Recommend me a battery charger

[jkflow]

Is it always the same cell that is different?
Definetly sounds like your charger is on it's way out but you might want to check for corrosion on the balance connector, both on batteries and charger. Bad contacts are often the culprit in these type of issues. They should be clean and shiny.

 

[olds97_lss]

Is it always the same cell that is different?
Definetly sounds like your charger is on it's way out but you might want to check for corrosion on the balance connector, both on batteries and charger. Bad contacts are often the culprit in these type of issues. They should be clean and shiny.

It seems to move around. All 3 cells are different a considerable amount after charging. Maybe I'll try ditching the balance board completely and plug directly into the side of the charger to see if I get a different result.

Either way... I'm eyeballing one of these to try out once the PSU shows up:
https://www.progressiverc.com/fma-gt-eight.html

Guessing a couple of those should fill the void the D7 will leave. Heck, I may put the D7 in my car on 12V and get rid of the HTRC H150 duo I have since half the buttons quit working... I'm just fortunate it's stuck on "auto" and 12A output. lol!

 

[jkflow]

That one does it all, it seems. First impression its a good find but then I started looking.

It's a dated version and any reviews ended in 2017. Are they still in business? The model came out sometime in 2016.
All in one would mean, to me, that it's always tied up doing something and I would have to do steps in series. That would be my reason to take a different route. I'd go with a more modern version imho.

Honestly I have no experience with that model, here is what I found on a quick search:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/sho...ectrix-New-GT-Eight-and-GT1200-chargers/page5

Last post might interest you, it's a complaint about not charging specific cells to top level.

 

[olds97_lss]

That one does it all, it seems. First impression its a good find but then I started looking.

It's a dated version and any reviews ended in 2017. Are they still in business? The model came out sometime in 2016.
All in one would mean, to me, that it's always tied up doing something and I would have to do steps in series. That would be my reason to take a different route. I'd go with a more modern version imho.

Honestly I have no experience with that model, here is what I found on a quick search:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/sho...ectrix-New-GT-Eight-and-GT1200-chargers/page5

Last post might interest you, it's a complaint about not charging specific cells to top level.

Hm... guess I may keep looking then. Then again, one bad apple...

 

[olds97_lss]

Started at 3.84, 3.83, 3.84 per my other charger and 2 cheap balance checker thingy's:

It got to 4.17, 4.12, 4.19 after 10 minutes at 2C and has gotten to this point after 30 minutes... will likely end up with 1 over 4.2V and one well under like before.

I removed the balance board extension, balance board and plugged it directly into the charger.

 

[vpr5793]

FMA is definitely still in business. The gt8 is a dated charger, but should be good still. Worse comes to worse, the PowerLab6 Touch is an awesome charger as well, if a little pricey. I've got one myself.

 

[olds97_lss]

Started at 3.84, 3.83, 3.84 per my other charger and 2 cheap balance checker thingy's:

It got to 4.17, 4.12, 4.19 after 10 minutes at 2C and has gotten to this point after 30 minutes... will likely end up with 1 over 4.2V and one well under like before.

I removed the balance board extension, balance board and plugged it directly into the charger.

Just over an hour, now it's at 4.19, 4.15, 4.20... if it ever finishes, I'll take it down to storage on my dynamite, let it rest, then charge it up again on the dynamite at 10A (will limit itself to 7.8A or so due to 100W max) and see what it does. Will do the same with the second pack so they end up with the same cycles on them.


Edit:
2 hours, 4.19, 4.18, 4.20. Maybe these new lipo's suck... lol! Will definitely be cycling them on my dynamite to see how it does.

Edit 2:
2.5 hours, finally finished. 4.19, 4.19, 4.2 per the lipo alarm/checker as the charger doesn't show the voltage of each when it finishes... kind of odd, but it only shows the total. Running both packs down to 3.4V on my second charger now and will balance charge them on it to see how they respond. Will take a while, it only discharges 50W per port.

 

[olds97_lss]

Confirmed my order with the PSU guy at lipoconnectionsolutions.com.

Just put in an order for two of the revolectrix GT500 20A/500W chargers from Revo USA directly. Considering I usually charge at most 16.4A (about 1.5C for 6200mah 3S parallel), I could likely run 4 of them off the PSU I bought... but I intend on dropping down to 5000mah 3S packs in everything anyway, so will see what I'll do in the future. Regardless, I lowered the failure cost hopefully to roughly $100 or less for each piece.

I was going to go with isdt chargers, but their discharge wattage is so low, I wanted to get something that would discharge down to storage without an external thing at least for the foreseeable future.

I might try the D7 on the PSU to see if it reacts any differently, probably won't, but if it does, I may move that one to my car and just put the HTRC 150DUO somewhere to keep it as a backup.

Spent all the money I made on my Savage X. Was going to save for a new truck... but decided making things better for myself was more important.

 

[Vedak]

Bummer about the D7, I don't have the GT500, but really like my Powerlab 8x2.

Not sure how much different a new powersupply would make for the D7, but I am curious myself.

 

[olds97_lss]

Bummer about the D7, I don't have the GT500, but really like my Powerlab 8x2.

Not sure how much different a new powersupply would make for the D7, but I am curious myself.

Just something worth trying I think considering how capable the charger is... and what it costs. I got it used a year or so ago for $120, so at least I didn't pay full price for it and have it die, then have to pay to ship it in to see if it could be fixed and deal with that. It's kind of always been a bit slow for storage charging from full (4.2) or from dead (3.4). It seems quicker when I'm just doing a full charge from storage, but even that took over 2 hours today with packs that were empty that should have charged in 30 minutes with the setting I was using...

Just isn't worth the time/effort of fighting with it and potentially overcharging packs or undercharging while running cells because it's being stupid.

 

[Vedak]

Just something worth trying I think considering how capable the charger is... and what it costs. I got it used a year or so ago for $120, so at least I didn't pay full price for it and have it die, then have to pay to ship it in to see if it could be fixed and deal with that. It's kind of always been a bit slow for storage charging from full (4.2) or from dead (3.4). It seems quicker when I'm just doing a full charge from storage, but even that took over 2 hours today with packs that were empty that should have charged in 30 minutes with the setting I was using...

Just isn't worth the time/effort of fighting with it and potentially overcharging packs or undercharging while running cells because it's being stupid.

Definitely, I've been caught off guard and pleasantly surprised many times by these types of things. That's very unusual to take so long, sounds like voltage output could be off. The tinkerer in me would take it apart and see what funny business is going on. I've found a lot of electrical issues with things that charge- tend to be a bad capacitor (in my limited experience). Mind you I'm not electrical guy by any means. But it's always fun, as long as you don't zap yourself.

I can see what you mean, some things aren't worth it. Although a shame, as it does look like a pretty darn good charger.

 

[mike k]

What should I replace ProTek Prodigy 610 Quad AC charger with?

Longer version:
Whoa, there is an overwhelming amount of information here. What a thread. Attempted to drink from the fire hose, but cannot absorb this much information.

I bought this charger and 3x6S Lipos with my Outcast in April. Got the charger at the recommendation of Amain. A couple of the ports have broken (some combination of feeble construction and my ham-handedness) and it's warranty-able.

I'd like to be able to charge 4 packs simultaneously, maybe I will add a 4S or two for my son. Would like to have an easy user interface. Faster charging and de-charging that what I have now would be nice, but not necessary. Happy to spend about $250 again, but not right now wanting to pony up for one of the $500 jobbies.

-Any opinions from the cognoscenti about the ProTek? Seems fine to me so far, and the Amain guy said it's the top of the line, but there are layers and layers of nuance I don't understand. Simplest path is to just replace with the same one.

-I'm curious about the Spectrum Smart chargers and batteries (although I won't re-buy my Lipos for that!) Is this worth doing? I would place high value on greater ease of use and perhaps safety e.g. w the auto-discharge feature. Downsides?

-The Hota D6 is well-regarded here. Would I benefit from buying two of those to get my four ports, vs another one of the quad ProTeks?

Thanks much for any thoughts!

 

[jkflow]

Personally I would not go for a quad-output charger but mainly for reliability reasons. If that charger goes down I'm left with nothing. Peronal preference though.
Calculate the power per channel you desire and pick your best option. Ex:4S (~4V per S) = 16V, 5000mAh = 5A (5000mA) charge current for 1h
16*5 = 80W, multiply by amount you want simultaneously and per channel (2 per channel =160W, 4 per charger 320W etc)

You will find that most Ac chargers top out at 150 to 200W per channel. Lesser power only means longer charging time, they will all work.

ProTek cognoscenti - no idea, can't even find a link, they are rebranded Hyperion chargers and fairly good, just outdated interface, they will work just fine
Spektrum chargers will work with all batteries but you will only get the 'Smart' features with their battery type.

 

[olds97_lss]

Personally I would not go for a quad-output charger but mainly for reliability reasons. If that charger goes down I'm left with nothing. Peronal preference though.

Kind of just ran into that with my D7 flaking on me. $260 charger... doesn't balance properly and hasn't for a few months.

Replaced it with 2x Revolectrix GT500's and a 72A 24V PSU for about $300. Which coincidentally is what I got for the SavageX I just sold a couple weeks ago. If my dynamite 4x100 dies, it will be replaced with a couple more GT500's and a couple more parallel boards. Since I don't charge at more than 15A per charger (2x3S 5000mah in parallel, so about 1.5C) I should be able to run 6 of those chargers safely off the PSU I bought. I'll only need 4 total for the workload I have. I like to charge 4 sets of packs before I go out.

For the time being, I'm running the 2 GT500's off the PSU from my D7. I took it apart, found the main power wires to the charging board and tapped into them:

I drilled a hole in the back and ran the AWG12 out with an XT60 on it.

Also added a couple constant on 50MM 5V fans to the USB power on the circuit board since all the fans in the D7 are controlled by the charging circuit:

I'm still waiting for the PSU to show up... when it does, the d7 will go in the back of a closet somewhere.

 

[Bearcats]

Kind of just ran into that with my D7 flaking on me. $260 charger... doesn't balance properly and hasn't for a few months.

... back of a closet somewhere.

Your setup looks like a make shift bomb!



@jkflow : Do you update your D6 firmware? Does it make any difference?

EDIT: The forum merged the posts for whatever reason.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

It seems to move around. All 3 cells are different a considerable amount after charging. Maybe I'll try ditching the balance board completely and plug directly into the side of the charger to see if I get a different result.

Either way... I'm eyeballing one of these to try out once the PSU shows up:
https://www.progressiverc.com/fma-gt-eight.html

Guessing a couple of those should fill the void the D7 will leave. Heck, I may put the D7 in my car on 12V and get rid of the HTRC H150 duo I have since half the buttons quit working... I'm just fortunate it's stuck on "auto" and 12A output. lol!

800W 30A Battery Workstation including an EC5-equipped input cable, will charge, discharge, monitor, or multiple cycle any current or future battery chemistry.

Wow, they figured out how to charge batteries that have not yet been invented? cool deal, there...

 

[slick2500]

Wow, they figured out how to charge batteries that have not yet been invented? cool deal, there...

I'm sure if you are able to update the firmware that could be easily done on most any charger to be honest as long as they stick with a standard protocol.

 

[Rain]

As much as I dislike AMain (several bad experiences) I do have this:

https://www.amainhobbies.com/protek...v-lipo-ac-dc-battery-charger-ptk-8517/p488513

and I have some 17-in-1 charge leads. I can charge every battery I have and about dozen more that don't. I only use Balance Charge, best part of a 4+ battery rotation and the 2000w inverter in the truck is that I am never without batteries, even when flying the jets, my batteries are charged before I run out.

 

[mike k]

As much as I dislike AMain (several bad experiences) I do have this:

https://www.amainhobbies.com/protek...v-lipo-ac-dc-battery-charger-ptk-8517/p488513

and I have some 17-in-1 charge leads. I can charge every battery I have and about dozen more that don't. I only use Balance Charge, best part of a 4+ battery rotation and the 2000w inverter in the truck is that I am never without batteries, even when flying the jets, my batteries are charged before I run out.

I have this charger as well (my first). It worked fine for me, and I have no complaints except for not the most robust construction, but I am ignorant and also I have nothing to compare it to. I broke some of the plastic bits, and will return it on warranty.

Ordered a D6 Plus at the recommendation of this thread, and if it's as good as reported will just add a second one.

 

[jkflow]

@Bearcats Yes I did but didn't do anything to my setup.
It was more out of curiosity.
Process is easy once you understand it. I believe they have a 1 liner document on 'how-to'. There is no reason to update imho.