747

My Feedback: (1)

Hi

I just built 2 - 5s1p A123 packs from a dewalt battery. What is the cheap and best single chemistry A123 charger & A123 balancer
you can recommend?What brand , model? Is Astro the best or one of the best?

Thanks
747

Red Scholefield

My Feedback: (9)

Cheap and best are kind of mutually exclusive when it comes to chargers. That being said look at the Bantam BC-6 for a good balancing charger.

747

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Sorry Red! I need a "single chemistry" charger.

mrasmm

I don't understand why you need a single chemistry charger?

I would say look at the cellpro, but it only goes up to 4s I think, so you'd have to do two seperate charging cycles on that battery to get it fully charged.

747

My Feedback: (1)

The human error factor is very high for me. Thats why, I am afraid I might not change the battery type and charge the wrong battery with the wrong battery setting...!! Is it true that these multi chemistry chargers warn us when the battery connected does not match the type chosen in the charger settings?
Am I the only risky person here or is there any of you like me?!

mrasmm

hehe, yeah I know what you mean. Yeah with most multi chargers these days they will tell you if the battery chemistry does not match the voltage that is comming in. Alot of them will warn you and stop charging if the pack doesn't charge right and go through the right progression as far as voltage peaking internal resistance how many amps it draws, ect. You can also put a thermal cut off that could help with that =)

hehe, yeah there are a bunch of us out there like that =P The one thing that the multi chargers (or really any charger that I know of besides the cellpro), is if the voltage or cell count matches but the capacity does not, it will charge it anyways, and that could be a really bad deal for lipo's. the cellpro automaticaly detects the capacity and adjusts accordingly.

there is also this one by fma direct that might be worth looking at. i'm pretty sure it is fairly new, so I dunno anything about it, except the company is solid and puts out good products as a general rule
http://www.fmadirect.com/detail.htm?...044&section=38

the one fortunate thing about a123's is they are very forgiving compared to lipo's. A guy over in the battery forum really abused them, and they popped open and sprung out some copper looking foil, but they didn't get too hot and they didn't catch on fire.

rmenke

My Feedback: (13)

747:

Yep, you are talking about me for sure. I use the Cellpro 4 per Red Schoefields origingal recommendation, and find it "Roger" proof. Dont use any A123 cells, so all my lipos plug up and charge without and setting changes, 2 to 4 cell inclusive. My ni-cads and Nimah are charged with the Peak Sirius charger which has served me well for several years. Did almost burn the house down charging a cheep li-po cell with a Asro flight 109 with no cell balancer. Amazing how much flame a 2000 mah cell will put out, flat scary, about 3' high and kicks out burning material for about 12'. Hapen to have been sitting right in front of the thing when it went "poof". Now charge in a flower pot covered on a tile covered table. I'm now 73, so I have a minor excuse, but not very valid. Dumb move is still dumb move. ENJOY

TampaRCGuy

My Feedback: (282)

based on your question, IMHO the best single chemistry charger out there is the TME Xtrema.

http://www.rcaccessory.com/index.asp...rodID=255&HS=1

High powered for a 5S pack. You can even serial them for 10S charging. TME is about to release (I have been Beta testing it for months now) their new balancers for the Xtrema. What is cool is that you will have the capability to hook up 4 balancers to the Xtrema and balance charge 4 packs at the same time. Each pack is opto-isolated from each other as well. Very cool design.



Now if you decide not to get a single chemsitry charger, then the e-Station BC-8 is recommended for 5S A123 packs.

http://www.rcaccessory.com/index.asp...ROD&ProdID=203



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