Just bought a discharger

[Saltystevo]

But I did pay MSRP for my 2019 Arrma Talion at Horizon Hobby $549.99 ??

That's what it costs everywhere. PowerDubs is kinda right, you paid a little more for a charging set up then you could have. So either cancel the sale, return it or enjoy it. The fun is in the Talion, the charger and battery are just the tools to use it. I feel your pain because it's a very confusing and in depth subject (chargers/batteries)
I spent a lot of time reading before I bought and well I have something nice for sure but maybe I would have been better off with the D6 charger myself. It's tough to find something that does everything and if you ever do, it never does one thing that well anyways. So you have your options and you'll love your new ride for sure! Congrats

 

[PowerDubs]

I'm not saying his charger and battery won't serve him well.. just priced high compared to other options.

Have fun with your car!!

 

[Saltystevo]

My main batteries are two 6S 7400mah. Discharge through a normal charger takes a long time, and there isn't always opportunity to just run the car down- so I just bought one of these-

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3024875-SkyRC-BD200-battery-discharger

I'll let you guys know how it works for me, but I don't expect any problems...nor any revelations. Just a controlled drain in a tidy package.

What batteries are those?
And with that high mAh what's run time like?

 

[Grumpy Old Man RC]

My main batteries are two 6S 7400mah. Discharge through a normal charger takes a long time, and there isn't always opportunity to just run the car down- so I just bought one of these-

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3024875-SkyRC-BD200-battery-discharger

I'll let you guys know how it works for me, but I don't expect any problems...nor any revelations. Just a controlled drain in a tidy package.

May be showing my ignorance but if that discharges one battery at a time, what would happen if you used one of these;

Could you then discharge more than one at a time?

 

[Saltystevo]

May be showing my ignorance but if that discharges one battery at a time, what would happen if you used one of these;

View attachment 34612
Could you then discharge more than one at a time?

Im guessing yes but it'll take twice the time

 

[Jerry-rigged]

May be showing my ignorance but if that discharges one battery at a time, what would happen if you used one of these;

View attachment 34612
Could you then discharge more than one at a time?

As I understand those boards, you gotta be careful to make sure the batteries are close before you plug them into the board. Plug one mostly charged battery, and a mostly discharged battery and you basically short them together and get big amps, and probably lots of smoke.

But then, I only use those balance boards for my small 1s, 300-600mah packs.so maybe the big boards have current limiters or something...

 

[chevys10zr2003]

As I understand those boards, you gotta be careful to make sure the batteries are close before you plug them into the board. Plug one mostly charged battery, and a mostly discharged battery and you basically short them together and get big amps, and probably lots of smoke.

But then, I only use those balance boards for my small 1s, 300-600mah packs.so maybe the big boards have current limiters or something...

The thing that I have noticed with parallel charging and discharging is that if the cells aren't close together they will try to balance with high amps through the balance cables and connectors. Those small cables and connectors can't handle the high amperage so I have had a couple of them unsolder due to that happening. The main wires and main connectors can handle the loads though, for the most part, so I wouldn't be too worried about those.

 

[JeffinNH]

I could of bought these new battery that were released today ?
https://www.horizonhobby.com/Search...39615495&_bta_c=duryoftokge6xlg3wslr3l1mwem28

 

[Jerry-rigged]

I would not stress over it. To really make the whole smart battery system work, you would also need a smart charger, and they only have 2 options there, neither seem great. 1 is a single channel DC 200w, the other us a 2 channel AC 100w per channel. If they want this system to really catch on, they need some better chargers...

https://www.horizonhobby.com/Search...e=true&searchSource=Q&sourceDomain=&pageView=

 

[Saltystevo]

I would not stress over it. To really make the whole smart battery system work, you would also need a smart charger, and they only have 2 options there, neither seem great. 1 is a single channel DC 200w, the other us a 2 channel AC 100w per channel. If they want this system to really catch on, they need some better chargers...

https://www.horizonhobby.com/Search...e=true&searchSource=Q&sourceDomain=&pageView=

Another dumb business move. A charger that doesn't charge 2x 6s batteries at once in a sufficient amount of time is worthless IMHO.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Well, for about $250, you could get 2 of the 200w DC chargers and their 540w "smart" psu.

Which leads to another question- I wonder if the smart charger actually talks to the smart PSU? From the product page, it looks like they call it Smart because it has a amp meter display and overload protection, not because it communicates with the charger.

 

[PowerDubs]

Discharger arrived today. Came with a coupon for $5 off my next order, and a lolipop.

 

[JeffinNH]

No problem, it's your money and time- not mine.

Good luck and have fun!

Just came across this. That the charger MaxAms sending me.
https://www.bigsquidrc.com/hitec-power-peak-d7-charger-review/

 

[JvG]

For discharging i use these simple but very effective devices. They are able to balance discharge to a given voltage, are 150w and are cheap (20 dollars).
Use 'm at night and you don't have to put the light on!

Lipo discharge stations

• JvG
• Nov 22, 2018
• 5

 

[NitroStar]

For discharging i use these simple but very effective devices. They are able to balance discharge to a given voltage, are 150w and are cheap (20 dollars).
Use 'm at night and you don't have to put the light on!

Lipo discharge stations

• JvG
• Nov 22, 2018
• 5

I bought two of these also and they work great. I've not made them easy to carry back and forth to my camper yet. Just have bulb holders on a nail on a small thin board. Put them in a cardboard box.
Question, does yours actually turn off when they get to the voltage/cell you set or do they just slow down so much that it doesn't hardly discharge any further? I've never left mine on that long to see

 

[PowerDubs]

So- my truck broke tonight so I had a chance to pull down two 6S 7400 batteries.

I didn't watch them the whole time- but this thing surprised me with how soon it beeped that it was done.

My charger will do at max a solid .2 amp discharge.

This discharger was doing almost 9 amp discharge when I looked at one point.

Even a flat 8 amp discharge is 40 times the .2...

Being that this discharger does not balance, I decided to set it to go a little bit below 3.8v per cell and swap it onto my charger for a storage charge instead of a storage discharge. Much quicker end result.

 

[sadlerbw]

Let’s see, a fully charged 6S is about 25v. At 9 amps, that would be 225w of power. That’s quite the little space heater!

I’ve got one of those DC chargers that will let you stick an extra load in series with the battery to get a faster discharge than the charger alone can manage. I haven’t done it yet, but I’ve got some 50w resistors, some old CPU heatsinks, and a laughably basic temperature-controlled fan that I plan to turn into a load that will work with my charger. I’m only shooting for about 100w, but I’m making it for 2S and 3S batteries, so that should be plenty.

 

[BashingBrian]

I've just bought one of these... https://www.isdt.co/fd-100.html?lang=en

Cost me like $30, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Max discharge 6A, so way more than my charger..!!

Nothing worse than charge up a couple of 6s's go bashing, break something straight away..? go home and sit for 3-4hrs letting my charger discharge them..???

 

[chevys10zr2003]

I've just bought one of these... https://www.isdt.co/fd-100.html?lang=en

Cost me like $30, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Max discharge 6A, so way more than my charger..!!

Nothing worse than charge up a couple of 6s's go bashing, break something straight away..? go home and sit for 3-4hrs letting my charger discharge them..???

You may be able to set it to 6 amps but with a 6s battery you will hit the 80 watt limit first which will be around 3.3 amps. Still way faster than most chargers but something you should be aware of.

 

[PowerDubs]

The amps will go up as the voltage drops- but yea wattage is the wall with these things.

I paid $65 for my discharger on Ebay, which I thought was cheap enough to not fiddle around with making my own.

I was tempted to try this one- https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-...c+discharger&qid=1555591295&s=gateway&sr=8-16

That one will balance discharge, but at 120w max. It does have a nice display with more info.

Given that I have two 6S 7400, and also 3 other family members with rc cars now- I went with brute force over finesse.