da Rock

I've got or have had 3 good ones that could handle the load I needed. I stick with models that I can get into the back of my car. I can put the back seat down and put a couple of fuselages, minus the wings, into the trunk with tails in the back seat. Glow up to 60 size and electric the same. So my electrics have only needed up to 5cell 5000 LiPos. The 3 chargers I'm about to mention can handle LiPos that size at least. Got no wish to go bigger and no idea if these 3 would be the best to do that.

I discovered early on getting into electric that everything I bought first thing wouldn't work on much else and 'much else' was what I had really wanted to do. I've also found that the Chinese selling the cheap knockoffs have marked me for death and plan to cheat me to death. If I buy 3 things for almost nothing, figuring that one will work, none will. etc etc

So my first AC/DC charger with enough power to do what I needed came from Tower. Turned out it wasn't big enough for my very next step. Over the years there have been more steps.

Today I have a Hobbico Accu-Cycle at home. It'll charge every type battery I have right up to the biggest. I can charge my TX and RX both at the same time so when I come home I do just that. I used NiCds so if I don't get back out to fly for days, the batteries still have full charge or very close. It's AC/DC on purpose.

Today I have a Triton2EQ in my electric flight box. The club I fly at most often has power. The AC/DC Triton does every type I got etc. I also am trying out a Venom Pro Plus as we speak. It's AC/DC and etc....

Every one of them came with instructions that are typical of anything that can do a lot of different things. They're a pita to follow until you've learned to talk their language, or think the way they did when they thought up how to make a tiny little window and a very few abbreviated words tell somebody what they're doing.

A number of us spent a couple hours at the field one day trying to setup a new charger one of the guys had just bought. All of us had some years experience with our chargers up till then. A couple of hours..... We all have that charger today. I laughed my butt off the other day when a newbie asked one of those guys about that charger and he said it was a piece of cake to use. How quickly we forget.

I couldn't tell you which of mine works the best or is easiest to use. They all are now.

OliverJacob

My Feedback: (12)

It depends on the models you fly and your personal preferences.
For the bigger gassers, I have an home made electric starter and that needs some power, so I have a lawn mower battery in my field box.
It's the biggest box you could get at Walmart and it has wheels and a handle. The battery lasts for a few months.

And I use a small power panel for glow engines.
Then I have fuel pumps for glow fuel and gasoline, Windex and paper towels, some hand tools like rpm meter, volt meter, temperature gun,
Lipo checker and a field charger.

Then pitch gauge and a few parts for helicopters, and a servo, some glue and standard tools - screw driver. allen wrenches. And a spare tx.

Our field is 25 Miles away and having to go back for something would really ruin it, so I try to be prepared for every situation.


 

nextofkin

My Feedback: (8)

I have used that battery from Harbor Freight and was having trouble with it , it has 15 NICAD batterys in it, that is why I went to lipos 4 cell If someone can tell me hot to down load photos I will send some photos in I went to the link at top for insert image but am lost after that.
nextofkin

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

What???[X(]. Just take three batteries per plane, a battery charger and a lawn mower battery. You are done.

OliverJacob

My Feedback: (12)

For a gasser, you wouldn't need anything. Just fill the tank at home and hand start it at the field

predman

My Feedback: (7)

A hangar9 battery load checker is a must! I always check my rx batteries and ignition batteries with a load before each flight no matter how short or how long. It's a cheap insurance that has paid for itself many times.

kwblake

ATV. I know it will charge LiFe. That is why I bought it. But, the manual is just.............. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh. Thanks, I feel better now.

Hossfly

Great list there, Things have changed so much in the last 10 years, it is difficult to keep up. I don't even try to do such. You seem to be a glow-Pluger person so I will make a few comments here. I DO NOT DO ELECTRICS. I do do some gas burners and will slowly keep easing more so.
I don't like the self-battery glow plug heaters. I like to use Power Panels with 12 volt Wet Cells. The batteries are cheap enough at Wal Mart and tractor departments in Home supply stores. Usually use up one each year.m Even at 77 I can still keep glow plug cords out of the way of a prop arc. My models are either anchored or held by a trust-worthy person. Of course that requires a power panel.
I use the Hobbico Accu Cycle Elite. Over the years I have used as many as there were produced. None last long. Accu Cycle Elite is fine, but I keep an extra on the shelf.
Accu Glow II works fine for my Control-Line models. I have a number of chargers. A relatively new one in my collection is the SIGMA EQ. It will serve my Lit. ION batteries very well.

For years I have used the BP small starters with an attached 14 Ni-Cad group. Excellent starter but again, several years it is gone, and I only have two now. I think the business has gone south. For the big gas burners I use a Pylon Brand heavy duty, however those engines start easily by flipping if they are on battery ignition. Mine now are. Magneto engines less than 26cc start easily with a standard starter.

Some items that come in handy (your selected tools are just fine) are, if you fly in very cold wx, is a small plastic bottle, that can be filled with 1/2 glow fuel and 1/2 gas.
Glow plugs like this and a little prime with such gets a quick start. (never tried below 20 degrees F with 40 mph blowing light snow) As stated by Predman above, the H-9 battery checker is a good item to have along. It may well be not needed but better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

I carry a lot of not-needed stuff. I never want to depend on what OTHERS have to loan to me. OTOH I loan and lose a lot of stuff at the field. One poster above seems to think he deserves to be fed by others. >> "The way I figure it, it saves carrying all that equipment to the field and if the guys there can’t afford it…they should just get out of the hobby..."

Droiddr

Well, This thread has ballooned. Very instructive. Lots of opinions and options.

I will probably stick with the portable starter and glow driver, hand crank pump. THat keeps it simple.
I will find a cheap NiCd or NiMh pack for the starter as Harbor freight does not exist in Canada. Maybe a LIPO if I find a cheap one.


Thanks for the kind words Hossfly.

kwblake

Hey Droiddr. I think the closest Harbour Freight to you would be in Detroit. I called once, and they will ship to Canada. I don't know about shipping batteries though. Someone might have some kind of Law or rule against it.

Droiddr

You are correct,

SHipping fees could be high and takes forever for customs sometimes. I will check the details.
The closest equivalent here could be princess auto. Saw a 18V 1.2AH generic pack for 15$.

I don't know if franchises of battery expert typically sell these.

jester_s1

Definitely go with the lipo for your starter. The lighter weight makes everything easier from lugging your box to the flightline to actually starting your engine. The only reason we've used lead acid and NiCd's for so long is because we didn't have lipos until just recently. The one caveat to that is that you absolutely must keep it charged. The older batteries will tolerate you running them all the way down before recharging them, but lipos can be ruined by doing that just one time. So if you'll top it off after every flying session you'll be fine.

ATVAlliance

Okay, I thought by your post that you did not know that, thus the reason for buying a 2nd charger for your LiFe packs.

While I dont have my AT6 in front of me to give you the step by step...I can give you the rundown.

You have to setup each battery type and capacity for the battery you are charing. You do this under the "Program" menu.

From that menu you can select the battery type Lipo Life etc etc etc.

You will also want to set the other parms of the charge program you are programming. IE the max mAH, charge duration, etc etc etc.

If you have a manual with yours, you got more than I did with my purchase. However, once I got poking buttons, I pretty much figured it out.

So, based on what I said above...you go to program function. select battery type (for instance lets use a 2200mAH LIFE batt) LiFe, then capacity..2200...then charge time out (you should know appox how long @ what charge rate (Crating) to charge this particular battery. So lets assume that would be half hour...max time should be 40 - 60 mins. The other options are like low voltage warning, and beep sounds etc (not critical to the programming). Once done...Save it. Then from that point on...you will only have a LiFe option. To go back to Lipo...repeat the steps...and change to LIPO. Then save again.

This setup is required for each battery type EACHtime you charge a different battery TYPE or CAPACITY...you will need to edit your settings.

Again, Im not at my charger right now...and if "PROGRAM"isnt the right feature set to be used, it is possibly the "LOAD"feature set.

Just poke around in there. And be sure to always pay attention to your charger when charging and dont leave it unattended, even once you get all of this programming setup down and understood.

Ive been using my AC6 now for about 3 years and have no complaints. Im going to buy another charger soon, not because the AC6 is a bad charger...but rather I want to buy a 4 battery charger so I can charge 4 different type/capacity batteries at the same time.

Goodluck and hope you get it figured out. If you lived close by I would offer to help explain it to you in person. Maybe someone that does live closeby will read this and make the same offer.

ATVAlliance

I have a direct gear drive starter that I run with a 2600 3s Lipo. Will start any glo engine that I own...with a 91 2s being the largest. I also have a hi torque chinese cheap starter that I use a 4000 4s Lipo on. It of course will start everything the 3s one I have will, plus a few gassers I own...a 26cc and a 40cc. The 26 I feel I have to use the starter on because it has a composite prop and I just dont feel safe hand flipping it. The 40 will hand flip (zdz40) but Ive been having issues with it and its a bear to start when cold soi just use the larger 4s lipo starter on it till I get it dialed in to be able to hand flip it.

Lipo on the starter for me...never looking back to other batt types for my starters. Oh, and I dont buy top name brand batteries so buying a 3s pack cheap is very easy to do. I think I only have about 30 bucks or so in my 4s pack. Well worth the money spent

corch

My Feedback: (1)

http://bpassociates.homestead.com/STARTERpacks.html

Droiddr

Sounds good,

I know little about Lipo batteries.
First do you have suggestions on a cheap but ok brand or source of lipo batteries appropriate for starters? (So far I only have 2 .46 glow engines and I have a 12v starter, thunder tiger I think )

Second I have an extra 300 .46 glow sized sitting in my basement I want to convert to electric. So I want to buy a decent charger that can do Lipo nicd life, etc, balance lipo packs etc etc.
Some I heard will warn or indicate you that your packs are bad or weak, whether they are lipo or nicd for receivers?

Do you have suggestions on a charger that will do 2 batteries at a time, be fed either by AC or DC? I don't want to go cheap but don't want to overspend for nothing.

Thanks

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

Do you fly when it is cold? LiPo batteries don't take to cold weather too well. (and that is north of the border cold, Canada, not Mexico).

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

I have tested and used a wide variety of starters and battery combos including the Harbour Freight 18 volt and Black and Decker both 18 as well as 24 volt. The twenty four with both 12volt rated starters and with 24 volt rated starters.

First with the Harbour Freight batteries as well as the Black and Decker drill packs these are nicds and typically are rated either at 1200mah or 1700mah. The increase in voltage will mean fantastic starter performance is you are comparing to the old 12 volt starter and 12 volt gel cell in a box.

The disadvantage is the must be charged before each outing so if you are expecting to go weeks at a time (whatever that means) without charging then this is not for you.

However another hugh advantage is the Nicd and to a lessor extent Nimh will suffer terrific abuse and no worse for the ware.

When it comes to Lipo the reason I never pursued this is the the use my starters get and that is constant when I am at the field. My starters are the most borrowed starters at every field I frequent. I have finally gotten a good percentage at the home field to convert to the simple 18 volt setup so thank heaven some of the pressure is off. The problem with this however has been the fact that its impossible to keep track of usage and state of discharge. Lipo will not tolerate this and if I had been using them its likely I would be replacing the battery every visit to the field due to deep discharge.

As far as fuel pumps go I use nothing any more except the gear manuals for everything including gasolene, Diesel and glow fuel. I think these are the pear shapes you are talking about.

John

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

I think the "pear" shaped he is referring to is a fuel bulb like we used in the 50's and 60's (I'd bet my dad used them in the 40's). They work ok for about a year or two, but then the rubber starts to go bad and lets go of small flakes in the fuel. I guess we could go back to that old clear vinyl fuel tubing too, which got hard as a rock, didn't stay on too well, and generally a pain.

For a fuel pump, a peristaltic pump works very well. The Dave Brown six shooter punps seem to last forever.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXB887&P=SM

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

OK HP never occured to me he meant an old Full bulb Been through far to many of those things, when was it the Paeolithic age? Can,t imagine anyone useing one of those with a typical 'modern sport airplane' that might easily require seven or eight squeeze cycles.

The trouble with the Dave Brown pump is it strickly requires two hands one on the bottle and one on the crank because of the rough operation. Can,t give those away around here. I much prefer the geared manuals (anybrand).

John

Droiddr

Yeah,

I will chuck the pear pump and get an extra crank one.

Thanks.

ATVAlliance

John,

I too had your same concern. I just carry one of these in my pocket and spot check my battery from time to time. However, I dont lend my tools/starters out too much. Not to be a complete "butthole" to fellow members...its just I had enough hindsight to be sure I have brought everything with me to the field, others should do the same.

Thats not to say that I wouldnt loan someone my starter or a tool if they absentmidedly left theirs at home. We all do that from time to time whether it be a starter or a screwdriver. Its just those that habitually only show up with their plane and radio and no support equipment...well, I didnt bring them up to raise, is my stand on that matter.

Anyway....here is the link in case you dont have one of these already.

http://www.rcplanet.com/ProductDetai...Fcyf4AodpVUAEQ

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

KSJ makes a nice adaptor for twin 6/7 car packs. They fit most any starter. I pick up 7-cell packs on clearance at hobby shops.

Quote:

ORIGINAL: HighPlains

Quote:

A small first aid kit.

A bottle of thin CA will close most wounds.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

[quote]I carry a lot of not-needed stuff. I never want to depend on what OTHERS have to loan to me. OTOH I loan and lose a lot of stuff at the field. One poster above seems to think he deserves to be fed by others. >> "The way I figure it, it saves carrying all that equipment to the field and if the guys there can’t afford it…they should just get out of the hobby..."

kwblake

Thanks ATV. I know the most important thing to do is CALM DOWN. I just get so frustrated with the manual. OK Kevin, BREATHE!!!!!!!

Thanks again.