coomarlin

My Feedback: (1)

I had a hard time locating an Ammo box so I went to Wally World and bought one of those Brinks fireboxes that you put valuables in. Since I live in an Apartment I don't have much room. I stash the box with Lipo's in the oven. If for some reason they would catch on fire it would be contained in the oven. I've also heard of people stashing them in their fireplace.

I just have to make sure that my girlfriend doesn't decide to preheat the oven without taking the LiPo's out

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Hey, shouldn't the fire proof box protect the pack?
Just thinking out loud here!
I guess I will spend this week looking at what I need and start buying the stuff from Tower!
I am going to put together a Raptor and will need the Elite to charge my LiPo packs.
Do you recommend that the first charge be at 1/10C or higher?

rajul

My Feedback: (58)

Geist, here are some pics taken off batterybunker.com I guess the result with a cookie jar will be similarly good. Note that the container should not be air tight.

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

Excuse my dumb question here, but can this charger do a slow charge a constant rate vs peak charging? I thought I looked in the manual once and could not find it. For example, when I buy a new large capacity NiMh (2000mah) I'd prefer to slow charge it the first time (to form it). Can the Elite do this? I'd like to set it up for 120ma charge and turn off manually, or timed charge.

My next question would be for a 2000mah Nimh pack, what would be a good forming charge rate? C/10 or 200ma?

thanks

coomarlin

My Feedback: (1)

A charge of C/10 will not damage the LiPo's but will take a long time. Remember to never charge LiPo's unattended and at C/10 it's going to take all day to charge them. Most people I know charge their LiPo's at 1C even when they are new. I have never charged my LiPo's at anything other than 1C and they are fine.

As for the NiMH the Elite will charge them just fine. You can charge them at C/10 or 200mah as the initial charge. In fact if you are not in a hurry I'd recommend charging both NiCD's and NiMH batteries at C/10. Of course a faster charge of 1C can also be used, but most experts would agree the more you fast charge the shorter lifespan your batteries will have. As a compromise I normally charge my NiMH packs at C/5 when I'm here at the house, but I don't hesitate to charge at 1C if I'm at the field.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Thanks for the LiPo feedback.
I will probably get the temp probe and charge them outside.

jimjel

I bought one of the temp sensors for my Elite. Very accurate. I wanted to install the temp sensor permanently on my receiver battery pack but the 10" lead was too short to be useful, unless you removed the battery pack from the radio box. Installed a 24" extension lead on the temp sensor which now gives me 34" of lead length so that I can easily get from my radio box to the charger. Tested the temp sensor with the longer lead length and saw no change in temperature readings. Very cool. Great charger.

Jim

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I have tried setting the probe alarm temp a little above room temp and it seems to stop and start as it charges. I haven't tried to cycle it like this.

jimjel

Mine won't do that Geist. Once it hits the preset temperature when charging the charger shuts off and does not restart. It will however, shut off and restart if the pack overheats on the discharge cycle.

Jim

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Interesting, I will have to check this again to see why it stopped.
I will report back when I see what is going on!

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

OK, it didn't restart.
What I found is that the charge was at an end but the charge current was 864ma.
It looked like it was still charging by the current. My mistake. Seems like there is another bug in the system.

jimjel

Geist,

Re: the 864ma charge current. Are you sure the 864ma isn't the amount of charge the charger put into the batteries before it terminated charge?

I only use the charger to charge Rx and Tx packs. I input the battery pack criteria and let the system pick the charge, and trickle rates. It works perfectly, takes the battery voltage about 17% above nominal voltage before peaking, then switches to the trickle rate the charger software had selected.

As an example on my 1800mah NiMh 8 cell xmitter pack the software selects the following parameters:

chg current .75A
trickle current 40ma
sensitivity 8mv/cell


For my 2300mah NiMh 5 cell RX pack the software selects the following:

chg current .9A
trickle current 50ma
sensitivity 8 mv/cell

When the peak charge terminates the unit switches to trickle charge at the software selected trickle charge rate. Works perfectly every time. If you watch the display you can actually see the charge peak and the voltage start to drop. The peak charge terminates about 2 minutes after the peak is reached assuming you have an 8 mv/cell cutoff (less time with a more sensitive cutoff). I even checked the cutoff point. When the voltage drops 8mv/cell from peak the charge teminates exactly as it is supposed to.

I have found the temp sensors to be very accurate as well, and they terminate the charge as they are supposed to. I haven't had any pack get over 100 degrees when charging using the software selected paramters, hence no real need for the temp sensors yet.

Using the parameters assigned by the charger, I can charge 2 RX packs and 2 Xmitter packs (or any combination thereof), in an hour or less, assuming I ran my boats the previous weekend and just charge up immediately before I go boating the following week.

I have had no instances of false peaking to date.

No complaints here. Great little charger.

Jim

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I have no complaints either.
THe charge is complete because the display shows END
This is a known bug and will stay like that for a while then the current will update on go to the trickle current.
The current cannot be right because the voltage is too low to support that much current.
It can best be duplicated by drastically understating the pack capacity and then about 3 out of 10 times the charge will end and the current will display high.

jimjel

Any chance Hobbico will retrofit existing chargers when a fix is available?

Jim

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I doubt.
I tried to work with them earlier on this and other issues.
They were very helpful and I say this sincerely.
They came to the conclusion that all of this was my fault even when I sent them pictures.
They refunded my money, I purchased another one and have been happy ever since.

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

Giest,
Did you purchase another Elite or a completely differant brand?

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

BB, I purchased another one.
I think it is a great unit. It does have issues.
The biggest issue is that it cannot charge two packs with a common ground.
You have to make sure that your switch disconnects not only the power (red) but ground leads (black) as well.
I have tried two different switches and the regular one has two contacts. One for each wire (red/black)
The problem with that switch is that during high currents the voltage drop seems high (0.3 volts) and there is no redundancy in teh switch itself. On the other switch both contacts are to the positive lead (red) and the ground is always connected. THe voltage at high current is lower (0.1v) but I can't use the charger to charge both packs at the same time.

The funny thing is that it frys a component. (diode, cap, resistor) but the unit still works.
Just don't charge packs with common grounds and you will be OK.

Slyder

Hey Geist,
Did I read that this charger will work as an overnight as well? Is it timed then goes into trickle like the old accucycle?
Also, have you hooked a meter to it ? Does the discharge work properlly?
Thanks.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

There is not timer to time out so an over night charge is possible.
I have checked the discharge current and voltage.
On my unit the current at 1 amp was off 0.02 amps (20ma)
On voltage 5.725 volts measured 5.73 volts. at the 1 amp load.
I am now testing out a 17AH field pack with the charger, cycling two packs at 1 amp charge/discharge.

It looks like the 17AH 12volt pack is going to top out at around 13AH.
I may not get my 5th cycle in on both packs.

Pavan

I think I Have STUMBLED upon something. When I was charging / recycling my 4.8V 500 MaH batteries using the Elite I got total Mah of 446 / 448 etc.

I tool a 6 volt light bulb. Connected it to the battery and let it run until it went out. I connected it to the Elite and I got 566Mah.

Can someone explain?

Panzlflyer

My Feedback: (15)

The Light bulb completely discharged your pack and you probably have a cutoff voltage set in the charger so it cuts off before they are completly flat (good) so as not to ruin them.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

You can go in and change the shut off level to as low as possible (0.9v or 0.8 i think).
This will allow you to discharge to a lower level. Also remember, that due to internal resistance in the pack, the higher the discharge current the higher the reserve capacity will be in the pack at shut off, so you have to reduce the current.

olstoney

My Feedback: (19)

I have been reading this thread with a lot of interest and the information has been very helpful. I'm just getting back into flying after a hiatus from repairing my home after Hurricane Charley. I bought my Elite in August just before the storm hit. I basically just programmed it for my different types of batteries using the smart set feature. I have noticed that when cycling for instance one of my 1650ma Nimh packs only cycles consistently to around 1350ma. I am assuming therefore that 300ma or so, is still in the pack when fully discharged. Am I correct in this assumption or should I be looking elsewhere?? Does or will it hurt to lower the cutoff voltage to 08 or 09 without lowering the charging current and how should I figure that percentage?? I really like this charger and have found it to be perfect for my needs. I just want to insure that my batteries are in fact fully charged and need to know how to tell when they are starting to go away. Brian....

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Yes, you can and should lower your shut off voltage if you are looking to get all the charge out of the pack. What I look for is consistancy. WHen I see a pack that does not within 80% of it's previous reading, I discard it.

olstoney

My Feedback: (19)

Thank you very much.
I thought from what I had been reading in your thread that I had the basic concept down, but was unsure of how to interpret the charger readings. So as long as my readings are consistent as they are in this case, the pack should be safe then and where would you recommend that I set the cutoff voltage? I have not tried to charge two packs at the same time yet. I have a 4.8v 1000ma pack discharging now. Can I cycle my 1100ma transmitter battery on the other port at the same time?? I'm trying to wake the packs up so I can try and fly tomorrow.Brian...