jbalat

It needs to use mains power for Australia (240v).
I am currently using an 11.1v 1800mah Li-ion for my Zoom, but I also have some Lipos and NiMh for other models.
My current charger takes over 3 hrs and is not fully charging the battery (Maher CH777plus). I would be happy with 1-2 amp charge rate...

Price is of course an issue. Thanks...

69novadose

There are many good chargers out there, I use the Triton charger which is capable of charging lipo as well
as nicd, nima, and pb-lead acid. Also I have a dedicated LiPo charger from great planes 'electrifly PolyCharge' which works great. Note that these chargers need a 12v source. Some people power them
from old computer power supplys or even a 12v field batterys.

http://www.towerhobbies.com/

Moe3754

My Feedback: (14)

I second the triton I have one and power it with a motorcycle battery and all I charge is LiPo's with it and have never had a problem,great charger for the money.

jbalat

Is 12v enough to power a charger trying to charge up an 11.1v lipo ?

The specs say it can handle 10 to 15 volt input source. But also say you can charge a 28volt NiCd pack... How is this possible..

I have an 18 volt 3.5 amp DC laptop supply - Will this be enough to power the Triton ?

Moe3754

My Feedback: (14)

I charge a Thunder power 3s3p 6000mah High Discharge battery that I fly my Voyager E with and have no problems with it so if I can charge this large battery with it you should have no problems at all.

roboto65

My Feedback: (30)

I third the Triton 12 volts is all you need typical car batt has 12.8 volts and more amps than you can use for charging. For your Lipo you can only charge it a 1C or 1X the rated mah which for a 1500 mah battery would be 1.5amps no more and never go above 4.2 volts per cell which in the case of your 11.1 volt batt is 12.6 volts.......


roboto65

CraigN

can any one tell me what this battary is i have for my honey bee2? It's got in the top right hand corner 1800mah 11.1v , the rest is in chinese so im a little worried of chaging it up, [img][/img]

CraigN

And also is this the correct charger i use to charge the above battary ? i will be using a car battary to charge it?[img][/img]

warhwk

My Feedback: (3)

I use a Kokam 402. It will charge 3 cell Lipo's up to 2.5a from 12v. The 502 will charge 4 & 5 cell packs too. It uses DC-DC step up circuitry. I don't know if the Triton can be ordered ready to operate on 240v. A simple adaptor (voltage doubler) would be an easy solution though.

CraigN

I have just foound a ac/dc mains adapter that is 12v 300mah does this mean i have to leave it charging a 11.1 18oomah lipo battary? or will that not be enough to slow charge it for 6 hours? Please i need help so i can get the bird back off the ground!!!

kermitdafrog

Craign and jabalat,

If you are considering the Triton and are worried about the input voltage ... it, as do a lot of other chargers, has a "DC-DC converter" on the input stage which is how it steps up the 10 - 15 volts to whatever it needs to accomplish the task, including putting out enough voltage to charge 28.8 volt batteries. (However, I wouldn't expect to get full capability out of it running it off 10 volts.

If you are going to use a power supply (AC to DC converter) to run the (Triton) charger from, make sure it will put out the required current. The Triton manual recommends that the DC supply be capable of delivering at least 13 amps of current while maintaining 12 volts DC. Your 3 1/2 amp laptop supply would be pretty marginal for all but the small and low voltage batteries.

If you haven't already bought the 12-volt power supply, (and you may find one that's rated at 13 amps or better a little pricey), you might consider what has already been recommended, and that is to use a motorcycle or garden tractor battery (car battery works fine too) and just use a "cheapie" $15 or $20 automotive trickle charger to keep the battery topped off. (I've been doing it for years to run one of my Amateur Radio tranceivers, which pulls 20-amp peaks.) I've seen garden tractor batteries at Sams Club for around $16. You could even use one of the portable Coleman Powermate "jump start" packs to run it with, and it comes with a trickle charger and cigaratte lighter adapter to charge it with, (and has other uses to boot, like jump starting your car).

Rick

kermitdafrog

Craign,

If the battery you pictured is 11.1 volts, then it's most likely a 3-cell Lithium (since no other combination of other battery types that I know of will give you 11.1 volts). Most everything I have read recommends not charging a Lithium battery (either Lithium-Polymer, or Lithium-Ion) above whatever it's rated capacity is. In your case 1800 ma, or 1.8 amps would be the recommended safe rated charge.

Rick

bell1684

CraigN
I have the same battery as you, except my label is in English.

The top line says "Li-Poly rechargeable battery"..the lines below are just normal safety guidelines for a LiPo battery. I tried taking a few pix of the writing but they never came out. If you really want to know what the rest of the writing is let me know & ill post it.

Yes that is the correct charger, or should I say the correct charger that comes with the HoneyBee2.. I had one but it fried the first time I tried using it woth a 500ma adapter, so i cant comment on how well it works. I ended up going to my LHS and buying a Vision Peak Ultra AC/DC charger by Dynamite ($85.00 US Dollars) and it works great..dont know if they are available in the UK or not.

Ive use the battery for a couple of months and it works great..just follow normal Lipo safety practices and you should be good to go.

Regards
Darrell

DwightMann

I also use the Triton on a 11.1v 1600mah. I tried using my car battery the first day, and needed a jumpstart to get home. I then began to use my "portable jumpstarter" (motorcycle battery w/ jumpercables & cigarette lighter output $75 @ walmart) I can get several charges out if it before I need to plug it into the house.

qtip67t

Have anyone used the Electrifly Polycharger4 setup, if so would it be a good choice for doing multi Li-Po?

Thanks

JE