porscheaddiction

I have an ARK X400 (MX-400) heli and I have the go ahead to finally complete what is need to get this bird flying. Charger and lipo packs and gyro and pitch gauge . Is a balancer necessary? I see so many people on here using the Triton or ICE chargers which have no balancer. Does it shorten the life of the lipo by not using one? Is it more dangerous to charge a lipo with out a balancer? I am so far looking at the Triton, ICE, TP0-1010C and the Astroflight 109 lithium Chargers.
Sparing no expense I am sure it would be the TP-1010C that would be recommended. How ever budget wise what would be best?
Thanks
Chris.

Heliko

Most of us who are using chargers like the ICE have balancers. I for one am using an ICE charger with an Equinox balancer. If you charge your packs without a balancer the packs just won't last as long.

mrasmm

yeah it's bad news to charge lipos regularly without balancers. That's a real saftey issue, especially the faster you charge them (cant go over 1C). I am also using an ICE and an equninox. It's a great combo IMPO

Also check out the cellpro from www.fmadirect.com it's about 60 bucks and balances and all of that.

jw637362

My Feedback: (1)

porscheaddiction - DN Power batteries and Charger / balancer combo for your bird. Everyone complains about batteries not fitting and where to mount them. Stick with this setup and your good to go. 140 bucks for the charger / balancer and 2 batteries combo and you can't go wrong. I am having a blast with it. BUT - upgrade the Speedcontroller to something else and the motor as soon as you can if you have the stock helimax stuff in it. Runs too hot.

www.grandrc.com
www.readyheli.com

Both of these places sell them as well as others.

Hope this helps.
Jeff

bzinfinity

For the most part - charging with an ICE or Triton charger on a small 2-3cell LiPo will never result in a problem.

Before I knew what a balancer was, I charged my old CP Pro packs (had 4 of them) daily on the Triton which does not balance.

After about 3 months, a friend of mine recommended that I get a Blinky - and after putting the individual cells on a meter (through the charge plug) to check the voltages, they were off by less than a tenth of a volt from each other, respectively, with two being equal.

I put the cells on the balancer and rechecked and I had two mismatched cells with a difference of 3-4 tenths of a volt.

I understand thats such a minimal change, but after three months, I had unbalanced the cells presumably by one-tenth of a volt, unless they were stock that way.

For what it's worth, the only way I've ever gotten a precisely equal reading on Eflite LiPo's is to use the Triton and then put the pack on the Eflite Balancer for about 5 minutes. I can actually get the cells to read equal off the Eflite Balancer.

From what I've been told, you have to get up into the bigger MaH / More Cells to see a real problem with balanced cells.

I know for a fact I cycled my 4 Pro batteries at least 40 times before getting the Blinky. I probably cycled my CX/CX2 packs twice that many times.

Hope that helps,

Bryan

NMP400

I run the Align 2100 pack ($75) and bought a Venom balance charger from Heli Hobby ($30). It takes 3 hrs. to charge but is much easier on the battery. It charges at .75A and will also charge 2 cell Lipos. For a little more then a $100 your in the air. I also would not use anything but a balance charger. Just my 2 cents.

porscheaddiction

Thanks I was looking at the DN charger but I was looking at it over on this side of the border however that combo deal looks like a great deal.
I do not have the stock Helimax motor/esc combo. The heli is an original ARK400 bare bones kit.
My set up is.
Align 3550
rc-expert BS-40A esc
Spektrum DX-7 with AR6100
HS-81 boom mounted servo on the tail
HS-55's on the cyclic
Gyro yet to be determined (however I have small old rate gyro I could try, futuba G155)
lipos and charger yet to be determined.

thanks for the ideas everyone appreciate it.
Chris.

jimweda

I agree with the charger/balancer combo. I have the Accu-Cycle Elite which charges Nimh/Ni-Cd (1-10), and Lipo's (1-3) so I can use it for my RC Trucks, planes and now my heli.

In regards to upgrading the speed controller and motor, do you or anyone else have suggestions to what works. Is there an easy way to set up with brushless motors? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.