calculation you can do which should give an indication of how quick a charger can charge your packs.

Charger Wattage(50W,80W,100W etc etc) - Divided by cell voltage (3.7v,7.4v,11.1v,22.2v etc) = Total possible charge rate in amps

For example; If you were charging 2200mah 3S lipos on a 50W charger it would be: 50 - divided by - 11.1 = 4.50 which means you could charge that 3S lipo at 4.5amps.

Obviously, for a 2200 mah lipo this is nearly 2C charge rate that you could achieve, but really you would only charge at 1C which is 2.2amps. This calculation is more handy for the larger packs 6S and upwards.

For a 3000mah 6s lipo it would be: 50 - divided by - 22.2 = 2.25amps. This obviosuly means that the highest this charger will go in 2.25amps, no matter how high you set it! As this is less than a 1C charge rate, it would be slightly slower than most chargers that were capable of charging at 1C (80W and above for a 6S pack) but results in better packs for longer, providing you look after them in general.

My advice? Spend a little more, buy a Quad charger and either convert your own power supply or buy one. But I made my PS for about £15 and it's more powerful than most of the supplies on the market that cost 4 times as much. (I can help you do it if that's the way you want to go )

I hope I haven't boggled your brain too much

[cjcj1949]

Any charger with a readout is better than one without, but you do need to be able to check it against something you know is ok. I'm impressed with the icharger. I have the 106B. Very accurate and well made.

Accuracy isn't that important for ordinary flying. Anywhere from 4.15 to 4.21 at end of charge off the charger is ok. Balancing is important but only to stop single cells from going too high. Discharge volts under load is important. I keep above 3.6V on load. Charging at 1.5 to 2.0 C is ok if the cells allow it. If you charge to 3.9V a cell before a flying day, it takes only about 20 mins to charge at 1.5C. ( With a good battery. Low ir batteries charge quicker as the current stays higher at max volts for longer)

[kroozing]

i'm interested in knowing about a home made power supply, can you please give me some pointers dani_r?
Cheers

[aamacgregor]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate your comments and advice.

Steve-85 - thanks for your suggestions. I've taken a look at the Turnigy Accucel 6 and IMAX B6 and they look like they are really good value for money. I'm planning on getting a bigger helicopter that can take 6S lipo's, so, since the bigger batteries can safely charge at a higher charge rate, I think that I might go for something with a slightly higher power output. That said, I need to watch my funds, so I'll keep those chargers in my list of possibilities. :-)

dani_r - Thank you for the in-depth explanation of the charge time in relation to the lipo and charger... you didn't lose me at all and I found it a very helpful post. :-) Although the IMAX B6 Quattro is well out of my current budget, I'd be interested in the home-made power supply schematic. I assume it consists of a transformer, a full wave rectifier and a couple of large capacitors? To answer your current question, at the moment I have an Esky Belt-CP, but I'm wanting something bigger with a lot more power, so I'm considering a GAUI X5 FES. But I don't expect I'll get that for a few months yet.

cjcj1949 - Thanks for the info. I just took a look at the 106B+ I think the iCharger might fit the bill, I just need to find a place that sells it for a good price, although that hopefully shouldn't take long on a google search. :-)

Thanks to you all once again.

[dani_r]

There's loads of links about how to make your own power supply from a modified conputer/server power supply! It's uusually nothing more complicated than soldering a few wires together and making sure you're properly earthed! I will post some links ASAP

[aamacgregor]

That's a nice idea. I didn't think of modifying a computer PSU. I have a few of those lying around, so that's a bonus.

[cjcj1949]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate your comments and advice.

Steve-85 - thanks for your suggestions. I've taken a look at the Turnigy Accucel 6 and IMAX B6 and they look like they are really good value for money. I'm planning on getting a bigger helicopter that can take 6S lipo's, so, since the bigger batteries can safely charge at a higher charge rate, I think that I might go for something with a slightly higher power output. That said, I need to watch my funds, so I'll keep those chargers in my list of possibilities. :-)

dani_r - Thank you for the in-depth explanation of the charge time in relation to the lipo and charger... you didn't lose me at all and I found it a very helpful post. :-) Although the IMAX B6 Quattro is well out of my current budget, I'd be interested in the home-made power supply schematic. I assume it consists of a transformer, a full wave rectifier and a couple of large capacitors? To answer your current question, at the moment I have an Esky Belt-CP, but I'm wanting something bigger with a lot more power, so I'm considering a GAUI X5 FES. But I don't expect I'll get that for a few months yet.

cjcj1949 - Thanks for the info. I just took a look at the 106B+ I think the iCharger might fit the bill, I just need to find a place that sells it for a good price, although that hopefully shouldn't take long on a google search. :-)

Thanks to you all once again.

I used ElectriFlyer.co.uk

[dani_r]

Hey guys. Apologies for the late response!

This is the guide I used for converting my power supply.

Mod 12VDC 32Amp Power Supply : Need Help! - Page 2 - RC Groups

I got the power supply off ebay for about £10. Plus materials etc it's about £15 all in. You need a decent powered soldering iron and some reasonable gauge wire (10/12AWG ideally) for the main power lines. For joining between the pins just normal electrical wire is sufficient. It's pretty easy, just read the whole thread and get your head around what you need to do before you make your first solder. You will also need a standard kettle lead to power it.

If you get stuck or are unsure, give me a shout! I'm happy to talk anyone through it. Just PM me your number and I'll give you a buzz

[kroozing]

Cheers for that.

[Sekra]

turnigy mega 200W x2 is a very good charger, and its quite cheap

[aamacgregor]

Thanks for all your input. On reflection, depending on my bank balance at the end of the month, I'm either going to order a Turnigy Accucell 6, or an iCharger if money is good (106b+ or perhaps even a 208b). I'll then look into the home made power supply.

If I get an iCharger 106b+ I'll probably use ElectriFlyer.co.uk as cjcj1949 suggested, but if I go for an Accucell 6 or a bigger iCharger, then it looks like HobbyKing is the cheapest.

The only thing is, I've never used HobbyKing... anyone know if they are any good, or should I purchase elsewhere?

[cjcj1949]

They are good and also not so good. It depends on the product. I wouldn't buy a charger from HobbyKing. Chargers do go wrong and cause lipo fires. I was looking at someone's charger that caused a fire last week. We do get lulled into a false sense of security by all the safety. In the case of the dodgy charger that caused the fire, it was ok with good batteries that didn't need much balancing, but when out of balance by too much on some cells it does not stop the volts going too high. He is now using a separate balance charger. Whatever you get make sure you know what it should do and keep a close check with a meter for the first charges.

On a 3S cell you can check the cell volts with a meter without the danger of shorting probes out by using the main terminals instead of the balance connector. This gives you the overall volts and the volts of the top and bottom cells. One probe on red main lead and other on the balance lead, same for bottom cell. Overall main red or black to other on the balance connector. A quick sum of the total take away the top and bottom and you have the middle cell. You can also measure two cells at a time on the balance connector and work your way up for more than 6S. All pairs should be the same. It does rely on the meter being correct for two cells, but this can be checked.

[aamacgregor]

Thanks cjcj1949 for your response. I agree that buying from the UK is a better idea. So, in the end I have ordered a charger from ElectriFlyer.co.uk... I ordered the 306B. Perhaps it is overkill at the moment, but I wanted a charger that would cover me if/when I go for bigger a heli with that takes 6S batteries. For example, if I went to a club, I wanted the capacity to be able to charge multiple 6S 5000mAh batteries in parallel at 2C (assuming the batteries are rated at least 2C).

So, in short, I went over my budget by a fair amount, but think that I got a good charger. Added to that, I have been very impressed with ElectriFlyer and wouldn't hesitate in using them again. Thanks for the recommendation.