icharger 106b+ settings

[Hawke]

Hi, I've just got an icharger 106b+ and P350 PSU. I'm eager to test out my new 450x and I'm trying to charge a stock 450x 3S 2200mah battery. I'm reading through the manual and trying to set it up but I need a little help understanding one of the balance charging options.

There are three balance charging modes in the parameter settings menu, CV phase, storage voltage and always. Which mode do I choose?

Is it ok to charge just one battery by only plugging it into the balance port? Do I have to use a balance charge in this instance?

Should I use a balance charge or normal charge when parallel charging?

There are a lot of other options, is there a guide for all the setting I'll need to enter or are these ok left at default?

Cheers.

[cjcj1949]

Only the most basic chargers charge through the balance port. (Apart from older Cellpro chargers). The icharger just monitors the voltage and drains the current from high cells. So you won't get anywhere just using the balance ports, you'll need to use the main red and black sockets. There are a lot of options, but the defaults will work fine. With any charger there's always a possibility that it won't work correctly, so I'd check on the first charge that all the cell voltages rise together and that the charge current reduces once the cells reach 4.2V and that the charge ends when the current drops to 10% of the starting charge. Use balance charging.

In parallel charging balance charging is normally used. It becomes less effective as the number of batteries in parallel is increased. It does allow the charger to monitor the real cell voltages, rather than just taking the total voltage. This is why balance charging was introduced, to stop low cells allowing other cells to be charged above the safe level of 4.2V. I don't think balance charging does much when 6 lipos are connected in parallel as they will average out the cell voltages. It would be nice if chargers stopped the charge if one cell gets too low or fails to charge, as this indicates a cell that is about to fail catastrophically. Of course, we are supposed to be monitoring the charger and that means knowing what it should be doing and stopping the charge if things go wrong. All chargers can fail, but they are very reliable.

[Hawke]

Thanks for the info.

My charge board and extra batteries are XT60. I was hoping I could charge my one stock EC3 battery and give my new 450x a test flight before changing the connector on it to a XT60, so it fits my other batteries and charge board, but I guess I'll have to wait till I can get the connector changed before I get to fly it.

I'm desperate to fly it but I don't have a working soldering iron at the moment so I may have to find a shop that can solder the heli connector for me.

[SGD]

You can get power lead adapters to suit that will allow you to charge batteries.

A few places will sell them if you do a search.

Adapters « ElectriFlyer

[tomatwalden]

Hi, I've just got an icharger 106b+ and P350 PSU. I'm eager to test out my new 450x and I'm trying to charge a stock 450x 3S 2200mah battery. I'm reading through the manual and trying to set it up but I need a little help understanding one of the balance charging options.

There are three balance charging modes in the parameter settings menu, CV phase, storage voltage and always. Which mode do I choose?

Is it ok to charge just one battery by only plugging it into the balance port? Do I have to use a balance charge in this instance?

Should I use a balance charge or normal charge when parallel charging?

There are a lot of other options, is there a guide for all the setting I'll need to enter or are these ok left at default?

Cheers.

I doubt the iCharger will let you charge directly like that. Usually it comes supplied with a balance board? Anyway, I just stuck to defaults with mine. Select "Balance charge". The iCharger should detect a 3S battery and set the voltage automatically. You possibly need to set it to LIPO, and set the amps to 2.2 (assuming 2200mah battery).

[Planehazza]

I use the always option. Takes longer, but for piece of mind, it's always balancing, rather than just dumping current into the pack, then balancing at the end. As said, I have two of them and can tell you can't charge through the balance leads - both the main and the balance leads have to be connected.

Use the balance charge mode, and if parallel charging, leave the cell count the same but multiply the Ah capacity. So if you're charing 2x 2200mAh 3S, set the charger for 3S 4400mAh balance charge.

[Hawke]

Thanks for the help everyone.

The capacity protection cut off is set at 5000mah and the lipo termination voltage is set at 4.2v as default in the ichargers parameter menu (in the settings menu, not the charging mode options). Are these values correct or should they be altered to reflect the batteries I'm charging? i.e 11.1v for 3S batteries and a multiple of the capacity I'm charging?

[cjcj1949]

11.1V is just a number given to 3S batteries. It is called a nominal voltage and means nothing for charging. Lipos should be charged to 4.2V a cell and a 3S battery will end up at 12.6v fully charged. We say that car batteries are 12v, but a charged car battery is about 12.6V and gets charged at 14.4V. The capacity cutoff is a safety feature. You can change it if you want, to slightly more than you want to put into the batteries. A 2200mah battery should only need 80% charge as it shouldn't be discharged below 20%, so 1600 to 1800 mah would be a reasonable setting. You can always continue the charge if things are ok.

[Planehazza]

Just out of curiosity, what's more important? The 80% rule or the cell voltage? I didn't check to see exactly what went into the pack, but ~5200mAh went into the pair of 3300 (so 6600) packs. That's pretty much bang on 80%, but each cell was still around 3.75 volts according to the cell checker. Does that mean more flight time for me or stick with 6:45?

[Hawke]

Thanks. I left the options on default and started a parallel balance charge of 4 2200mah batteries. I set the balance charge to 8.8A. It charged for about 20 mins and then just as it got to 12.6V and started to reduce the amps the charger made a loud pop and turned itself off. The batteries didn't get hot or puff and are new.

I left the batteries plugged into the charge/balance board after it popped, turned itself off and I unplugged it from the wall. In the panic I forgot for a few minutes before unplugging them all from the powered off charger and board. Have I wrecked my batteries?

Is the charger dead, should I try plugging it back in again?

[Planehazza]

Thanks. I left the options on default and started a parallel balance charge of 4 2200mah batteries. I set the balance charge to 8.8A. It charged for about 20 mins and then just as it got to 12.6V and started to reduce the amps the charger made a loud pop and turned itself off. The batteries didn't get hot or puff and are new.

I left the batteries plugged into the charge/balance board after it popped, turned itself off and I unplugged it from the wall. In the panic I forgot for a few minutes before unplugging them all from the powered off charger and board. Have I wrecked my batteries?

Is the charger dead, should I try plugging it back in again?

Loud pop is not good, does it smell of burning at all? Have you a cell checker you can use to check for any low cell voltages? Something like this:

[Hawke]

No fire, no smell and no smoke, just a loud pop and then it turned itself off. The only voltage checker I have is built into the icharger. I didn't check the stock battery but the 3 other batteries I charged with it came with a label saying they were all 3.85v to 3.86v. I monitored the total voltage as I plugged each battery into the board and I didn't see any fluctuations above 0.01v as I plugged each one in.

I tried turning it back on and nothing works. The light on the psu doesn't come on either, even if the icharger isn't plugged into it. It could be a faulty charger or psu. Does anyone with a P350 psu know if the light should come on when nothing is plugged into the output?

Was the charger/psu faulty or could I have done something wrong?

[BavarianRob]

icharger 106b+ settings

No fire, no smell and no smoke, just a loud pop and then it turned itself off. The only voltage checker I have is built into the icharger. I didn't check the stock battery but the 3 other batteries I charged with it came with a label saying they were all 3.85v to 3.86v. I monitored the total voltage as I plugged each battery into the board and I didn't see any fluctuations above 0.01v as I plugged each one in.

I tried turning it back on and nothing works. The light on the psu doesn't come on either, even if the icharger isn't plugged into it. It could be a faulty charger or psu. Does anyone with a P350 psu know if the light should come on when nothing is plugged into the output?

Was the charger/psu faulty or could I have done something wrong?

If there's no light on your psu I'd try and check the fuse in the psu or is there a reset button? Try another psu before you check anything else; a 12v laptop psu or similar should work, but don't use it to charge with, just as a check to see if your charger is working.

[brummycraig]

icharger 106b+ settings

The icharger comes with a pair of crock clips for the input. Hook it to your car battery just to test the icharger is working.

[Hawke]

Thanks, the charger turns on if I use a 12v 1.5A psu so I guess it must be the psu that blew. It sounded like the pop came from the charger but they were only a few feet away from each other so I may have misheard. There is no reset button that I can see on the psu and changing the fuse on the plug for the psu doesn't fix it. I don't have any other way to power the charger properly so it looks like I'll have to wait until I can get the faulty psu replaced before I get to maiden my new 450x :-(

I left the batteries plugged into the charge/balance board after it popped, turned itself off and I'd unplugged it from the wall. In the panic I forgot for a few minutes before unplugging all the batteries from the powered off charger and board. Have I wrecked my batteries?

I've tested the batteries with the charger powered by a 12v 1.5A psu and the results are as follows. Do these batteries look ok?

Haiyin Battery 1. Volts: 4.15, 4.14/4.15 (alternating between these values) & 4.12. Resistance: 3, 3, 6
Haiyin Battery 2. Volts: 4.15, 4.14/4.15 (alternating between these values) & 4.12. Resistance: 3, 4, 6
Haiyin Battery 3. Volts: 4.15, 4.14/4.15 (alternating between these values) & 4.12. Resistance: 2, 2, 6
Stock Battery. Volts: 4.14/4.13 (alternating between these values), 4.13 & 4.12. Resistance: 12, 11, 15

If the batteries are ok should I use them in the heli for a few mins before recharging them, discharge them with the charger to a certain voltage before recharging them or continue to charge them before I use them?