What charger for mcpx, 130x, 300x & 450x batteries?

[Hawke]

Hi, I'm looking for a charger that will multi charge mcpx, 130x, 300x & 450x batteries as I'm looking to future proof myself for when I upgrade from my mcpx to larger and larger helis. I'm looking for one that will initially work with a 2 pin jst to mcpx parallel cable that I've got from hobbyking and will also be able to charge multiple larger batteries as and when I upgrade my helis. I need one that works off the mains but being able to charge off a car battery would also be handy in the future.

Would the Accucel 6 fit the jst to mcpx parallel cable I've got and also multi charge the bigger batteries? If not can anybody suggest one that's more suitable?

[450man]

Fusion LX60B would be perfect. It is mains and 12V. It will charge up to 6S.

I have had mine now for 6 months and use it every day.

The only things it doesn't have that I would like in a charger is the ability to charge or discharge to a preset voltage but that is no big deal given that it is only about £50!

[cjcj1949]

I'd go for an icharger 106B. It is not much more but does everything. You can use a cheap power supply to give you a few amps for now. You can also get cheap chargers that charge through the balance ports so you can use them in parallel. There are probably lots of cx2 chargers around. 600ma I think. They will work even if the battery volts are different. You can then buy bigger power supplies and bigger chargers in the i series and they will all work the same.

[450man]

The 106b is not mains which was the OPs requirement.

[cjcj1949]

The 106b is not mains which was the OPs requirement.

I agree. I don't think a built in AC charger is a good way to start. Small power supplies are very cheap and he may even have one already and not realise it could power a proper charger. It depends if you read his requirement as a one or two box solution. I've just fixed a laptop by buying another power supply. I found a 4 amp 19V one for £10 delivered. Just an example of how cheap they are at that end. 19V will be too much for many chargers, but that's just an example.

[Hawke]

I guess I don't mind having a separate power supply. I do have an old laptop psu which is 20V 4.5A and has a pin size of 5.5mm & 2.5mm. Would that be of any use?

There are probably lots of cx2 chargers around. 600ma I think.

I do have an old eflc3110 2-3 cell 7.4-11.1v balancing charger Output 0.65A that I think came with a cx2. Are you saying I could use this to charge a couple of mcpx batteries? It has a 3pin and a 4pin connector so I guess I'd need a different lead?

[450man]

Well if the OP is happy having a separate PSU then great... that is all that matters.

However, I actually think that a built in mains is a very good way to start. It is how I started and it gave me a single unit which I could use at the field on a battery or plugged in at home. I didn't fully know what I wanted to do at that stage and so this was a great way to get going. If I needed a charger for bigger batteries or one that could parallel charge multiple big batteries later then it gave me breathing space to decide what I wanted to get that was more permanent.

I still have my LX60B but I have bought a small 12V only now for the field so I can keep the LX60B permanently plugged in at home. It works well for the 3S batteries I use in the 450s and my planks.

[Hawke]

I'm probably going to eventually need one that can charge four or six 450x batteries at once in a decent time frame. Is the Fusion LX60B and/or icharger 106B able to do this?

I know that if I want to charge 6 of my 300mah mcpx batteries at 1C in parallel I'll need a charger that can give me 1.8 amps but I don't know if I have to charge the bigger two and three cell packs in series or not. If I can/should charge the bigger packs in parallel I guess this means to charge six 2200mAh packs at 1C I'll need a charger that can give me 13.2 amps and for 2C I'll need 26.4 amps?

For easy reference these are the batteries I want to be able to charge:
450x 3S 11.1V 2200mAh
300x 3S 11.1V 1350mAh
130x 2S 7.4V 300mAh
mCPx 1S 3.7V 300mAh

[450man]

The LX60B is 50W so will charge 3S battereries at about 4.5A so that means it is just 2 x 3S 2200mah batteries at 1C. It will charge more than 2 at a time but it would then be at less than 1C.

The iCharger 106B is a 250W charger and so you would then easily be able to charge 6 or more of those batteries at 1C if you have a 250W PSU. The iCharger 106B is by far a better charger but it is going to be a lot more expensive by the time you have bought the PSU... that is all.

[cjcj1949]

There are lots of ways of charging. The smaller chargers tend to just use balance leads only, but that does make them much easier to use. No setting to do. With parallel you need to make sure your batteries are at similar volts before shorting them together (connecting in parallel). The ichargers do a lot, but if you use them to do a lot you'll spend a fair bit of time changing all the options. A charger with built in supply has a lot going for it. You can connect in series as well or do a combination of series parallel. With series you need to be careful if you have batteries with two leads, that you have an adapter that prevents you plugging the balance lead of one into the balance socket belonging to the next one. If you do you will need a new balance lead.

[Hawke]

I may as well get the charger that will do everything I need in the future. It may cost a little more now but it will be cheaper in the long run. Anyone know where I can get an iCharger 106B and relevant psu in the uk? Will I need anymore cables right now or will my jst to mcpx parallel charge cable work with this? Cheers.

[cjcj1949]

Electriflyer are very good. He knows what he's doing and supports you if something goes wrong. He'll tell you want you need. For the moment any 12-16V supply will do, or a car battery. You probably have power supplies you can use, old laptop or smaller chargers. I'm off out soon but I'll look later if you've made a list of what you want to be able to do.

iCharger 106B+ « ElectriFlyer

[A.N.T]

Just to throw another option at you, you could get a quad port charger, I went with an etronix powerpal quad 4x80w as I liked the option of charging 4 types of batteries at once, I generally fly my nano, 130x and 300x in the same session so have 3 types of batteries that need charging when I get home, with a single port charger it would still take 3+ hours to get all my packs charged, with the powerpal quad I can parallel charge all my packs at the same time reducing the charge time significantly (about an hour)

With the HK psu and charger it came out to about £180 all in which in my view was a good investment

[450man]

I think that I may eventually get a quad 80W charger but to use it to its full potential it needs a 320W PSU or bigger. I will wait until I find that my LX60B is not up to the job I think. I don't mind charging over several hours as I seldom fly 2 days running.

[Hawke]

Being able to charge 4 types of batteries at once would be a very handy feature but as it's over double the price of a icharger 106B and I don't know if I'll be flying all of them in one day I don't know if I can justify the additional expense at this stage.

For the moment any 12-16V supply will do, or a car battery. You probably have power supplies you can use, old laptop or smaller chargers.

As stated previously, I do have an old laptop psu which is 20V 4.5A and has a pin size of 5.5mm & 2.5mm but I doubt that would be of any use for powering an icharger 106B. I also have the psu that came with the mcpx charger (6v 1.5a) and another psu that is for a eflc3110 2-3 cell 7.4-11.1v 0.65A balancing charger (12v 1.5a). I would guess off the top of my head that the volts are too high on the laptop psu and the amps and not enough on the other two that I have.

It looks like I'll probably need to buy a new psu too so I may as well get one that can do everything the charger can so I don't have to upgrade it in the future. Can anybody point me to the psu I'll need?