Admiral052

So I am starting to use electrics and I know nothing about this aspect. I need information on what to look for for a nice charger for LIPOs and what you guys use and like. Also any onfo on maintaining batteries to extend the life on them.
My LHS told me that the charger I have (standard provided with RTF kit) was not a good charger to maintain and use LIPOs. I am not above getting a better charger but I have no clue on good brands, what I need and what to look for.

Any help is appreciated

Rodney

There are many good chargers on the market. Most of us have not tried but one or two of them so any comments here will be somewhat biased. If the ones you have work well, then say so but that does not mean it is the only one. Things to watch for are: Does it do a balance charge?, Can it charge the size batteries I will be using? What safety provisions does it have such as preventing overcharge and fool proof for inadvertent wrong connections, Does it require a separate power supply or must I use the mains for power or does it require a DC power source. Only you can answer those questions as each of us may have drastically different requirements. I just recommend that you make safety the number one criteria for choosing a power supply. In my limited experience, I have found that the FMA chargers are one of the better brands although somewhat more expensive and a bit more complicated to use than the cheap plugandplay versions that come with many all-in-one combos.

Admiral052

I am looking for a foolproof charger (as best as can be) I want something I can plug into my garage and that is versitile. I was recommended to the Thunder brand but like you said it is because my friend uses them. Thanks for the info to start with on what to look for.

blueapplepaste

My Feedback: (5)

It really depends on what you need it to do. A good basic charger that does all chemistries, and will balance is the Thunder AC6 charger. It can be had for ~$50, will do AC/DC, comes with a bunch of leads, and is a great basic charger. I used to have one, but outgrew it and upgraded to this one: http://www.allerc.com/hyperion-eos72...de-p-5655.html

I needed something that would charge at a much higher rate as I started parallel charging to save time. If you're just doing park flyer type batteries then the Thunder AC6 should be enough. If you're doing larger ones I'd check out the hyperion. And if you're doing things like multiple 6S packs, then you're probably going to want to get something even more powerful and run off a power supply to get the watts and amps you need for those huge packs.

acdii

Here, get this while still in stock. Can't beat it for the price and it works well for Lipo's

Admiral052

Lol I was just looking at this before I checked back to see my answers. Good to see that I was on the right track. Right now I am only charging two 3S lipo batt. for my mentor but I want to properly charge, store, and maintain them also. I am not looking to charge a ton of batts so I think this one will be a good fit for me.

Thanks for your help guys

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

I have three. The first one I bought was the original Triton. It is nice, but complicated to use, so I didn't use it much.

I then bought a Duratrax ICE charger which was much more easy to use and worked out pretty well, but it would not charge the new LiFePO4 packs, or perhaps I should say that the technology was not included in the menu selections for battery types.

Lastly, I bought a new Triton II EQ. This has two inputs (115VAC and 12VDC), comes with balance adapters and appropriate cabling, and with just about everything you would need to charge all of the variety of batteries out there. It is a tad pricey, though. Go to Tower Hobbies and see what they are selling for. I recall that I paid around $125.00 but that was a couple of years or so ago.

CGr.

JeffinTD

I have one of the 4 bank chargers that nitro planes sells, along with a 12v power supply.

It verifies cell count before it will begin the charge cycle, and you can easily adjust max mah and max time safety cutoff.

It is really nice to charge up to 4 a once, of any combination. I've had it charging a nmh rx bat, nicad glow driver, lead acid field box, and lipo ep pack.

It also is easy to put lipo packs at storage level, or to set it up to cycle nmh.

Admiral052

How does it work when you charge a number of lipos together on the same charger? I seem to have heard something about this option to string two or three together to charge at once. Can someone explain?

blueapplepaste

My Feedback: (5)

Some have multiple ports that will charge. So each port can be set to charge something different (or the same).

The other way is parallel charging, where you can hook multiple batteries up to a single port. Look up parallel charging, that's what I've been doing and its been great so far. Lets me charge several batteries in the same time it was taking me to charge one.

opjose

In effect if you purchase a four port charger, you have four separate chargers in one "box" that is driven from the same power supply.

Each of the chargers act independantly of the others.





CGRetired

I too like the ICE so much that when I discovered that the TC1030 was basically the same charger with 5S capacity, a backlight and newer firmware ( red case instead of blue ) I purchased two of them.

They are still my "go to" chargers when I want to test out packs, simply because the information available to you is better and more extensive than with any other that I have seen.

The charge/discharge graphs are extremely useful IMHO and even will help locate bad connectors or poor solder joints... ( try moving the connectors while charging... if you see voltage drops or spikes... your pack or connectors may have bad solder joints...).

I have a number of other multi-port chargers now, but the TC1030's are hard to beat when used with an Equinox balancer... I would like to see a 10S capable charger like that with built in balancing.