Please recommend charger

Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
275
Reaction score
1
Location
San Jose, CA
so the battery question is good, but what about the chargers? i recently looked on line to see what i can find in terms of a "better" charger for the batteries i have and boy is there a lot to choose from. suggestions are highly appreciated :D .
 
denodan said:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=7028

Been using this one for ages with my other quads, and Phantom, works well and is cheap.

Thanks Denodan, I just ordered that one as well. * plus a power supply that it requires, from the USA wherehouse.
looks straightforward enough and comes with the TX60 plug.
was considering a fancier dual charger, but figured I still could use my DJI charger to charge a 2nd battery.
and then just use the Turnigy to discharge at the end of the day.
 
so what about charging multiple batteries at once? any suggestions on a good charger and / or method? Currently I am using the charger that came with the phantom, and charging 4 batteries is taking a long time. I've seen chargers that will do 4 at a time, but they range from $80 USD and up. Then I ran across this

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... ouse_.html

how safe is this and what kind of charger would work with it? I'm no electrical engineer but am vary wary of electrical fire and possible damages that could happen. Thoughts?
 
auck said:
so what about charging multiple batteries at once? any suggestions on a good charger and / or method? Currently I am using the charger that came with the phantom, and charging 4 batteries is taking a long time. I've seen chargers that will do 4 at a time, but they range from $80 USD and up. Then I ran across this

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... ouse_.html

how safe is this and what kind of charger would work with it? I'm no electrical engineer but am vary wary of electrical fire and possible damages that could happen. Thoughts?

Very interesting, I hadn't spotted that board before. but I believe some chargers come with a similar board and claim you can charge multiple batteries that way. I'm no guru, but guess you'd have to have a beefy enough charger (and then set the charger to think it's charging a 4400mah 11volt at 4A if you were to do 2 batteries). Maybe you could inquire about how the splitter thing works.

However, regardless, I don't think you would dare want to do such a thing with the charger that comes with the Phantom. (which has no mah settings to adjust or anything).

If you bought another charger, it wouldn't mean you'd have to completely ditch your Phantom charger in the first place, so you'd then be able to charge 2 batteries at a time.. (the great thing about the Accucel is that it beeps rather loud when your battery is charged, so you won't lose time switching to another battery to charge.

In hindsight, now that I have 5 batteries (they were cheap enough), I'd probably have considered a dedicated multi-charger.
tho I'm managing ok with the two chargers I have.
.but for $10 I guess it can't hurt to get a parallel board for times when I really want to have faster turnaround times.
 
Gizmo3000 said:
...but for $10 I guess it can't hurt to get a parallel board for times when I really want to have faster turnaround times.

It's too bad these things seem like they are always just bare boards. Why not put it in a case that size? Then they could charge $20 for it, but it would certainly look a lot nicer!
 
The board that comes with many chargers is a Balance Board which has a variety of Balance Sockets to cater for the different Cell Batteries.

You mean a Parallel Charging Board or Octopus Parallel Charging Leads.

Take a 3s 22000mah Lipo as an example. To charge at 1C requires 2.2A

Take 6 x 3S 22000mah Lipo's (provided they are in a similar state of charge)and connect in parallel. The charger recognises 1 big 3S Lipo of 13.2A at 1C

Is it safe. Many will say it is and quote the fact that many larger Lipo's are actually multiples of smaller ones wired in Parallel and packaged as one.

I have an iCharger 206B, Power Supply and Parallel Board and can easily charge 6 x 2200 mah 3S at 1C. I hour charge time or there abouts.
 
Ali in Austria said:
The board that comes with many chargers is a Balance Board which has a variety of Balance Sockets to cater for the different Cell Batteries.

You mean a Parallel Charging Board or Octopus Parallel Charging Leads.

Take a 3s 22000mah Lipo as an example. To charge at 1C requires 2.2A

Take 6 x 3S 22000mah Lipo's (provided they are in a similar state of charge)and connect in parallel. The charger recognises 1 big 3S Lipo of 13.2A at 1C

Is it safe. Many will say it is and quote the fact that many larger Lipo's are actually multiples of smaller ones wired in Parallel and packaged as one.

I have an iCharger 206B, Power Supply and Parallel Board and can easily charge 6 x 2200 mah 3S at 1C. I hour charge time or there abouts.

ah,. interesting.
So while it makes sense that it can charge multiples at the same time, how does it handle balancing? (or is that left for individual charging situations?).
so with my little 6A charger, I'd be able to use the board to charge 3 Lipo's at 1C? (2A going to each battery), . or a few more if I wanted to charge at the equiv of 1A?.
Sounds like a handy thing to do vs having to do one battery at a time.
..tho heard it's ideal to balance often.
 
Gizmo3000 said:
Ali in Austria said:
The board that comes with many chargers is a Balance Board which has a variety of Balance Sockets to cater for the different Cell Batteries.

You mean a Parallel Charging Board or Octopus Parallel Charging Leads.

Take a 3s 22000mah Lipo as an example. To charge at 1C requires 2.2A

Take 6 x 3S 22000mah Lipo's (provided they are in a similar state of charge)and connect in parallel. The charger recognises 1 big 3S Lipo of 13.2A at 1C

Is it safe. Many will say it is and quote the fact that many larger Lipo's are actually multiples of smaller ones wired in Parallel and packaged as one.

I have an iCharger 206B, Power Supply and Parallel Board and can easily charge 6 x 2200 mah 3S at 1C. I hour charge time or there abouts.

ah,. interesting.
So while it makes sense that it can charge multiples at the same time, how does it handle balancing? (or is that left for individual charging situations?).
so with my little 6A charger, I'd be able to use the board to charge 3 Lipo's at 1C? (2A going to each battery), . or a few more if I wanted to charge at the equiv of 1A?.
Sounds like a handy thing to do vs having to do one battery at a time.
..tho heard it's ideal to balance often.

You balance as you charge, just as if you were charging a single Lipo.

It is important that the Lipo's are in a similar state of discharge. If you have one near full charge and one virtually empty then there will be a rush of charge to the latter which isn't good. If you use them all about the same then that is close enough. Play safe and check them on a tester pre charging.

It is possible to charge when there are extremes but is a bit more complicated and beyond my comfort zone.
 

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,094
Messages
1,467,599
Members
104,980
Latest member
ozmtl