Good place to buy a lipo charger?

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Garemlin said:
I just took a peek at this charger. Strangely enough in a search a HOTA charger showed up that looks almost the same. Is one a knock-off of the other???
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HobbyMate is the original. Or came out first. Last I checked. I have mine for some years now. But yes they are the same. Even the F/W is the same. And it is updatable. This charger was rated and reviewed well. It seems the Internal 30v/200w Power supply is of well known quality brand. There were reviews where they were disassembled and examined closely. This is an above average priced charger.
 
SentFlying said:
3s and 4s batts. Im all xt90's here. CNHL batts and one adventure 3s for my crawler. Was thinking i wanted a 4 port to charge (2)3s and (2)4s, but that is like an extra $150 then im gonna spend since I am also getting other stuff. I'll just get another later. Gonna

Features I am looking for: storage, balance, discharge, ohm, and cell check. I'm ok with not having bt.
I am fine with AC for power. And I have an xspower batt if I wanted dc power.
Click to expand...
For a quad channel charger that can charge 4s lipos this is the best one I found https://usa.banggood.com/HOTA-F6-4x...HJrE19yJgf3j_BcNQ7dXagfz3NIJFhwwaAmXyEALw_wcB but you will want a 24v power supply.

This is the only quad AC charger I could find that had at least 100w per channel https://www.amazon.com/Venom-Multi-Chemistry-Battery-Balance-Charger/dp/B01HZ1M2FM

It might be cheaper to get a good dual channel charger like the Hota D6+ and do parallel charging. https://oscarliang.com/parallel-charging-multiple-lipo/
Garemlin said:
I just took a peek at this charger. Strangely enough in a search a HOTA charger showed up that looks almost the same. Is one a knock-off of the other???
Click to expand...
SrC said:
HobbyMate is the original. Or came out first. Last I checked. I have mine for some years now. But yes they are the same. Even the F/W is the same. And it is updatable. This charger was rated and reviewed well. It seems the Internal 30v/200w Power supply is of well known quality brand. There were reviews where they were disassembled and examined closely. This is an above average priced charger.
Click to expand...

Short story long HOTA is the OEM. HOTA is one of the few OEMs of the actual technology that goes into these chargers They have been making and designing the technology for decades. Most rc chargers use their technology as the backbone for their chargers, the other companies just basically put it in a fancy case with their 4 buttons and most of the time stick an ac power supply in it. A lot of the rc chargers on the market seem to use the older HOTA tech as their backbone that is why so many of them all have the same screen and button layout. Only recently did Hota start making and selling their own brand of chargers. I do believe that Hobbymate is the manufacturer of the HOTA D6 but do not quote me on that.

ISDT is another OEM. I think Traxxas makes their own tech but not 100% on that. And I think there are at least 2 or 3 more. I've only ever used HOTA based chargers and one ISDT charger so I do not have any experience or knowledge of how the others work.
 
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slick2500 said:
For a quad channel charger that can charge 4s lipos this is the best one I found https://usa.banggood.com/HOTA-F6-4x...HJrE19yJgf3j_BcNQ7dXagfz3NIJFhwwaAmXyEALw_wcB but you will want a 24v power supply.

This is the only quad AC charger I could find that had at least 100w per channel https://www.amazon.com/Venom-Multi-Chemistry-Battery-Balance-Charger/dp/B01HZ1M2FM

It might be cheaper to get a good dual channel charger like the Hota D6+ and do parallel charging. https://oscarliang.com/parallel-charging-multiple-lipo/



Short story long HOTA is the OEM. HOTA is one of the few OEMs of the actual technology that goes into these chargers They have been making and designing the technology for decades. Most rc chargers use their technology as the backbone for their chargers, the other companies just basically put it in a fancy case with their 4 buttons and most of the time stick an ac power supply in it. A lot of the rc chargers on the market seem to use the older HOTA tech as their backbone that is why so many of them all have the same screen and button layout. Only recently did Hota start making and selling their own brand of chargers. I do believe that Hobbymate is the manufacturer of the HOTA D6 but do not quote me on that.

ISDT is another OEM. I think Traxxas makes their own tech but not 100% on that. And I think there are at least 2 or 3 more. I've only ever used HOTA based chargers and one ISDT charger so I do not have any experience or knowledge of how the others work.
Click to expand...
I will make that venom the next charger I buy.

Purchased the D6 plus and a lipo alarm Thanks man!
 
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SentFlying said:
I will make that venom the next charger I buy.

Purchased the D6 plus and a lipo alarm Thanks man!
Click to expand...
I forgot to repost that Venom has gone out of business it was already mentioned earlier in this thread. I wouldn't buy anything Venom branded.
 
slick2500 said:
For a quad channel charger that can charge 4s lipos this is the best one I found https://usa.banggood.com/HOTA-F6-4x...HJrE19yJgf3j_BcNQ7dXagfz3NIJFhwwaAmXyEALw_wcB but you will want a 24v power supply.

This is the only quad AC charger I could find that had at least 100w per channel https://www.amazon.com/Venom-Multi-Chemistry-Battery-Balance-Charger/dp/B01HZ1M2FM

It might be cheaper to get a good dual channel charger like the Hota D6+ and do parallel charging. https://oscarliang.com/parallel-charging-multiple-lipo/



Short story long HOTA is the OEM. HOTA is one of the few OEMs of the actual technology that goes into these chargers They have been making and designing the technology for decades. Most rc chargers use their technology as the backbone for their chargers, the other companies just basically put it in a fancy case with their 4 buttons and most of the time stick an ac power supply in it. A lot of the rc chargers on the market seem to use the older HOTA tech as their backbone that is why so many of them all have the same screen and button layout. Only recently did Hota start making and selling their own brand of chargers. I do believe that Hobbymate is the manufacturer of the HOTA D6 but do not quote me on that.

ISDT is another OEM. I think Traxxas makes their own tech but not 100% on that. And I think there are at least 2 or 3 more. I've only ever used HOTA based chargers and one ISDT charger so I do not have any experience or knowledge of how the others work.
Click to expand...

So would you recommend the HOTA or Hobbymate branded charger???

Also in regards to parallel charging. I assume that if you parallel charge on a single channel charger that it divides that capabilities by the number of batteries being charged. So if I were to parallel charge two batteries on my single channel150w 10a charger, each battery would get 75w and 5A??
 
Garemlin said:
So would you recommend the HOTA or Hobbymate branded charger???

Also in regards to parallel charging. I assume that if you parallel charge on a single channel charger that it divides that capabilities by the number of batteries being charged. So if I were to parallel charge two batteries on my single channel150w 10a charger, each battery would get 75w and 5A??
Click to expand...

Whichever one you can get the cheapest.

Say that you are para charging 2 3s 5000mAh lipos you would set the charge current to 10 amps. Essentially the charger will see the 2 5000mAh batteries as 1 10000mah battery.
https://www.radiocontrolinfo.com/information/rc-calculators/rc-charger-wattage-calculator/#A

Screenshot_20220314-111410_Chrome.jpg
 
slick2500 said:
Whichever one you can get the cheapest.

Say that you are para charging 2 3s 5000mAh lipos you would set the charge current to 10 amps. Essentially the charger will see the 2 5000mAh batteries as 1 10000mah battery.
https://www.radiocontrolinfo.com/information/rc-calculators/rc-charger-wattage-calculator/#A

View attachment 206236
Click to expand...

Ok I now have a question. May be dumb so bear with me. So my charger uses banana plugs for the charge leads. I was looking at some parallel charging boards and most of them with banana plugs say for 2s-3s. So if I'm charging two 2s batteries wouldn't that show as 4 cells??
 
Garemlin said:
Ok I now have a question. May be dumb so bear with me. So my charger uses banana plugs for the charge leads. I was looking at some parallel charging boards and most of them with banana plugs say for 2s-3s. So if I'm charging two 2s batteries wouldn't that show as 4 cells??
Click to expand...
No, they show as one 2s pack with the combined MaH. The balance leads are also parallel so both cell 1 will show as the average of both of them essentially. Now packs and cells in parallel will equalize between the packs/cells, but when cells start to die they develop higher internal resistance so they may not equalize properly. If you have 4 3S packs in parallel and pack 2, cell 3 is damaged it will take more power to get it to the same cell voltage as the other cell 3s. That means that you can balance all 4 packs but what you are doing is balancing the average voltage between the 4 cell 3's in parallel. If those cells have different internal resistance you may end up with a situation where Pack 1 Cell 3 is 4.25, Pack 2 Cell 3 is 4.16, Pack 3 Cell 3 is 4.21, and Pack 4 Cell 3 is 4.19. That wouldn't normally happen as the cells will equalize between them but if IR is much higher in Pack 2 and lower than the rest in Pack 1 it could end up like that. This can put extra wear on Pack 1 Cell 3 when charged to full and damage to Pack 2 Cell 3 when you run it to LVC and it drops below 3v under load.

You can still do this safely by using a cell checker/meter with a balance function to balance the individual cells in each pack afterwards. But for the packs I am running I would need a really powerful charger for this. It's safer and better for me just to buy a couple of chargers. I'm using this cheap dual charger I picked up at my local hobby shop. https://www.skyrc.com/D100_v2_Charger It's the exact same as the HiTec version with different coloured plastic. It was a good deal even at my LHS and it does what I need. I would rather not mess with parallel charging, it's easier, safer, and almost as affordable to just get another dual charger.
 
slick2500 said:
I always forget to ask, but what are your current needs for a charger? IE what batteries will you be charging? How many? These are all things you need to take in account before you buy a charger.
Click to expand...
+1.
100%.
Need to know what # of cells and highest capacity lipos you have or will anticipate in the future.
Getting the correct charger, will future proof your investment.
The ideal charger setup should be able to charge any and all of your lipos within an hour. (@ 1C amp rate).
 
L3phturn said:
No, they show as one 2s pack with the combined MaH. The balance leads are also parallel so both cell 1 will show as the average of both of them essentially. Now packs and cells in parallel will equalize between the packs/cells, but when cells start to die they develop higher internal resistance so they may not equalize properly. If you have 4 3S packs in parallel and pack 2, cell 3 is damaged it will take more power to get it to the same cell voltage as the other cell 3s. That means that you can balance all 4 packs but what you are doing is balancing the average voltage between the 4 cell 3's in parallel. If those cells have different internal resistance you may end up with a situation where Pack 1 Cell 3 is 4.25, Pack 2 Cell 3 is 4.16, Pack 3 Cell 3 is 4.21, and Pack 4 Cell 3 is 4.19. That wouldn't normally happen as the cells will equalize between them but if IR is much higher in Pack 2 and lower than the rest in Pack 1 it could end up like that. This can put extra wear on Pack 1 Cell 3 when charged to full and damage to Pack 2 Cell 3 when you run it to LVC and it drops below 3v under load.

You can still do this safely by using a cell checker/meter with a balance function to balance the individual cells in each pack afterwards. But for the packs I am running I would need a really powerful charger for this. It's safer and better for me just to buy a couple of chargers. I'm using this cheap dual charger I picked up at my local hobby shop. https://www.skyrc.com/D100_v2_Charger It's the exact same as the HiTec version with different coloured plastic. It was a good deal even at my LHS and it does what I need. I would rather not mess with parallel charging, it's easier, safer, and almost as affordable to just get another dual charger.
Click to expand...

More useful info. Thanks. Maybe I'll just get a second charger or pony up for a dual channel.

So that SKYRC D100V2 is the same as this one??

9E7F5921-31C6-49A0-8940-474677EC8959.jpeg
 
Garemlin said:
More useful info. Thanks. Maybe I'll just get a second charger or pony up for a dual channel.

So that SKYRC D100V2 is the same as this one??

View attachment 206264
Click to expand...
Yes it's exactly the same thing down to the same female voice that tells you when charging is complete. Both have a phone app you can run over bluetooth. But they are similar price so all things considered I'd get the HiTec if both were available.
 
L3phturn said:
Yes it's exactly the same thing down to the same female voice that tells you when charging is complete. Both have a phone app you can run over bluetooth. But they are similar price so all things considered I'd get the HiTec if both were available.
Click to expand...

Thanks much!!!
 
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