Parallel Charging Lipos

[BurnSomeNitro]

Hey there ARAMA RC dudes, I'm looking at getting back in the hobby with either a new Notorious or Kraton and currently looking at my charging options.

Looking at the 306B iCharger, should be enough to charge up a few 6s lipo packs in parallel. My main concern in it looks like ARMA is now using XT90 connectors and it doesn't appear there are many if any at all XT90 parallel balance boards on the market. Found one on amazon, and that was all I could find.

Is there a reason for this or am I missing something about what I am trying to achieve here. Any reason I couldn't use XT60 to XT90 adapters with a XT60 parallel charging board? Just worried I wont be able to get a parallel charging board with XT90 connectors. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[crimsonfancy]

Welcome to the Arrma Forum!
You can use adapters but ideally somebody will come out with a xt-90 parallel board soon. I've been looking for one myself but really have been pretty satisfied charging two packs at once with a duo style charger.

 

[BurnSomeNitro]

Could I do away with the board all together and do this.

 

[crimsonfancy]

Seems like it would be ok but I kinda like having an additional fuse on the charging board. Also looks like more than I would want to try to take on with my limited knowledge of battery chemistry. With that nice charger you mentioned, it seems to me you'd be able to charge your packs pretty fast as it is.
Even with a few trucks on hand when I go out to run, I rarely need to stop to recharge as long as I have about four or five packs ready when I leave the house. Then I use an inverter and charge from my vehicle if I have to.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

This is what I have for my parallel charging except I got the bare wire leads instead of the XT90 leads as I run XT150 connectors.

https://www.progressiverc.com/parallel-6x-balance-adapter.html

https://www.progressiverc.com/parallel-6x-xt90-charge-cable.html

Nevermind the extremely cluttered workbench.

 

[BurnSomeNitro]

Thanks for clearing things up guys. Now I just need to decide which model ARMA I want

 

[bicketybam]

This is what I have for my parallel charging except I got the bare wire leads instead of the XT90 leads as I run XT150 connectors.

https://www.progressiverc.com/parallel-6x-balance-adapter.html

https://www.progressiverc.com/parallel-6x-xt90-charge-cable.html

Nevermind the extremely cluttered workbench.

View attachment 26481

How many batteries can you do at one time from that charger without parallel charging? 2?

 

[chevys10zr2003]

How many batteries can you do at one time from that charger without parallel charging? 2?

Lol yes. It is a 2 channel charger with 700 watts/30 amps per channel.

 

[Jeremy in WI]

This is what I have for my parallel charging except I got the bare wire leads instead of the XT90 leads as I run XT150 connectors.

https://www.progressiverc.com/parallel-6x-balance-adapter.html

https://www.progressiverc.com/parallel-6x-xt90-charge-cable.html

Nevermind the extremely cluttered workbench.

View attachment 26481

This is approaching some "Breaking Bad" type sh!t. You cookin these in a RV? ?

Side question, what's with all the phase tape, are you a sparky?

 

[bicketybam]

Lol yes. It is a 2 channel charger with 700 watts/30 amps per channel.

So does each channel’s power get evenly divided between each battery when you parallel charge?

 

[chevys10zr2003]

This is approaching some "Breaking Bad" type sh!t. You cookin these in a RV? ?

Side question, what's with all the phase tape, are you a sparky?

Haha no I'm a drafter. My wife makes it at her work so I had her get me a roll of each color for like $0.45 total. I use it to mark transmitters to keep them straight with what vehicle they go to and use them to mark batteries and stuff.

So does each channel’s power get evenly divided between each battery when you parallel charge?

As far as I know they do. Everytime that I check them, all six batteries have always had the exact same voltages in each cell. All of my batteries were purchased at the same time and have roughly the same amount of runs on them and I'm not sure if that has an effect when parallel charging or not. I've seen people parallel charge different brands and sizes of batteries together and they don't have issues as far as I know. I believe it equalizes the voltages with how they are connected or will push power to the batteries that are low but can't say for 100% certainty.

 

[bicketybam]

Haha no I'm a drafter. My wife makes it at her work so I had her get me a roll of each color for like $0.45 total. I use it to mark transmitters to keep them straight with what vehicle they go to and use them to mark batteries and stuff.


As far as I know they do. Everytime that I check them, all six batteries have always had the exact same voltages in each cell. All of my batteries were purchased at the same time and have roughly the same amount of runs on them and I'm not sure if that has an effect when parallel charging or not. I've seen people parallel charge different brands and sizes of batteries together and they don't have issues as far as I know. I believe it equalizes the voltages with how they are connected or will push power to the batteries that are low but can't say for 100% certainty.

One last dumb question. Wouldn't take two as long to do 6 batteries on one channel and it would to charge 3 on one channel? Let's assume they are all discharged to the same point and they are all the same batteries.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

One last dumb question. Wouldn't take two as long to do 6 batteries on one channel and it would to charge 3 on one channel? Let's assume they are all discharged to the same point and they are all the same batteries.

There aren't any dumb questions bud. I charge everything at 1C, so whether there are three batteries on one channel or six batteries on one channel, they would take the same amount of time. If I had three batteries on one channel, I would charge at 15 amps and if I have six batteries on one channel, I would charge at 30 amps.

 

[bicketybam]

There aren't any dumb questions bud. I charge everything at 1C, so whether there are three batteries on one channel or six batteries on one channel, they would take the same amount of time. If I had three batteries on one channel, I would charge at 15 amps and if I have six batteries on one channel, I would charge at 30 amps.

Sounds like you need a really good charger to charge the way you do.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

Sounds like you need a really good charger to charge the way you do.

I really like my charger. It is 1,400 watts total and has one of the faster balancing currents that I have seen at 800mAh per cell and has 30 watts per channel of discharging ability. When I got this charger I also looked at the Icharger and Revolectrix/FMA chargers, but they all require higher voltage 18v+ to get their full wattage where this Hitec X2 700 can use all 1,400 watts with a 12v source. That was actually the main selling point for me.

 

[olds97_lss]

I must be getting lost in the math somewhere as it seems like you'd be exceeding the output of that charger with 6 5000mah 3S packs on each port.
(6 cell * 4.2V)*30A=756W

So, your a bit over on watts. Doesn't the charger cap out at 30A OR 700W per channel?

Maybe it doesn't matter as the current drops off as they get full anyway. When they are at 3.5V (LVC), then your at 630W per channel at 30A, which is where it would start. Then as they fill, the charger drops in current to avoid overshooting.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

I must be getting lost in the math somewhere as it seems like you'd be exceeding the output of that charger with 6 5000mah 3S packs on each port.
(6 cell * 4.2V)*30A=756W

So, your a bit over on watts. Doesn't the charger cap out at 30A OR 700W per channel?

Maybe it doesn't matter as the current drops off as they get full anyway. When they are at 3.5V (LVC), then your at 630W per channel at 30A, which is where it would start. Then as they fill, the charger drops in current to avoid overshooting.

Yes, the charger caps out at 30A or 700W per channel, whichever comes first.

Your math of "(6 cell * 4.2V)*30A=756W" is for six 6S 5000mah batteries, not the 3s packs that you had called out. For six 6s batteries, yes, I would be maxing out the 700W and only able to charge at about 28A. but at 5s and below it can do 30A and with 7s and 8s the amp rate will drop even further.

With my current setup I only have a 1050 watt power supply and my batteries are 2s and 3s, so I'm not even able to max out the power supply or the charger but it allows me room to grow when these batteries start failing and I start buying 4s and 6s packs.

 

[olds97_lss]

Yes, the charger caps out at 30A or 700W per channel, whichever comes first.

Your math of "(6 cell * 4.2V)*30A=756W" is for six 6S 5000mah batteries, not the 3s packs that you had called out. For six 6s batteries, yes, I would be maxing out the 700W and only able to charge at about 28A. but at 5s and below it can do 30A and with 7s and 8s the amp rate will drop even further.

With my current setup I only have a 1050 watt power supply and my batteries are 2s and 3s, so I'm not even able to max out the power supply or the charger but it allows me room to grow when these batteries start failing and I start buying 4s and 6s packs.

Man, I'm an idiot. I was looking at my battery math chart I made and copied the wrong value for cell count in there because I was looking at some 6S packs. LOL!

 

[tjf]

I really like my charger. It is 1,400 watts total and has one of the faster balancing currents that I have seen at 800mAh per cell and has 30 watts per channel of discharging ability. When I got this charger I also looked at the Icharger and Revolectrix/FMA chargers, but they all require higher voltage 18v+ to get their full wattage where this Hitec X2 700 can use all 1,400 watts with a 12v source. That was actually the main selling point for me.

I know Hitec claims this charger can output 1400 watts with a 12v power supply but I find that hard to believe. 1400 watts at 12 v is 116 amps and those charger input wires could not handle sustained amp draw that high. You are still better off with a higher volt power supply in pushing that charger at high wattage levels.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

I know Hitec claims this charger can output 1400 watts with a 12v power supply but I find that hard to believe. 1400 watts at 12 v is 116 amps and those charger input wires could not handle sustained amp draw that high. You are still better off with a higher volt power supply in pushing that charger at high wattage levels.

Yes, I know that the higher the voltage the easier it is on stuff and it is also more efficient but I know that I have pulled 80 amps+ off of a 12v power supply for about an hour without issue. I can't say for sure if it can pull 1400 watts down the input at 12v or not. Maybe in the future I will test it to see if it can.