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

[Gecko501]

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

I've just bit the bullet and got the hobby king, turnigy 4 x 100w charger. Came in at about £100 with delivery. Already have two 12v dell psu's ( that can be connected as one 24v) got the two PSU's for £50 and very happy with my setup... Well when the charger arrives I will be.

[cjcj1949]

The 1.5 amp psu will do for the smaller batteries for now. You,ll be ale to charge two 450mah 2S batteries at 1C or 1 at 2C. You'll really have to think how many batteries you need to charge at once and how quickly. Your 20V charger will be ok for the bigger ichargers as they go up to 24V, I think. There are cheap server psus available as well and you can use car batteries. You can charge up before you go and then finish off at the field. For the 450 you can fully charge two batteries the night before and get the others to 4.0V a cell and then finish off charging from a car battery at the field while flying the first two. I don't think you can future proof yourself, not for long anyway.

[Hawke]

Cheers, by future proofing I mean that I'll probably end up working my way up from my mcpx to a 130x, 300x then 450x over the next year or so (maybe skipping the 300x) so the max that I'll probably want to be able to charge is six of the 450x batteries in a hour or two (but the quicker the better) when I eventually get that far. I can't see myself getting anything bigger than a 450x and I don't want to have to upgrade my charger each time I upgrade to a bigger heli.

My initial use for the charger will be charging six 300mah mcpx batteries at 1-3C but I'll eventually want to be able to charge six 450x batteries at the max speed that is safe for them or that the charger can handle.

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 (or at 3C I'll need 5.4 amps) but I don't know if I'll have to charge the bigger two and three cell packs in parallel or series and how this affects what I should get.

I'm therefore thinking the best option would be for me to get a psu that can handle everything the icharger 106B can do so I'm not going to be limited by the psu or have to upgrade it in the future. Any suggestions for a psu that will fit the bill?

[cjcj1949]

You need to be think watts more than just amps. The 106B gives 10 amps at 25V so needs at least 250 Watts in. Plus more for inefficiency. A 12V 20 amp psu would be pretty useful. There's one for £35 posted from Slough RC. It's a well known make.

ProPeak Pro-Peak Power Supply 20A - O-IP2000 | Slough Radio Control Models

6 x 2S 300mah batteries needs 8.4 x 6 x 0.3 = about 15 watts. A Psu giving 13.8V would need about 1 amp.

6x 2.2 x 3S batteries need 12.6 x 2.2x 6 = about 150 watts so again around 10 amps would be close or 15 amps to be well in

If you want 2C charge for 6 3S batteries you'll need 300 watts so a bigger charger.

The charge starts off at a lower voltage and so to begin with you need less power and you'll only need all the power just before you reach full volts, then the amps drop so you'll need less power. You won't lose a lot of time by having a psu slightly too small.

This charger would be better

P350 Power Supply « ElectriFlyer

Someone who designed power supplies recommended this

SMPS 25A/40A

It's often useful to be able to control the volts and to know the current.

I use a Maplin bench power supply with adjustable current and voltage. It's been very useful. If you can set a low current limit you can then test things without blowing them up if you suspect a fault.

Bench Power Supply with LCD Screen : Bench Power Supplies : Maplin Electronics

You should get a switched mode power supply. The linear ones get much too hot.

[Hawke]

Thanks for all the help and advise.

I've finally got the cash for this and I've decided that I'm going to upgrade to a 450x pretty soon so I'm going get an iCharger 106B+ « ElectriFlyer and a P350 Power Supply « ElectriFlyer.

I've got a couple of more questions before I order these. Can I use this cable 2 Pin JST to 6 x E-Flight Ultra Micro plug Charging Harness to charge my mcpx batteries with this charger? What other cables will I need to get to be able charge six 450x batteries?

Thanks.

[450man]

Glad you decided

That cable is fine for charging your mcpx batteries but you will have to cut off the red jst connector and replace it with a pair of banana plugs. Use the screw type banana plugs so you don't have to solder if you like.

To charge 6 x 2200mah 3S batteries for the 450 you will need one of these parallel charging boards or something similar. Get one for the connector type you want to use. I have XT60 but a lot of people use EC3...

Hobbyking Parallel charging Board for 6 packs 2~6S (XT-60)

You plug the board into the charger (including its balance lead) and then plug 1 to 6 batteries into each of the sockets in the middle and connect each of the balance leads into the appropriate white balance sockets on the side. Obviously, follow the guidelines for parallel charging

[Hawke]

That cable is fine for charging your mcpx batteries but you will have to cut off the red jst connector and replace it with a pair of banana plugs. Use the screw type banana plugs so you don't have to solder if you like.

Cheers, I guess this will do the job then, JST Female to Banana 4mm Bullet Connectors Charge Lead | eBay.

To charge 6 x 2200mah 3S batteries for the 450 you will need one of these parallel charging boards or something similar. Get one for the connector type you want to use. I have XT60 but a lot of people use EC3... Hobbyking Parallel charging Board for 6 packs 2~6S (XT-60)

I'll be using the stock battery connector, horizons site doesn't seem to say what this is, do I need one with XT60 or EC3?

Thanks