Kraton Venom OPR2 charger, only outputting 2.2A

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

kairo

Fairly New Member
Messages
9
Reaction score
6
Location
Northern NV
Arrma RC's
  1. Kraton 6s
Hi all, I got my shiny new Kraton 6s today and already broke a steering knuckle running into a curb...

Anyways -- I have a charger that I bought several years ago for my RC planes, a Venom OPR2. It's capable of 6S charing at 6.0 amps. The starter battery I bought is a Zeee 6000mah.

Forgive my ignorance, but when I'm charging, it seems to hover around 2.2a. Anybody familiar with this charger and know if there's a setting I'm missing, or perhaps the charger is on the fritz? I read through the manual again to get myself up to speed and it wasn't much help. Google didn't return many answers either.

I charged the battery for about an hour earlier when I ran it, and the truck ran strong for about a half hour, which seems normal? This is my first RC car, and definitely my first large LiPo battery.

At any rate, I'm having an absolute blast, and I have some aluminum steering knuckles and some skidplates on order!
Some pics for reference

Thanks!

vnB3CMO.jpg



tplSpe1.jpg



6hSkf7L.jpg
 
I didn't notice there was an electronics forum my first look through. If a mod would like to move this to that forum, that would be helpful I think.
 
Hey so that charger appears to have a 50W output limit. voltage x current = watts. For a 25v pack you're going to be limited to ~2A.

It would only be capable of doing 6A on a 2S pack (6A x ~8v).
 
Hey so that charger appears to have a 50W output limit. voltage x current = watts. For a 25v pack you're going to be limited to ~2A.

It would only be capable of doing 6A on a 2S pack (6A x ~8v).

That makes sense to me! Appreciate the help.

Any issues with charging a large battery at a slow amperage? My rudimentary knowledge of DC electronics tells me that it won't hurt anything, but just adds a lot of extra charge time. Is that correct?

Guess I'll be ordering a new charger either way.
 
That makes sense to me! Appreciate the help.

Any issues with charging a large battery at a slow amperage? My rudimentary knowledge of DC electronics tells me that it won't hurt anything, but just adds a lot of extra charge time. Is that correct?

Guess I'll be ordering a new charger either way.

Nah no problems other than your patience lol, and it's probably going to be tough to properly supervise it if it takes 3 hours to charge a pack.

No doubt you'll be doing some research, but you'll probably notice that chargers which run from AC outlets tend to have lower outputs than DC-based chargers. I guess because the voltage converters add complexity and heat. You can get a dual 150W unit that will charge two 6S packs at around 6A each. That's still pretty conservative (1C in your case), but gets the job done in reasonable time.
 
Nah no problems other than your patience lol, and it's probably going to be tough to properly supervise it if it takes 3 hours to charge a pack.

No doubt you'll be doing some research, but you'll probably notice that chargers which run from AC outlets tend to have lower outputs than DC-based chargers. I guess because the voltage converters add complexity and heat. You can get a dual 150W unit that will charge two 6S packs at around 6A each. That's still pretty conservative (1C in your case), but gets the job done in reasonable time.

If you were to say, "Here, dummy, buy this charger" any idea on which one you'd get? In for a penny, in for a pound. I don't mind spending money for quality.
 
Look in electronics section, there's a thread " Recommend me a battery charger" or something similar to that. Long a$$ thread packed with awesome information, check it out.
 
So broadly speaking you have two paths to choose between: an AC charger that plugs into the wall, or something that runs from an external DC power supply. The latter is what you'll need if you plan on doing high C charging (e.g. 12A+ for that 6000mah pack, or parallel charging larger packs together). Check out the thread mentioned above and you'll see what i mean lol, there's some serious stuff going on there.

Personally i prefer something that just plugs into the wall. Im cautious recommending stuff, but i loooove the ultrapower up6+. Charge two 6S packs at ~6A each on AC power. Paired with the optional external discharge unit its just awesome - i fly planes and often you'll come home with a bunch of unused batteries due to crashing or weather, so you're able to put them into storage charge in 10 minutes rather than the 2 days it takes most chargers to discharge. Has the option to run off DC as well, which i think will do 2x 6S packs at ~12A.
 
So broadly speaking you have two paths to choose between: an AC charger that plugs into the wall, or something that runs from an external DC power supply. The latter is what you'll need if you plan on doing high C charging (e.g. 12A+ for that 6000mah pack, or parallel charging larger packs together). Check out the thread mentioned above and you'll see what i mean lol, there's some serious stuff going on there.

Personally i prefer something that just plugs into the wall. Im cautious recommending stuff, but i loooove the ultrapower up6+. Charge two 6S packs at ~6A each on AC power. Paired with the optional external discharge unit its just awesome - i fly planes and often you'll come home with a bunch of unused batteries due to crashing or weather, so you're able to put them into storage charge in 10 minutes rather than the 2 days it takes most chargers to discharge. Has the option to run off DC as well, which i think will do 2x 6S packs at ~12A.

Thank you, sir. I'm pretty set on the wall plug. My Tacoma has an AC inverter in the bed which I can use if I'm out and about, and I don't have any spare 12V batteries laying around in my garage since I got rid of my rock crawler jeeps. -- full scale, not RC lol

I've been going through that thread that you and @arrmadillo mentioned, and there's a lot to digest. I'm still wrapping my mind around how far RC tech has come since I was a kid.
 
Thank you, sir. I'm pretty set on the wall plug. My Tacoma has an AC inverter in the bed which I can use if I'm out and about, and I don't have any spare 12V batteries laying around in my garage since I got rid of my rock crawler jeeps. -- full scale, not RC lol

I've been going through that thread that you and @arrmadillo mentioned, and there's a lot to digest. I'm still wrapping my mind around how far RC tech has come since I was a kid.
Yes it's very informative, I read through the whole thread and made my decision. RC has come a long way since the nitro days. I have people even today that thinks nitro is faster or better, but when I tell them about the technology and advancements in electric they just scratch their head.
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 90 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.
Back
Top