Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Yes, you can charge two different packs just as long as you keep the grounds seperate. Some switches disconnect the power but not the ground. If you charge two packs like this you will fry the charger

olstoney

My Feedback: (19)

Geist,
It has been a few weeks with bad weather and no flying. Just went to discharge and charge the 6V 1650 Nimh pack discussed in the previous post on my Elite. It would only discharge and then charge to around 500ma in both directions. Thinking that maybe it had something to do with charging through the MPI switch, I removed that battery from the plane and hooked it up directly. Pretty much similar readings and not knowing where I am at with this pack, it is now on my Super Digipulse for 16 hrs @150ma. I then intend to discharge it on the Elite to see where I am at. Any suggestions??

Could you also please reccomend settings for me to make on the Elite for both 1100ma and 1650ma 6V packs?? I sorta though that I had this figured out but I guess not Thanks, Brian....

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Brian,
What I use is as follows:
1800maH 5 cell Nicad pack
At a 1 amp load, I can only get 1500maH out before the voltage drops to 1.1 volt per cell.
I discharge at 1 amp, and charge at C/4 or about 400ma. What I find is that I consistanly replenish my packs depending on the number of flights I put on. The only time I don't recharge is if I fly less that 3 flights.

When I used NiMH packs 2700maH. I could only get 1600maH out of the pack at 1 amp before it drops to 1.1 volt per cell. With your configuration, I would ask what is your discharge current and what is your cutoff. If you are discharging a 1650maH pack at 1 to 1.5 amps, then 500 is about all you will get out of it before the voltage drops to 1.1 volt per cell. That seems to be the nature of the beast. Let me know what you think. I have proven that while flying my old wiring configuration 2 DS8411 was not enough for my 1/3 scale plane. I changed the wiring and now I have more than enough rudder. I am going with HS5945 and expect to get more power than I did before. It wasn't the servos, it was the voltage drop from the NiMH packs, switches, connectors and wiring.

I hope this helps.

olstoney

My Feedback: (19)

Geist,
I am using the auto smart set functions with the exception of the cutoff voltage being set at 0.09. Discharge rate is 0.30 and the charge rate is 0.65. I am not looking to be fast charging any of my batteries, just a reliable C/10 overnight rate. I would think that if I get two flights in per se, then the Elite on charde would just top off and peak the batteries before my next session. Before purchasing the Elite, I just charged overnight at C-10 on the Digipulse. I am thinking that somehow I may have cooked this Ni-Mh pack (It's a quality piece), but do not know how I could have done that using the auto smart set parameters. I bought this charger to simplify my life, not complicate it. Thanks, Brian...

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I have used auto start to charge only. I haven't tried to use it to discharge or cycle a pack?!
This is new, I will have to try this sometime soon.

olstoney

My Feedback: (19)

Does it look like the settings that I am using are correct for that size battery??

R/C-Freak

This topic's been going a while... I have two [hopefully] quick questions, as I got my Elite a couple of days ago... I haven't found the answers here yet, but I've seen similar references... First, somebody mentioend a few pages back that their Elite doesn't trickle after a cycle.. I've noticed this of my unit, but thought I was doing something wrong. The manual says that a cycle should go to trickle at the end (and flash) but it does not... I cycled two more packs last night to verify, but sure enough, the only way I could get it to trickle was to simply do a "charge", not a "cycle"... Am I doing something wrong? This unit HAS to be able to go to tricle after a cycle... Second, after a cycle, I want to see how much was taken out.. it's handy to see how much was put in, but I consider the output to be more important... on the second to the last page in the manual, at the bottom right, it shows a picture (flowchart type) of a screen with "charge" and "discarge" capacity, but I can't actually get to that screen for some reason; I can only find the "capacity" (which I assume at that point is the charged capacity).

So... any help on getting the unit to trickle after a cycle, and how to find discharged and charged capacity after a cycle? (Can you tell I've been using an AccuCyclePlus for a while?)

--------------------------------------------
Burnin' up the sky... and the track...

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

OK, I hope I can help here.

olstoney,
Your settings are OK for your packs.

R/C-Freak,
I have never been able to get the unit to go into trickle after a cycle. So if it can do that, I don't know how to make it happen. Second, use the right arrow to go to the charge/discharge cycle that you are interested in looking at then click the up down button to look at the charge and discharge values. I may have this backwards where you use the up/down first then the arrow for the value but one or the other will get you there. It is a nice feature, you can see where the charge/discharge is not consistant. I usually set mine to cycle 5 times and monitor the level of consistancy.

olstoney

My Feedback: (19)

[b]Geist,[/b

Thanks for the input. It did something funny yesterday though I did a manual discharge on a 1650 Ni-Mh pack and everything was fine. Then did a manual charge on the same pack and after charging to about 325ma on the pack that had just been discharged, the unit went into trickle. Scratching my head as the football game was coming on I go what the hell, so I started a "cycle". Got up this morning and it had charged to 1677ma. Wonder if I got a lemon as this Elite was out of the first production run.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

No, it was a false peak. I have had them as well. For me, it seams to happen from glitches in the power. Noticed it a lot when I was charging packs in the kitchen and the fridge compressor would come on. I would recommend that you use the temp probe. It may reduce the false peaks you are getting.

olstoney

My Feedback: (19)

Well at least that makes some sense. Problem with using the temp probe is I wrap all af my battery packs in foam. I normally charge, discharge and cycle through the switch port, it depends upon the airplane. For example the 1650 Ni-Mh is under the fuel tank in the UCD 60, the 1800ma Sub C Nicads are inthe tail of the Super Decathlon. I am getting away from MPI switches however and have started using the Electrodynamics ones. Much better quality!! All of this started due to some inconsistencies I was getting from the UCD battery. Looks like I may have ruined that due to excessive or overcharging while trying to figure this all out. I have heard from some other people including the company that I buy my packs from that these units as well as the Tritons will reset at any hint of a power spike when on AC power. Mine is on a GFC circuit as I thought that would help. Guess not[&o]

R/C-Freak

Geist, thanks for the help. I didn't find it at first... but decided to take pics to send just in case I was missing something.. but then while I was taking pictures just now, I noticed that if I go to the "Cycle Number" screen and let it sit, it will eventually switch to show charge and discharge rates. I thought I'd find it after pressing a button, not after waiting... Thanks..

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Rocketman612

My Feedback: (85)

The Elite did a good job charging my Kokam 1500Mah LiPo. I had it set at the base 0.3A and it charged without a problem (Took awhile) I had the temp sensor on it but not even warm at that low rate of charge. Will try charging at 1.5A (1C)next time. All in all not bad for 1st LiPo charging experience.

Pete

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

In case anyone doesn't know this, these charges make great voltage checkers using the discharge cycle. Just start the discharge cycle to check the battery voltage. Disconnect the charger after seeing that the voltage maintains and go fly. The discharge rate (or load) can be programmed in the battery memory. I no longer need to bring my battery checker.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

No problem.
I will be the first to admit that this unit is not perfect. For my installation, there is problems. For the money, it is the best on the market.

guver

My Feedback: (325)

Hi, I'm really starting to mess with the elite. I was under the impression that the included power supply was the limiting factor in chargeing, but I am seeing it is the charger itself. It appears to deliver max 30 watts regardless of how I configure it or regardless of the input voltage.

Has any one charged 2 batts at 2 amps? Like 8 cells each or more?

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I did some experimenting and found that the charger will auto shutoff at 150% of the capacity entered into the charger. So that if you charge a 12000maH pack, it will autoshutoff at 1800maH (EXACTLY) I did this three times this weekend.

The autoshutoff is not adjustable, what I am now doing it charging and cycling my 1800maH packs with a setting of 1300maH. This causes the charger to auto shutoff at 1950maH's I just wish the auto shutoff could be adjusted from 150% to maybe 110%

Francis Fernand

Hey Geistware,

I have a 4.8 volts NiCad 4 cell 1500mAH AU pack that I programmed the following parameters for cycling:
A) 4 cells
B) 1500 mah
C) charge at 0.15 Amps.
D) discharge at 0.30 Amps.
E) 8 mV/Cell
F) discharge: 0.9V/cell

I found that the first cycle was charged at 1021 mA and the discharge of 950 mA. The following cycles were around 900 and 1000 mA of charge and 800-900 mA discharge.

Am I doing anything wrong or the battery pack is damage ?

Thanks in advance,

Francis

guver

My Feedback: (325)

Nice tip I will put that in my manual. Does it matter whether you charged from a memory or manual mode? for the 150%

guver

My Feedback: (325)

I just finally got mine to do 16 watts on 1 and at the same time 19 watts on the other side.

that was a 5 and 6 cell, however I still haven't been able to charge 2 8 cell batts at 2 amps each.????
what up with that? I am going to get another one and try it. I think they are all the same as I had one awhile ago and sold it. I think it did the same thing.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

You are charging at C/10 and discharging at C/5.
To me this is correct. You should get more out of the pack than900maH.
What was the voltage at cutoff? It should be 3.6 volts.
Make sure that is the case.
Are you cycling the pack through a switch or some other connection?
If so, do it directly with the pack, disconnected from everything else.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I really don't think it matters because it is a setting of the capacity entered.
I have never done it in manual mode. It really would be nice if you could adjust it for 110%.
I would have kept two packs from frying if it had.
Both were NiMH and were down to 1.15 volt per cell.
I put it on and it didn't see the pack as charged and fried after putting 3700maH in a 2700maH pack

Francis Fernand

Geistware,

The cutoff is 0.9V/cell equals to 3.6V.
The connection is directly to the pack (no switch).

Francis

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Right, cut off is at 3.6 volts. Did it actually cut off at that voltage or higher?
If it is fully charged at about 6 volts then goes into trickle and discharges down to 3.6volts and you only get out 900maH, then either your Elite needs to be calibrated or your pack is bad. If you have two packs that do the same thing (severly under capacity) then I think your Elite needs to be calibrated. DO you have a current meter to check the current reading?

Francis Fernand

Geistware,

I do not have any meter, but I can get one.

How do I know if the Elite is not calibrated ? or How do I calibrate the Elite ?

Thanks in advance,