Help Me Pick A Charger + LiPos for Kraton 6S

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Nitro2Electric

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Update 7/23/20 : Purchased HOTA D6+ per many of your reccomendations. I'm still looking for good Lipos and preferably on Amazon with Prime Shipping.

7/13/20
I just picked up a used Kraton 6S V4 and got one run on it before breaking the front bumper. While I'm waiting on parts, I am in need of a charger and some more batteries.

I currently have this Tenergy TB6-B Balance Charger Discharger 1S-6S Digital Battery Pack Charger for NiMH/NiCD/Li-PO/Li-Fe Packs w/ LCD Display Hobby Battery Charger w/ Tamiya/JST/EC3/HiTec/Deans Connectors + Power Supply but not sure it has good enough specs for charging Kraton batteries quickly. I think it took about 80 min to charge the 5000MaH 4S battery it came with... and this is fine; however, I would definitley want to charge more than one.

I've been looking at the following:
As for batteries, I'm coming from nitro so not really sure if I should get single 6s or go dual 2s batteries. It came with a used 5000Mah 4S battery.

Any recommendations for a solid charger (even outside of those I listed) as well as a good batteries would be much apprecaited.

Thanks!

Update 7/15/20 Thank you for all the info. It seems like the HOTA D6+ is reccomended quite a bit. If someone has reccomended batteries, either 4S, 6S or pairs of 3S that go well with the Kraton 6S and an easy to follow charging and storage procedure, it would be highly appreciated.

I'm also considering the Spektrum Smart Batteries and Charger as it seems very simple like DJI Drone Smart Batteries (which I love for all my drones) and I wouldn't have to worry about storage.
 
Last edited:
Hey there!

The charger you have is a 50W charger and it will take forever to charge a single decent sized 6S battery with that.
The ones you are looking at are a bit better but will still take over 1 hr to charge a single 6s LiPo with 5000mah for example.

Simple formula to calculate your needs.
Voltage * Amps = Watts
e.g.
25.2V (6s LiPo) * 5A (5000mah) = 126W

Ergo you want at least a charger with minimum output 125W per channel to charge a 6s battery with 5000mah in 1 hr.
I for my side have an UltraPower UP6+ which has 150W/channel.

For batteries:
https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/whats-your-budget-lipo-of-choice.218/page-32#post-346130
Have a look through these posts then you get an idea which LiPo you want.
Pick a single 6s battery instead of 2x3s.
5000mah capacity is a pretty good start.

Have fun with your K6s - you won't regret the switch to electric ;)
 
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Welcome @Nitro2Electric! heres a thread about chargers. https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/recommend-me-a-battery-charger.1079/ its a long thread but theres a lot of good info there mixed in with some drama...
I believe most would recommend the Hota D6 these days https://www.smc-racing.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=447 Make sure you choose the one which comes with a ac power supply unless you plan on building one or buying it separate. I have a SkyRC Ultamate Dou which pretty much is a great easy to use charger powerful enough for most. The one you currently have will work but take a long time to charge a 6s battery.
 
Go DC. Opens you up to a much wider list of things you can buy. I just recently got a couple Revolectrix GT500's and a 72A 24V PSU from liposolutions.com. 20A/500W for each charger. You can charge 2 5000mah 6S packs in parallel @2S on one of those chargers. Or get the GT800 for a few $ more for 30A/800W.

I use 2x3S packs because 2 of my 3 big trucks uses saddle packs.

GT500 ($75): http://www.store.revolectrix.com/Products/GT500
GT800 ($90): http://www.store.revolectrix.com/Products/GT-EIGHT/GT800
72A 24V PSU ($90): http://lipoconnectionsolutions.com/Dell-24v-71A-1740w-Power-Supply-4mm-Bullet-Output-D2417404MM.htm

One of the nice things with going to a setup like this is that if any one piece dies, it's not so expensive to replace. I had a hitec d7 200Wx2/20Ax2 charger go weird on me. Was taking forever to balance and my packs were coming off unbalanced. That's $260 I can't use any of anymore. The 2 GT500's and 72a/24v PSU was less than that and if any one of them die, I'm out 1/3 the cost vs all of it.
 
chrisexv6 said:
Love love love our Hota D6+ (note: the Pro is NOT better than the Plus!)

Its DC capable, but with 200W charge rating on AC, we've never had an issue using it plugged into the wall.
Click to expand...

Never heard of the Hota. Is it pretty easy to use?
Be Ready said:
DO NOT BUY THE VENOM... JUNK! Get the Hota
Click to expand...
Good to know, my local hobby shop reccomended it, but I did see some bad reviews about it on amazon due to premature failure.
 
Dan_OZ said:
Hey there!

The charger you have is a 50W charger and it will take forever to charge a single decent sized 6S battery with that.
The ones you are looking at are a bit better but will still take over 1 hr to charge a single 6s LiPo with 5000mah for example.

Simple formula to calculate your needs.
Voltage * Amps = Watts
e.g.
25.2V (6s LiPo) * 5A (5000mah) = 126W

Ergo you want at least a charger with minimum output 125W per channel to charge a 6s battery with 5000mah in 1 hr.
I for my side have an UltraPower UP6+ which has 150W/channel.

For batteries:
https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/whats-your-budget-lipo-of-choice.218/page-32#post-346130
Have a look through these posts then you get an idea which LiPo you want.
Pick a single 6s battery instead of 2x3s.
5000mah capacity is a pretty good start.

Have fun with your K6s - you won't regret the switch to electric ;)
Click to expand...

What 6S do you like? I really don't care about price - I just need the charging/discharging procedure to be straightforward and good/the best quality. As for run times, I'm flexible. I probably wouldn't need more than 1hr worth of usage on batteries on any day.

Also, would two 4S (used independantly) be better than having a pair of 3S (used together for 6s) be better?
olds97_lss said:
Go DC. Opens you up to a much wider list of things you can buy. I just recently got a couple Revolectrix GT500's and a 72A 24V PSU from liposolutions.com. 20A/500W for each charger. You can charge 2 5000mah 6S packs in parallel @2S on one of those chargers. Or get the GT800 for a few $ more for 30A/800W.

I use 2x3S packs because 2 of my 3 big trucks uses saddle packs.

GT500 ($75): http://www.store.revolectrix.com/Products/GT500
GT800 ($90): http://www.store.revolectrix.com/Products/GT-EIGHT/GT800
72A 24V PSU ($90): http://lipoconnectionsolutions.com/Dell-24v-71A-1740w-Power-Supply-4mm-Bullet-Output-D2417404MM.htm

One of the nice things with going to a setup like this is that if any one piece dies, it's not so expensive to replace. I had a hitec d7 200Wx2/20Ax2 charger go weird on me. Was taking forever to balance and my packs were coming off unbalanced. That's $260 I can't use any of anymore. The 2 GT500's and 72a/24v PSU was less than that and if any one of them die, I'm out 1/3 the cost vs all of it.
Click to expand...

So that all sounds great, but is it easy to use?
 
Nitro2Electric said:
What 6S do you like? I really don't care about price - I just need the charging/discharging procedure to be straightforward and good/the best quality. As for run times, I'm flexible. I probably wouldn't need more than 1hr worth of usage on batteries on any day.

Also, would two 4S (used independantly) be better than having a pair of 3S (used together for 6s) be better?


So that all sounds great, but is it easy to use?
Click to expand...
Wasn't overly difficult. There's some initial setup to set the amperage of the PSU, took a couple minutes, then adjust the current to the lipo and it retained it, or you can save it into a memory slot, which I did, but I will rarely change it since I charge the same packs all the time.

Now I just power it up, plug my packs in, press the start button to select lithium, scroll to "Charge", press it again, it does a check to verify stuffs plugged in, then press again and wait for the "I'm done" tone.

When I get home, it's the same procedure, except I choose "Storage" after the first press. Then it either charges or discharges as it sees fit.
 
Nitro2Electric said:
What 6S do you like? I really don't care about price - I just need the charging/discharging procedure to be straightforward and good/the best quality. As for run times, I'm flexible. I probably wouldn't need more than 1hr worth of usage on batteries on any day.

Also, would two 4S (used independantly) be better than having a pair of 3S (used together for 6s) be better?


So that all sounds great, but is it easy to use?
Click to expand...

I'm personally going with the standard blue Turnigy LiPos from Hobbyking. They're pretty good value for money and do the job just fine!
You want at least a 40C discharge rate.
If you wanna have something more special go with the Turnigy Graphene lineup or similar ones.
Have a look at these (select 6s on the left): https://bit.ly/3944kHH (Link to Hobbyking, shortened)
Assuming you're from the US you'll have a lot of choice ;)

4S is obviously not as powerful as 6S but still works fine if you never wanna go fast....
But go 6S on a 6S truck - that's what you bought it for! (y)
 
Last edited:
So I purchased Spektrum s2100 smart charger on eBay and it came broken. From my research, having one port fail is common and the same thing happens frequently on the ISDT D2 (which looks like a clone of the spektrum).

I'm starting the search again and after spending several hours between the charging thread that was reccomended above, YouTube and Reddit, I think I've narrowed it down to either the HOTA D6+ from SMC Racing and the HOBBYMATE D6 Duo Pro.

Of these two, which is the better charger overall?

Again, I have a 6S Kraton but with only a 4S Lipo, but want to run 6S Lipos soon (still trying to find a good one).
 
I have a SkyRC Ultimate Duo 2x200W charger... I like my electronics metal and heavy.

The 2 chargers you posted look like more or less the same thing internally. Both have just about enough power to charge two 6000mAh 6s packs at 1C.

BTW I believe the Spektrum is a rebranded ISDT, it came out later (not the other way around).
 
Nitro2Electric said:
So I purchased Spektrum s2100 smart charger on eBay and it came broken. From my research, having one port fail is common and the same thing happens frequently on the ISDT D2 (which looks like a clone of the spektrum).

I'm starting the search again and after spending several hours between the charging thread that was reccomended above, YouTube and Reddit, I think I've narrowed it down to either the HOTA D6+ from SMC Racing and the HOBBYMATE D6 Duo Pro.

Of these two, which is the better charger overall?

Again, I have a 6S Kraton but with only a 4S Lipo, but want to run 6S Lipos soon (still trying to find a good one).
Click to expand...

The Hobbymate D6 duo pro is only 200 watts on AC power and the Hota D6+ is 300 watts.

With a 6S battery, it will pull 120+ watts on 1C charge rate with a 5000mah. So the D6 Duo Pro won’t be able to charge two 6s battery at 1C.
 
Would either of these be good lipos for a 6s setup?
 

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