After advise and opinions on what charger to get with 7s capabilities

[ditonics]

I am after a new charger in the next few months and am stuck on which way to go.

I currently have a 2400W PSU ready to hook up to a suitably powerful charger.

Mt heli's are a Warp360, Trex 550 and goblin 700 all of which are 6s and I generally parallel charge the goblin batteries off one port and the rest of my batteries off the other port.

In the near future I will be getting a Kipor IG2000 for field charging.

Add in to the mix I want the charger to be capable of charging/balancing 7s batteries to future proof myself if I change the goblin over to a 14S setup or get a goblin 770competition.

I like the idea of the big iCharger duo but I am not sure of their reliablilty as a few in my club seem to of failed, ok they were exchange for new ones under guarantee so fingers crossed should be good??????
I am also considering the PL8, seems to have a solid reliable reputation but now where near the capabilities of the iCharger.
Any others to consider?

All feedback welcome, Cheers

Happy flying

[coolice]

Hey buddy.

I currently have the iCharger 308DUO which on paper will suit your requirements and works I'm finding. This line does have some guidlines to assure reliability unfortunately;

1. Your psu's must be dependable and if you are using a pair I'd suggest my protection circuit that shuts off both psu's should one fail. This has been a main cause of DUO failures as the remaining psu spikes the charger when one in the pair fails during a charge.

2. Discharging, another killer of the DUO range. You need to limit the discharge current to lower levels and all works well then. It appears higher discharge currents have also caused failures.

Having said the above, recent firmware changes have helped fix issues greatly, the above still needs taking into account but overall reliability has been improved. A new firmware has appeared last nite in fact.
The 308 DUO seems to have suffered less than the 4010 I will add. There is another one coming, a 406 DUO, but will only do 6s packs and a little more powerful than the 308. I like the loom of this one due to its buttons being orange :-) but my 308DUO is just as good.

I love mine due to its small size and two chargers in one box, which is the only reason I brought this over a PL. If you go this route give Paul Gosling a call @ Electriflyer and say I sent you.

The Revolectrix PL series is also a great charger, I'm going to grab a PL6 soon myself as another charger.
These ones are more tolerant to psu issues, so more robust should one fail, still not ideal but doesn't suffer like the iCharger. Charging wise considered the best for its charging alogarithms.
Only downside, fixed if you buy the PL8 DUO, is that once a charge cycle has been started you cannot charge more packs or different types, until those ones are finished. Hence the 308/4010 allure perhaps as you have two independent chargers to use as you wish.

Whichever way you go, both will serve you well.
.

[ditonics]

Cheers for the feed back Coolice, the PSU I have is one of yours with the protection circuit, you only recently built it and shipped it to my friends with his slightly smaller PSU.

By choice I would go for the 4010 but I am getting cold feet about it, worried about reliability and its working life. Hence asking for feedback.

Out of interest can I run the 12v output and the 24v output on your PSU simultaneously if I stay well within the rated output of the chargers or not?

Cheers, Simon

[Jamin_00]

I have the 4010 and it is a great charger but I had an issue last week while charging at the field.

I was charging 2 packs at once on one side and I had the balance leads of both plugged in and only 1 of the main batt leads plugged in, I don't know why but it basically only charged 1 pack and this went to around 4.4-4.5v per cell while the other stayed at around 3.8v per cell??

Even though I had left one of the main leads of unconnected by mistake I didn't think this sort of thing could happen??


Strange thing was, just before this I was doing another 2 packs on one side and they were all connected correctly and it over charged one of these packs too??

Is it a faulty charger or dodgy firmware, not sure what version it is or a dodgy parallel board??

[coolice]

Cheers for the feed back Coolice, the PSU I have is one of yours with the protection circuit, you only recently built it and shipped it to my friends with his slightly smaller PSU.

By choice I would go for the 4010 but I am getting cold feet about it, worried about reliability and its working life. Hence asking for feedback.

Out of interest can I run the 12v output and the 24v output on your PSU simultaneously if I stay well within the rated output of the chargers or not?

Cheers, Simon

Hey Buddy.

I had a sneaky suspicion it was one of mine, but the penny didn't fully drop.
This is great as you'll be protected if you go DUO.

I've only had a 4010 to fit into a case and it charged all ok from the limited testing I gave it, I did update the firmware and there is another now, so these always address bugs found along the way.

Yes, you can run both outputs. Just bear in mind as you've guessed one psu will of course be working harder than the other.
.

[coolice]

I have the 4010 and it is a great charger but I had an issue last week while charging at the field.

I was charging 2 packs at once on one side and I had the balance leads of both plugged in and only 1 of the main batt leads plugged in, I don't know why but it basically only charged 1 pack and this went to around 4.4-4.5v per cell while the other stayed at around 3.8v per cell??

Even though I had left one of the main leads of unconnected by mistake I didn't think this sort of thing could happen??


Strange thing was, just before this I was doing another 2 packs on one side and they were all connected correctly and it over charged one of these packs too??

Is it a faulty charger or dodgy firmware, not sure what version it is or a dodgy parallel board??

Hey Buddy.

I'm surprised about this to. However after having started using a parallel charging lead for my 150 the first balance wire at least is connected to the main charge output line. As the parallel lead when connected with no batteries gives a small voltage to the main lines.

In your instance I wonder if it used the first balance connection as the other charging line, but didn't properly balance.
It may be worth posting this over on RCgroups so Junsi can see this, as it could be a potential problem.
.

[Jamin_00]

Done, cheers Ian.