Please recommend charger

[auck]

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 .

 

[denodan]

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/stor ... oduct=7028

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

 

[Gizmo3000]

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.

 

[auck]

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?

 

[Gizmo3000]

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.

 

[Sac D]

...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!

 

[Ali in Austria]

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.

 

[Gizmo3000]

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]

I did a little googling, and wow, I had no idea about Parallel charging!

I'm sooo gunna order one of those $10 boards!!! thanks for the tip-off thread!

here's a video that explains it

http://flitetest.com/articles/Parallel_Charging

 

[Ali in Austria]

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.

 

[Gizmo3000]

Good point on the checking to make sure all the batteries are in the same condition
just ordered a checker!
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... se%5F.html

.. still cheaper than buying an additional charger :lol:

 

[auck]

ok, so i broke down and got me the parallel board and voltage meter from hobby king. supposedly if anyone uses the following codes for the parallel board and voltage meter, it would be a little cheaper than the listed price so what the heck....

Parallel charging board:
http://www.hobbyking.com/buddy.asp?code ... C75E9462AF

Cell / voltage meter:
http://www.hobbyking.com/buddy.asp?code ... 0C31D5CA44

if anyone is interested