Recommend me a battery charger

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bladefan said:
At this price, this gensacearespammers IMARS, which isnt new to this thread, but it may be the one to beat ringht now

https://www.amainhobbies.com/gens-a...6s-15a-100w-x-2-black-gea200wdual-ub/p1422770

$106

plus i think amain has free shipping over $100 and you can use coupons to get at least 5 more bucks off.
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Looks alright, but 2x100W on AC is a bit weak, imho. You'd need to get a DC PSU to get 2x300W. For $30 less you could get an ISDT P10 which will do 2x250W if you're going to get a DC power supply. Yes, I'm a bit of a sucker for ISDT kit, but it's just been working really well for me. I also don't see the balance current listed anywhere for that IMars charger. But that's just me. YMMV. :)
 
Diem Turner said:
Looks alright, but 2x100W on AC is a bit weak, imho. You'd need to get a DC PSU to get 2x300W. For $30 less you could get an ISDT P10 which will do 2x250W if you're going to get a DC power supply. Yes, I'm a bit of a sucker for ISDT kit, but it's just been working really well for me. I also don't see the balance current listed anywhere for that IMars charger. But that's just me. YMMV. :)
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Ya. That’s true. I guess I was hypothetically speaking because I think I’m going to end up w the same charger you got lol. Isdt p30

I have a lipoconnections psu coming. I’ll use it to power my I charger x6. I’ll probably invest in a new parallel board. Then probably sometime soon get the isdt p30
 
Cheez said:
This is just for fun 😝…ended up with the Hobbymate. Haven’t had Crown Royal in ages. I’ve moved on to the more expensive stuff. But I saved the cool bags “just in case “. Perfect fit.

View attachment 256111

View attachment 256112
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I have a few fishing reels stored in Crown bags, everything from spinning reels to offshore Penn reels. 👍
 
Diem Turner said:
Would you mind elaborating? I don't do parallel charging myself but I am curious about what the problems are that you've encountered.
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If ur not parallel charging you should look into it since it literally cuts ur charging time in half (or more depending on how many batteries u charge). I use a parallel board from progressive RC which has fuses (40A I believe) so I think it’s pretty safe. I always charge my speed running bats in matches pairs. It does take a few more steps but the time saving is enormous if your charging more than a couple of batteries.
 
dk10438 said:
If ur not parallel charging you should look into it since it literally cuts ur charging time in half (or more depending on how many batteries u charge). I use a parallel board from progressive RC which has fuses (40A I believe) so I think it’s pretty safe. I always charge my speed running bats in matches pairs. It does take a few more steps but the time saving is enormous if your charging more than a couple of batteries.
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I rarely charge more than two batteries. But even then, on a time scale, warming the batteries takes a good bit longer so it doesn't really matter.
 
I have other chargers including smart charger
But this is my fav charger

20221110_135922.jpg
 
I just got a Dynamite P2 Pro with my Kraton. This is my first lipo charger, but seems to work well enough. A bit more power would be nice, but it charges my 2 3S 5200mAh batteries from storage to full in around 30-45 minutes. Setting the charge up in the phone app is nice, but the app does kind of suck. It works when you first start it and set up the charge, then you have to force close it if you walk out of Bluetooth range. Still, setting the charge up in the app is much easier.

I liked that it included the banana to EC5 cables and balance boards right in the box. They are decently long too. I have a BatSafe, and the only thing I needed to get extra were balance cable extensions.
 
might be a small problem, I think Hitec chargers take a max of 18v? Most PSU are 12 or 24v
 
Are you charging 6S batteries? The charger's output, on AC power, is up to 100W, which is 4A for 6S. On DC power, it can output 200W, or a max of 8A into 6S batteries.

They suggest a 300W DC power supply, of with a voltage output between 11V and 18V. I don't know the charger's max input-current, on DC. That input current limit helps determine what you'd get from each voltage.

For instance, if the max input current was 15A, then if you provided 11V DC, if we ignore efficiency, you could get 15A * 11V = 165W output. While if your voltage was at least 13.5V, you could get the full 200W output.

What's your budget? I haven't used this one, but it's adjustable 0V-24V, and 20A, 480W max output, $40. You could set to 16V, for instance, and stay under the 18V input limit of your charger. You would need to make/buy leads to go from the power supply to your charger's DC input. There are cheaper options too, like they also sell a $30 0-12V supply, but that would be more likely to limit the charger's output, by being unable to go above 12V input.

https://www.amazon.com/Adjustable-DROK-110V-220V-Switching-Transformer/dp/B08GFSVHLS?th=1

Charger manual:
https://hitecrcd.com/images/products/pdf/458_2017_Manual_X2ACPlusBE-v7.pdf
 
RedOctobyr said:
Are you charging 6S batteries? The charger's output, on AC power, is up to 100W, which is 4A for 6S. On DC power, it can output 200W, or a max of 8A into 6S batteries.

They suggest a 300W DC power supply, of with a voltage output between 11V and 18V. I don't know the charger's max input-current, on DC. That input current limit helps determine what you'd get from each voltage.

For instance, if the max input current was 15A, then if you provided 11V DC, if we ignore efficiency, you could get 15A * 11V = 165W output. While if your voltage was at least 13.5V, you could get the full 200W output.

What's your budget? I haven't used this one, but it's adjustable 0V-24V, and 20A, 480W max output, $40. You could set to 16V, for instance, and stay under the 18V input limit of your charger. You would need to make/buy leads to go from the power supply to your charger's DC input. There are cheaper options too, like they also sell a $30 0-12V supply, but that would be more likely to limit the charger's output, by being unable to go above 12V input.

https://www.amazon.com/Adjustable-DROK-110V-220V-Switching-Transformer/dp/B08GFSVHLS?th=1

Charger manual:
https://hitecrcd.com/images/products/pdf/458_2017_Manual_X2ACPlusBE-v7.pdf
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I need something like that that does 800w.
 
slick2500 said:
The X2 700 is 1400 watts though, my X2 400 is only 800.
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How much DIY do you want to do, and what's your budget?

I was being budget conscious. And my first high-output supply was a used HP DPS-600PB server power supply. 12V, 575W, 47A by itself. Join two together in series, and modify the second one to float the ground, and you get 24V, 1150W, 47A. I started with 1 supply, and added a second when I got a bigger charger.

One example, $23 shipped on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/284168191718

If you want ready-to-go solutions, it's worth taking a look on ProgressiveRC's site, at least. They have a section for power supplies in different voltage ranges.
https://www.progressiverc.com/
 
I am currently having a bad experience with an iSDT D2 MK II charger. Only have been using it for about a month, and already it sounds like one of the fan bearings is going out (buzzes horribly on startup), and today the screen will blank out/turn off during charging after about 30 minutes, and the only way to get the screen to turn back on is to unplug the unit. Makes it a bit difficult to tell when each battery charge (it's a dual charger) has completed.

The warranty on iSDT products is a joke, as you have to pay for shipping to and from China, both ways! To make matters worse, you can't easily disassemble it (it appears I would need to take a dremel to the outer case), so fixing the issues myself will be difficult. Standard Chinesium junk, one small part breaks, and you have to landfill the entire unit.

So it appears I might need to buy another charger, sigh. Any chargers that are sold through a US subsidiary, or are designed and backed by a US firm?
 
RedOctobyr said:
How much DIY do you want to do, and what's your budget?

I was being budget conscious. And my first high-output supply was a used HP DPS-600PB server power supply. 12V, 575W, 47A by itself. Join two together in series, and modify the second one to float the ground, and you get 24V, 1150W, 47A. I started with 1 supply, and added a second when I got a bigger charger.

One example, $23 shipped on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/284168191718

If you want ready-to-go solutions, it's worth taking a look on ProgressiveRC's site, at least. They have a section for power supplies in different voltage ranges.
https://www.progressiverc.com/
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Currently I have a 12v 900w 75a unit. My problem however is that for some dumb reason Hitec decided to limit the input voltage to 18v, if it was 24v I could just wire together 2 server 12v power supplies in series. So I need either an 18v 800w psu or a psu with adjustable voltage that is also 800w. I have found some but they are not cheap.
pinem56 said:
I am currently having a bad experience with an iSDT D2 MK II charger. Only have been using it for about a month, and already it sounds like one of the fan bearings is going out (buzzes horribly on startup), and today the screen will blank out/turn off during charging after about 30 minutes, and the only way to get the screen to turn back on is to unplug the unit. Makes it a bit difficult to tell when each battery charge (it's a dual charger) has completed.

The warranty on iSDT products is a joke, as you have to pay for shipping to and from China, both ways! To make matters worse, you can't easily disassemble it (it appears I would need to take a dremel to the outer case), so fixing the issues myself will be difficult. Standard Chinesium junk, one small part breaks, and you have to landfill the entire unit.

So it appears I might need to buy another charger, sigh. Any chargers that are sold through a US subsidiary, or are designed and backed by a US firm?
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From the reviews I have seen the D2 looks like a crapshoot as to how long the unit lasts before it craps out and the fans going bad get mentioned a lot.
 
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slick2500 said:
Currently I have a 12v 900w 75a unit. My problem however is that for some dumb reason Hitec decided to limit the input voltage to 18v, if it was 24v I could just wire together 2 server 12v power supplies in series. So I need either an 18v 800w psu or a psu with adjustable voltage that is also 800w. I have found some but they are not cheap.
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Ugh, my first iCharger was the same way, 18V max. My big charger tops out at 30V in, which ruled out high-power 36V solutions. I got a surplus 1500W 24V industrial power supply (well over $1,000 new) for $100 on eBay, and adjusted it up to 28V. It's meant to run 24/7, and is far better quality than any colorfully-anodized supply sold for RC use.

Looking for 18V options for you, this is $75, 18V, 800W: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000184162521.html

Would be nice if the voltage was adjustable, though, to let you go to 17V or whatever you felt comfortable with. I guess if the 18V came in at actually 18.5V or so, I guess you could add a suitably-large diode inline, to drop the voltage a bit. But that's a pain.

15V ($85) and 18V ($75) 1000W options here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32789770858.html

I find Google lets me down a bit when searching for this sort of thing, since I can't figure out a way to search for something like >750W. So I search for 800W, then 900W, etc, hoping to get lucky. I spent quite a while scouring eBay before finding mine, searching different ways, and hoping something good would turn up. It eventually did.

Note that chargers are not 100% efficient. If you want 800W output, I would plan on supplying >800W. Barring better info, I'd assume maybe 90% efficient, which would require about 900W in.
 
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pinem56 said:
So it appears I might need to buy another charger, sigh. Any chargers that are sold through a US subsidiary, or are designed and backed by a US firm?
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I was hoping to suggest FMA, who made the Revolectrix PowerLab 8 charger, and others, which had pretty much unparalleled reputations. But it appears the company closed down. That actually makes me a bit sad, people loved their products, and I really wanted a PL8.

Saw that mentioned in this thread, which may be worth a quick read:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/sho...-FMA-Revolectrix-Line&perpage=50#post48319835

I don't know of US-based options. I will offer that I've been very happy with my iCharger 308 Duo. 2 channels, 30A and 800W/channel, 1300W total, up to 8S, $270. It's not PowerLab quality, but apparently that's no longer a consideration. They are not US based (I don't know if any charger companies are at the moment), but ProgressiveRC is great, and has an available extended warranty. iCharger's been around for a while, at least, I got my first one in 2011, and they were not new. When I got out of the hobby in 2015, I don't remember hearing about ISDT, Hota, etc, so I think some of these are newer companies.

As one reply mentions above, I am powering mine from a single large power supply, as it seems that some charger failures were due to people running 2 supplies in series, for 24V. And if I supply suddenly failed or shut down, the charger's input dropped to 12V, and they could be damaged before they could react. With mine using a single supply, it should be getting either 28V, or 0V (and it's harder to cause damage with no incoming power at all).

https://www.progressiverc.com/collections/lipo-chargers/products/icharger-308duo
 

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