S120 Charger came with my ARRMA - What's the best USB-A charging adapter?

[joec]

This may be in the wrong area, so my sincere apologies, as it did seem to me as the best one that I saw, but I'm new.

We picked up an ARRMA Granite Boost for my son, and an upgraded battery. Right now, I'm still good with the S120 charger that came with it, but given that the larger LiPo battery took over 10 hours to charge (my best estimate -- I went to bed), can anyone make a good recommendation of a good charging brick that they use to minimize charge time with this USB charging adapter? I know large batteries will take a while longer, but I want to maximize the charging ability for my son, since seven year olds are impatient, and Dad wants to play with it too. ;-)

 

[GraniteFox]

Your problem is the charger is 20w. Max charge rate of 2 amp. For lipo batteries you want to charge at 1c rate so 5000mah should charge at 5amp for safe and decent speed charging. Normally charges in about 1/2 hour to 45min. If you are looking for best option go 100w. It will give you room to grow. https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/s1100-g2-1x100w-ac-smart-charger/SPMXC2080.html

even the 50w would be a marked improvement over the 120. It can charge at 5amps. More than doubling your current capacity.

Hope this helps.
50w https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/s150-ac-dc-smart-charger-1x50w/SPMXC1070.html

 

[joec]

@GraniteFox - Thanks for the info!

 

[SrC]

^^^
Need a "real" charger there IMHO. Toss that USB charger. It is dangerous IMHO.
Get at least 100w + to charge a single lipo. Like @GraniteFox stated above. Will take less than an hour to charge in most cases with a 1C charge rate. In the case of a 5,000mah lipo, the charge rate should be set to 5.0 Amps as an example.
I hope you never let any RC lipo charge while you are sleeping. Never ever do this. These are not like Cell phone lipos.
Charging is always supervised being close by to attend to an impending Fire.
A lipo can take a whole house down. Be safe.
I once accidentally forgot to disconnect my charging lipo. In Storage Charge mode. As I was laying in bed to sleep, I could not close my eyes for an hour, something wasn't right.... then I realized/remembered I had a charger running. Sometimes we forget. Don't.

 

[joec]

^^^
Need a "real" charger there IMHO.
With at least 100w + to charge a single lipo. Like @GraniteFox stated above.
I hope you never let any RC lipo charge while you are sleeping. Never ever do this. These are not like Cell phone lipos.
Charging is always supervised being close by to attend to an impending Fire.
A lipo can take a whole house down. Be safe.

Noted. I'll be picking up the S1100, I think.

 

[sandblaster]

Experience, one can start with a cheap charger and upgrade, upgrade and upgrade until you get the one you should have started with. All the upgrades are a waste of money. If your set of cars and battery are going to multiple, as they all seem to do. Go with the S2200 and be able to change more than one battery. Also for a newbie, Look long and hard at the smart batteries and go with them. Do not leave any battery changing and go to sleep. The smart system is as safe as it gets for taking easy care of batteries. Having to discharge them to storage is time consuming and a big head ache. Smart does it for you. So easy. Love it. Plus your son can change his battery by plug and play without you looking over his shoulders.

 

[JDFx]

If you're going to be serious in the hobby, my philosophy is buy once cry once when it comes to a charger. As others have said, at least 100w, the more the better as it will give you more options down the road. I run a 1kw dual channel charger. Haven needed the full 1kw yet but having the headroom is nice. Dual channel good to have when you run 2x 3S or 4S Lipos instead of a single 6S or 8S as you can charge both at the same time. Just note as you go up in power, the power supply requirements need to go up to match.

 

[joec]

Thanks for all the tips, guys. I appreciate it.

 

[biggman100]

This may be in the wrong area, so my sincere apologies, as it did seem to me as the best one that I saw, but I'm new.

We picked up an ARRMA Granite Boost for my son, and an upgraded battery. Right now, I'm still good with the S120 charger that came with it, but given that the larger LiPo battery took over 10 hours to charge (my best estimate -- I went to bed), can anyone make a good recommendation of a good charging brick that they use to minimize charge time with this USB charging adapter? I know large batteries will take a while longer, but I want to maximize the charging ability for my son, since seven year olds are impatient, and Dad wants to play with it too. ;-)

As others have said, never leave a lipo unattended while charging. You should not only pick up a decent charger, but a lipo safe charging bag as well. Even the cheaper Imax B6AC is better than the stock charger (its what i use). There are a few posts on here about lipo's, and proper care and safe charging/discharging/storage charging that are definitely worth reading. https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/...mistakes-of-2021-and-how-to-avoid-them.40327/ and https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/how-to-store-a-lipo-battery.8629/ are a couple good ones to start with. These are the charging/storage bags i use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09C8T9RY6/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=A23OH792TR2LMV&psc=1 and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078Y723Z3/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_10?smid=A3IW0RYZKDMC7F&psc=1 and these are the two chargers i use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B5LLVSRK/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=A2M5Y5AVP4X7RH&psc=1 and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NWGD2J...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== but, read up on them and how to use them ahead of time, since different lipo's take different settings.

 

[joec]

We took the car out and went through both our batteries, and had a lot of fun.

When we got back, we put the starter battery on the S1100…. Something doesn’t seem right:

This battery seems nutty. It exceeded 3300mAh when we last charged it too.

 

[sandblaster]

What batteries, do they have balance leads? Are the leads plugged in to the correct port? Hit the down arrow to see what each cell is charged to. One more down on the arrow to see what each cell has for resistants. What is the capacity of the batteries? Pictures of the screen as each down arrow is pushed would help.

 

[JDFx]

Earlier in the thread you indicated you had a LiPo battery but that charger is set to NiMH. You're at serious risk of fire if that's the case.

 

[Diem Turner]

Nevermind.

 

[joec]

This is an NiMH battery in the S1100. It is as listed the top of the screen, but when charging, always says 3 hrs remaining and the charge previous to this tried to exceed 3300mAh. The only connection this battery has is the two prong standard connector, with no extra leads like the LiPo we have. I let the NiMH try to charge again to see if it had a different reading and there was an alarm, but but I didn’t get a photo of the screen that popped up. I did have the option to run a charge, discharge, and storage, but decided to unplug.

The LiPo seems to charge perfectly fine, counts down properly, and stops as intended.

 

[sandblaster]

Never liked or had good luck with the NiMH. Best is to get a smart lipo replacement and dispose of the NiMH. One reason is they take forever to charge and on has to wait until they are stone cold to recharge. If try to recharge before they are cold can kill the battery.

 

[joec]

Never liked or had good luck with the NiMH. Best is to get a smart lipo replacement and dispose of the NiMH. One reason is they take forever to charge and on has to wait until they are stone cold to recharge. If try to recharge before they are cold can kill the battery.

Yeah, that's what I'll probably do. I just find it really weird. It's had under ten cycles. It's hard for me to believe it's already shot.

 

[sandblaster]

One charge before it is stone cold can kill it. All it takes is one cell to go bad. You will love the smart lipo and never miss the Nimh or if you do it will be as "why did I want so long"

 

[joec]

One charge before it is stone cold can kill it. All it takes is one cell to go bad. You will love the smart lipo and never miss the Nimh or if you do it will be as "why did I want so long"

Yeah, I already feel that way, but I'm just bummed. The truck just got out of the box about 2-3 weeks ago. It shouldn't fail that fast. I'll talk to my local hobby shop on that.

 

[sandblaster]

I would forget it and move ahead. That battery may have been used by someone else and was just swapped out in the box at the hobby shop. Have bought stuff that was purchased and returned. I know because the units were run in wet and all wheel bearings had to be replaces. Those things happen with a business dealing with the not so honest public. Pro and cons with dealing with local hobby shop as compared ordering on line from a large mover of product. Even then our last purchase, 4S Outcast had been opened and the plastic wrap had been not as it should have been. Probably taken out and used on display. It showed no signs of being ran and is a top performer. Daughter loves her birthday gift.

 

[joec]

I would forget it and move ahead. That battery may have been used by someone else and was just swapped out in the box at the hobby shop. Have bought stuff that was purchased and returned. I know because the units were run in wet and all wheel bearings had to be replaces. Those things happen with a business dealing with the not so honest public. Pro and cons with dealing with local hobby shop as compared ordering on line from a large mover of product. Even then our last purchase, 4S Outcast had been opened and the plastic wrap had been not as it should have been. Probably taken out and used on display. It showed no signs of being ran and is a top performer. Daughter loves her birthday gift.

Everything looked pretty factory, but yeah -- I think I will just move on.