charger takes FOREVER to balance

[carckton driver]

my charger takes forever to balance the cells. doesn't matter what battery they all take forever but im sure someone is gonna ask so the 2 batteries im mainly concerned with are a gensacearespammers bashing 8000 mAh 3s and a powerhobby 7400 mAh 4s. im talking over 4 hours, it will get to 4.18/ cell or so and 0-.2 amps and try to balance the cells for 2+ hours. god forbid one cell reaches 4.2 and its guaranteed to take forever. the charger is the (old school) hitec multi charger x4 DC with a 10 amp power supply. im not really interested in opinions about my charger setup since im pretty sure thats just the way it is but what i would like to know is whats a good charger that wont take forever just to balance and will charger my 4s, or even a 6s, battery at more than 5amps. thanks.

 

[3d-rc.myshopify.com]

I had that charger once. Definitely should be faster. I would look more into the internal resistance of the cells and what the voltage spread is of all the cells At about 90% charged. That will say a lot from that data.

 

[Diem Turner]

This gets back to the spec of a charger's balance current and what kind of difference it makes. If your charger has a low balance current, balancing the batteries will take longer than one that has a higher balance current.

I use an ISDT P20 and charging any battery from storage to full charge at a 1C rate takes between 20-25 minutes. I'm running it off of a 600W power supply and I can charge at a maximum of 20A. If I were to up that to a 1200W supply, I could charge at up to 35A.

 

[Cereal_killer]

I use a UP6 Plus 300-600W
Specs.
16.0A. Convenient. compact. and easy to use. the UP6+; may be the most versatile and useful charger on your workbench! FeaturesInput Voltage: AC 100-120V or 220-240V. DC 9.0-32.0VCharge Power: DC Input: 2x300w. AC Input: Max.300wWireless Charge Power: Max.10wSpecificationsOutput Voltage: 0.1-30.0VCharging Current: 0.1-16.0A x 2Discharge Current: CH1:0.1-3.0A / 0.1-15.0ACharge Power: DC Input:2x300w. AC Input: Max.300wWireless Charge Power: Max.10wCharging Current: 0.1-16.0A x 2Output Voltage: 0.1-30.0VDimension:

I absolutely love this charger.


But check ir... sometime my older ones take a little longer

 

[Diem Turner]

I use a UP6 Plus 300-600W
Specs.
16.0A. Convenient. compact. and easy to use. the UP6+; may be the most versatile and useful charger on your workbench! FeaturesInput Voltage: AC 100-120V or 220-240V. DC 9.0-32.0VCharge Power: DC Input: 2x300w. AC Input: Max.300wWireless Charge Power: Max.10wSpecificationsOutput Voltage: 0.1-30.0VCharging Current: 0.1-16.0A x 2Discharge Current: CH1:0.1-3.0A / 0.1-15.0ACharge Power: DC Input:2x300w. AC Input: Max.300wWireless Charge Power: Max.10wCharging Current: 0.1-16.0A x 2Output Voltage: 0.1-30.0VDimension:

I absolutely love this charger.


But check ir... sometime my older ones take a little longer

What I like about that charger is that it has an induction charger for your cell phone. Nice touch that.

 

[Cereal_killer]

What I like about that charger is that it has an induction charger for your cell phone. Nice touch that.

Big plus when I'm out. It also tests servos and stuff.

 

[Diem Turner]

Big plus when I'm out. It also tests servos and stuff.

View attachment 248405

Nice. I've been happy with my ISDT gear so far. It doesn't have any fancy options, but they do what they're supposed to do really well.

 

[Cereal_killer]

Nice. I've been happy with my ISDT gear so far. It doesn't have any fancy options, but they do what they're supposed to do really well.

I can't complain about my isdt discharger. Saves me time.. isdt k4 charger is on my list to buy during the winter... and use this one on the road..

 

[slick2500]

It could be the batteries. I have a 4s lipo that will not balance on either my Hitec X2 400 or my ISDT Q6 Nano.

 

[carckton driver]

internal resistance of 1st gens-ace is 3 on all 3 cells and a main resistance of 10. 2nd gens-ace is 2-2-3 and the main resistance is 10. the power hobby is 3 on all 4 celss and main resistance is 15. the voltage spread of the cells once it starts taking forever is about .02-.03 volts. from "dead" i think its less than .02 and once fully charged they are all less than .01. how many volts/cell is 90% charged? i would say the voltage spread at 90% charged is .02 - .03

I had that charger once. Definitely should be faster. I would look more into the internal resistance of the cells and what the voltage spread is of all the cells At about 90% charged. That will say a lot from that data.

 

[carckton driver]

I use an ISDT P20 and charging any battery from storage to full charge at a 1C rate takes between 20-25 minutes. I'm running it off of a 600W power supply and I can charge at a maximum of 20A. If I were to up that to a 1200W supply, I could charge at up to 35A.

can it plug directly into a wall? if not can you post a link of a good power supply for the charger?

I use a UP6 Plus 300-600W
Specs.
16.0A. Convenient. compact. and easy to use. the UP6+; may be the most versatile and useful charger on your workbench! FeaturesInput Voltage: AC 100-120V or 220-240V. DC 9.0-32.0VCharge Power: DC Input: 2x300w. AC Input: Max.300wWireless Charge Power: Max.10wSpecificationsOutput Voltage: 0.1-30.0VCharging Current: 0.1-16.0A x 2Discharge Current: CH1:0.1-3.0A / 0.1-15.0ACharge Power: DC Input:2x300w. AC Input: Max.300wWireless Charge Power: Max.10wCharging Current: 0.1-16.0A x 2Output Voltage: 0.1-30.0VDimension:

I absolutely love this charger.


But check ir... sometime my older ones take a little longer

so this has difference specs depending on if your using a power supply or plugging it directly into an outlet with the DC power input being higher right? can you use a power supply for DC power or by DC power do they mean a car battery?

 

[slick2500]

internal resistance of 1st gens-ace is 3 on all 3 cells and a main resistance of 10. 2nd gens-ace is 2-2-3 and the main resistance is 10. the power hobby is 3 on all 4 celss and main resistance is 15. the voltage spread of the cells once it starts taking forever is about .02-.03 volts. from "dead" i think its less than .02 and once fully charged they are all less than .01. how many volts/cell is 90% charged? i would say the voltage spread at 90% charged is .02 - .03

Okay yours is different than mine. Mine are usually like 0.10-0.20v different .

can it plug directly into a wall? if not can you post a link of a good power supply for the charger?

so this has difference specs depending on if your using a power supply or plugging it directly into an outlet with the DC power input being higher right? can you use a power supply for DC power or by DC power do they mean a car battery?

Most of us just use repurposed server power supplies like this one https://www.ebay.com/itm/2554645952...gH8wY9CSNK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

[Cereal_killer]

can it plug directly into a wall? if not can you post a link of a good power supply for the charger?

so this has difference specs depending on if your using a power supply or plugging it directly into an outlet with the DC power input being higher right? can you use a power supply for DC power or by DC power do they mean a car battery?

I can use a dc from a computer power supply. Or what I use is my car.

 

[LicketySplit]

so this has difference specs depending on if your using a power supply or plugging it directly into an outlet with the DC power input being higher right? can you use a power supply for DC power or by DC power do they mean a car battery?

Yes. And yes to the power supply. I have a HOTA D6+ and use a 24V PSU. I can charge 2 6s batteries at a full 1C with ease.

 

[Senton_Prime]

Id look at upgrading to something nice depending on your wallet, I like spektrum stuff so u could jump on the lonely wagon!!

 

[3d-rc.myshopify.com]

internal resistance of 1st gens-ace is 3 on all 3 cells and a main resistance of 10. 2nd gens-ace is 2-2-3 and the main resistance is 10. the power hobby is 3 on all 4 celss and main resistance is 15. the voltage spread of the cells once it starts taking forever is about .02-.03 volts. from "dead" i think its less than .02 and once fully charged they are all less than .01. how many volts/cell is 90% charged? i would say the voltage spread at 90% charged is .02 - .03

That’s decent specs on the batteries. A far spread will slow down the balance part a lot. But all signs point to the charging. How many amps is it balancing at? As well as how many volts total before it tries to balance. I wonder if it is just kicking in too early.

 

[slick2500]

Id look at upgrading to something nice depending on your wallet, I like spektrum stuff so u could jump on the lonely wagon!!

Unless you have Spektrum Smart batteries there is absolutely no reason to get the Spektrum chargers, so many other chargers on the market that cost less and have more power. The Spektrum S2100 tops out at 100w per channel for a total of 200 watts and costs $180!!! My charger was $124 it does 400w per channel for a total of 800w.

 

[LicketySplit]

Unless you have Spektrum Smart batteries there is absolutely no reason to get the Spektrum chargers, so many other chargers on the market that cost less and have more power. The Spektrum S2100 tops out at 100w per channel for a total of 200 watts and costs $180!!! My charger was $124 it does 400w per channel for a total of 800w.

I'm pretty sure you're just paying for the Spektrum name. My buddy has a Spektrum charger and the menu is damn near identical to my HOTA. My Hota is cheaper and is a better charger (spec wise especially) than his Spektrum model.

 

[slick2500]

I'm pretty sure you're just paying for the Spektrum name. My buddy has a Spektrum charger and the menu is damn near identical to my HOTA. My Hota is cheaper and is a better charger (spec wise especially) than his Spektrum model.

The Spektrum chargers are made by ISDT. You would be surprised how many chargers share the same menu setup. My Hitec, Skyrc and Thunder chargers all have the same menus. The Thunder actually said HOTA charger when you powered it on, they didn't even bother changing the firmware. There are literally only a handful of companies that make the software for these chargers, HOTA and ISDT are the 2 big players in the industry.

 

[carckton driver]

so out of the chargers mentioned it seems the ISDT P20 is the most capable but if im correct it needs a power supply. the best option i can find at the moment for a power supply is the ISDT SP2425 but the only good place i can find it for sale is amazon but its temporarily out of stock. as far as computer power supplies goes, i wouldnt even know where to start or how to hook them up to a charger.
Edit: actually i really don't want to be bothered with a power supply right now unless the best option is a charger that only has a DC input.