Recommend me a battery charger

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Ok thanks for the addition about the safety factor, will include that.
And yes i will use 4 parallel boards on the 2 chargers. So 8 lipo's in total.
The boards double the mAh's as you mentioned.

The calculation is for 1 psu, 1 charger, 2 channels and 4 lipo's. Should have made that clearer, sorry.

And in your rule of thumb you take 5 volts per cell? That is where the safety factor kicks in?
For my math, I use 4.15v × cell count × charge rate ×1.25 safety factor. But you are right, 5v gets you to the same place (25w per cell) WRT wattage.
 
Ok thanks for the addition about the safety factor, will include that.
And yes i will use 4 parallel boards on the 2 chargers. So 8 lipo's in total.
The boards double the mAh's as you mentioned.

The calculation is for 1 psu, 1 charger, 2 channels and 4 lipo's. Should have made that clearer, sorry.

And in your rule of thumb you take 5 volts per cell? That is where the safety factor kicks in?
I'm just getting what the#'s on the batteries mean and then I read all this....all in due time but for now...mind blown. Curious why I can just buy a 1,2,3... channel charger that also drains what it charges & call it a day.
Unsure at this point what parallel boards are for, why chargers are typically set for DC for charging in your car (I kind of get this but not why most chargers are either or, and not both like several other electronics that are much cheaper.) Also as more cars move to have a regular AC outlet plug as standard I'd expect chargers to adapt eventually. Thank God for these forms and you ppl in them!
 
I'm just getting what the#'s on the batteries mean and then I read all this....all in due time but for now...mind blown. Curious why I can just buy a 1,2,3... channel charger that also drains what it charges & call it a day.
Unsure at this point what parallel boards are for, why chargers are typically set for DC for charging in your car (I kind of get this but not why most chargers are either or, and not both like several other electronics that are much cheaper.) Also as more cars move to have a regular AC outlet plug as standard I'd expect chargers to adapt eventually. Thank God for these forms and you ppl in them!
Parallel boards are more common in the flying world. Those guys often only get 3 to 5 minutes per battery. They will head out to the flying field with a dozen batteries charged. Also a lot of those guys use relatively small Mah size packs. Due to the small size, even when you are charging half-a-dozen batteries at a time on a parallel board, you still do not need huge amps or huge Watts. For us surface guys, we run very large packs compared to the flyer guys. Also we get very long run times. Because of this, we only need three or four batteries per rig instead of a dozen per rig. This makes a 2 Channel or 4 channel charger a better idea versus a single Channel High amp charger with a parallel board.

As far as the DC only chargers, there are still a lot of guys that will charge batteries in the field. A single Marine deep cycle trolling motor battery can charge a lot of lipos, with no extra noise from a generator, no need for extra fuel for generator, no need for generators that might not start when you get to the field, and no worry about your car not starting because you drained your starter battery down too far. Also this helps to keep the price of the Chargers down. 1000 watt power supply may add an extra$100 or $200 to the price of the charger. Plus, from the manufacturers point of view, it is another machine that can fail, and cause warranty returns. So for their high power chargers they get rid of the power supply, which lowers the price of their charger by a lot, and gets rid of a failure point, which makes the charger more reliable. Plus this way they get to sell us a second magic box for $200. LOL
 
So what Powers dubs said, and Nitro agreed...is that this is a good charger?
https://www.smc-racing.net/index.php?route=product/product&path=113&product_id=541

I've got the kraton v4 running 6s 5500mah 50c. I'll also be charging some 2s & 3s for my sons Torment. I'm looking for an all in one. Don't want various things to charge, balance, discharge, and prep to storage.....

Thoughts oh wise forum elders? I need a charger. I've had the v4 kraton and batteries for a week now and want to give it its first run.
 
Revo has the GT1000 on blowout for $50.

So for people that want/need big power- 1 channel, old school interface, but 6S 1000w and 40 amp charge capable and understand they will need a equally powerful power supply, and mating cables and connectors for everything.... still a cheap way for big power.

http://www.revolectrix.com/GT1000_specs_tab.htm
 

Attachments

  • GT1000_BLOWOUT_APRIL_2019.jpg
    GT1000_BLOWOUT_APRIL_2019.jpg
    177.7 KB · Views: 35
Revo has the GT1000 on blowout for $50.

So for people that want/need big power- 1 channel, old school interface, but 6S 1000w and 40 amp charge capable and understand they will need a equally powerful power supply, and mating cables and connectors for everything.... still a cheap way for big power.

http://www.revolectrix.com/GT1000_specs_tab.htm
They sent me that email on that deal. Really nice deal I think. I love my gt500 duo but still was tempted to buy one of these!
 
Revo has the GT1000 on blowout for $50.

So for people that want/need big power- 1 channel, old school interface, but 6S 1000w and 40 amp charge capable and understand they will need a equally powerful power supply, and mating cables and connectors for everything.... still a cheap way for big power.

http://www.revolectrix.com/GT1000_specs_tab.htm
I was thinking of getting a couple and when I went to put in the code it said that it is expired.
 
I was thinking of getting a couple and when I went to put in the code it said that it is expired.
Notes:
1) PRCODE works for one charger per order. To purchase multiple chargers at the discount, please contact the appropriate REVO office for assistance.
2) If you are a first-time buyer on the Revo store and you have any trouble entering the promotional code, please e-mail [email protected] or call REVO USA sales at (301)798-2770 and we will assist you with the order and ensure you receive the proper discount.
 
Notes:
1) PRCODE works for one charger per order. To purchase multiple chargers at the discount, please contact the appropriate REVO office for assistance.
2) If you are a first-time buyer on the Revo store and you have any trouble entering the promotional code, please e-mail [email protected] or call REVO USA sales at (301)798-2770 and we will assist you with the order and ensure you receive the proper discount.
I tried it with one charger too and it gave me the same message so it must be because I'm a first time buyer.
 
I wish I had seen this thread a year ago before purchasing my charger... Would be nice to have 300+ watts.
I had picked up a venom 4 LiPo charger. It can do 4x100 watts (supposedly has 4 separate power supplies inside)
It is decent, but takes longer than I like on the 6s packs.

-Liberty
 
I wish I had seen this thread a year ago before purchasing my charger... Would be nice to have 300+ watts.
I had picked up a venom 4 LiPo charger. It can do 4x100 watts (supposedly has 4 separate power supplies inside)
It is decent, but takes longer than I like on the 6s packs

-Liberty
How long for your 6s packs to charge?
 
How long for your 6s packs to charge?

It varies from 1.2 up to 1.6 hrs. (5000mAh Turnigy Graphene) Not great for a $230 charger
It typically hits around 4.2 amps to hit that peak 100watts output

-Liberty
 
Last edited:
Oh man
It varies from 1.2 up to 1.6 hrs. (5000mAh Turnigy Graphene) Not great for a $230 charger

-Liberty
Oh man, ouch...
That takes a little bit huh? And that's only 1 battery? They all do the same Thing if the time doesn't bother you. I wanted to basically babysit the charge less.
I currently charge my battery in under a hour at 1c and about to start trying to charge 2c so that should cut the time maybe in half
 
Oh man

Oh man, ouch...
That takes a little bit huh? And that's only 1 battery? They all do the same Thing if the time doesn't bother you. I wanted to basically babysit the charge less.
I currently charge my battery in under a hour at 1c and about to start trying to charge 2c so that should cut the time maybe in half

Correct, just one battery. I am going to look into the GT series chargers that Revo sells. I am not very happy with the specs on this Venom charger, especially the discharge time.

-Liberty
 
I wish I had seen this thread a year ago before purchasing my charger... Would be nice to have 300+ watts.
I had picked up a venom 4 LiPo charger. It can do 4x100 watts (supposedly has 4 separate power supplies inside)
It is decent, but takes longer than I like on the 6s packs.

-Liberty
I bought an Venom Quad also and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread but it got to taking a while on those "not so balanced" 4s packs but still done 4 of any type battery I put on it. I still run multiple 2s and 4s rigs so it still does great for getting 4 packs done in an hour. Discharging (for storage) is a joke so I bought a couple 150 watt lightbulb dischargers off banggood and they work great for this.
When I got my iCharger 4010 duo, I was blown away! Charges everything I put on it twice as fast (at 1c also) so it isn't bad on your packs but still quicker. I discharge into an old light bulb discharger (used back in the nicad days) which is awesome for those packs I didn't run, using the regenerative mode. For those packs that are run to LVC, just tell it to put in storage and bam, it does it quickly and you are through. Of course I custom set a lot of the profiles to do this how I want each mode to work.
 
I bought an Venom Quad also and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread but it go to taking a while on those "not so balanced" 4s packs but still done 4 of any battery I put on it. I still run multiple 2s and 4s rigs so it still does great for getting 4 packs done in an hour. Discharging (for storage) is a jock so I bought a couple 150 watt discharges off bang good and they work great for this.
When I got my iCharger 4010 duo, I was blown away! Charges everything I put on it twice as fast (at 1c also) so it isn't bad on your packs and still quicker. I discharge into an old light bulb discharger using it which is awesome for those packs I didn't run. For those packs that are run to LVC, just tell it to put in storage and bam, it does it quickly and you are through. Of course I custom set a lot of the profiles to do this how I want each mode to work.
I was looking at the iCharger x6 as a possible reasonable cost solution for my 6s pack on the Kraton (wish I had the budget for the duo). Everything else I run is 2s or 4s packs, and like you mentioned the Venom does ok on those other than the weak discharge circuit.
 
I was looking at the iCharger x6 as a possible reasonable cost solution for my 6s pack on the Kraton (wish I had the budget for the duo). Everything else I run is 2s or 4s packs, and like you mentioned the Venom does ok on those other than the weak discharge circuit.
The gt500 duo?
It's basically the same cost as the I charger.
 
Back
Top