Anyone have any expirence with parallel charging . I notice several boards on the market to do this. I was thinking about a second Cellpro 10XP but this might fit the bill in order to charge faster.

Are they safe, does it ballance all the cells, do you know how much was put in each pack?

What if you have a problem with one battery durning the charge , will they all fry?

Thoughts, comments welcome
Thanks

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I parallel charge almost all the time. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I am charging with a Meanwell 1000 watt supply and Icharger 306B. I can charge six 5,000 packs at 1c all at one time or two packs at 3c, etc. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">The thing with parallel charging is you can not mix cell counts, but you can mix size capacity of batteries. In other words, let&rsquo;s say you have a five cell 4,000 ma and a five cell 5,000 pack. Just add them together, which is 9,000 ma or 9 amps. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I use both Paraboard and Progressive&rsquo;s. Both are excellent. The big pain is unless you standardize your batteries, you could wind up with a ton of boards. I stick to Deans and Thunder Power for the balance taps. I have Dean&rsquo;s on all my main leads and just use balance lead convertors from my packs that don&rsquo;t take Thunder Power balance leads. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">In fact, one thing I have found is, it can be a real pain to plug in six balance taps into the one board when I am charging 5&rsquo;s. It really get&rsquo;s tight. It actually works better to have a lead extension from the battery balance connector to the board. I just leave the balance extenders (convertors) on the board and plug the batteries into them. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">One of the down sides is you can not tell how much you are putting into each battery. As far as your charger is concerned, it&rsquo;s just charging one big battery. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">Yes, they will be balanced if you charge with a balance lead. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I would assume if one battery is out of whack, your charger is going to sense that and shut down. I have charged dozens and dozens of cycles and never had that happen. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">The way Cellpro charges (2 sides), I understand it can be an issue. I read that Cellpro was coming out with their own parallel system.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div>

Hi Portlandflyer, speaking of the Cellpro 10XP charger, I've got a question for you or someone who has used this charger. How do you safely charge a "single" 10s pack without getting an error message. This is not addressed in the PDF Cellpro 10XP manual. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Everette

Everette, which error message are you getting?

I assume you mean 2 x 5S in series, correct?

Perhaps the most common problem is plugging the balance taps to the proper channel. Balance tap #1 goes to black and balance tap #2 goes to red.

Bob, The message I get is: CH1 Bad S. Count/Node Wiring XH. Keep in mind, this 10s pack has only 2 charge wires (not 4) and 2 balance connectors. This is a single pack with 10 cells. I sure hope this charger is capable of this task because if it is, I'm in the process of saving at least 8-9 oz vs 2x5s packs! How does a Msytic with an AUW of <10lbs sound? Everette

Everette,

The black negative wire from your pack goes to the black terminal on the top of the charger. The red positive wire from your pack goes to the red terminal on the top of the charger. The two center terminals aren't used in the 10S configuration. On the side of your charger, there are two balance tap connectors labelled "Ch 1" and "CH 2". How you use those will depend on how you're hooking up your balance taps. If you use the balance boards that Revelectrix sells, you'll need a balance board for each channel. The balance board plugged into CH 1 will connect to the balance tap closest to the black wire from your pack. You'll use the 5S connector on the board. The board connected to the Ch 2 gets the balance tap closest to the red wire on your pack and you'll use the 5S connector on that board. The charger will internally treat it as two, 5S packs in series which it actually is.

Before you do any of that, you'll need to program the charger to accept a 10S pack as well as the charge rate you plan to charge at.

The hookup for all of this is the same as it was with the CellPro 10S. I charge this way all the time even though I use 5S packs and just hook them up in series. The easiest way to remember it is black always goes with Ch1 and red always goes with Ch 2. Once you hook it up a few times, it'll be second nature.

Hope this helps!

Verne Koester

Verne, thanks for your response. I've run the Cellpro 10S for the last 3 seasons so I'm familiar with the basics of both units. Prior to and after your suggestions, I tried everything again and the same error message appeared. BTW, this is the second 10XP unit I've had in the last 3 weeks. The first one gave the same error message and completely shut down while I was charging 5s packs x2 at 2c. It had to be sent back and was replaced under warranty. So, as you can imagine, this does not make me feel very good. At least my Cellpro 10S unit allowed you to continue to charge using the balancing boards only if you had to. The main reasons I decided to upgrade to the 10XP unit was flexilibilty, increased charging options and increased capacity over the older technology of the 10S unit. If I can overcome this glitch I stand to gain alot in overall performance due to the weight savings of 8-9 ounces in battery weight. I'm open to more suggestions and encourage others to join in this discussion. Thanks again, Everette

If you still have the Cellpro 10S, try charging your 10S pack with that. If it works, you either have a bad 10XP or have the wrong settings. If you're using the Cellpro boards, you should be using the default FMA settings for wiring. I know for certain that the boards work with both Thunderpower and Zippy packs which are both wired the same and just have a different plug. I read the manual from the FMA site about different wiring configurations for balance taps and found it confusing at best. If you're using TP or Zippy packs and FMA boards, the default settings for wiring configurations should be fine. Beyond that, I'm afraid I'm not qualified to offer much help. There's a lot of info about XH configurations on Pg 13 of their manual which might make sense to you if you have a different configuration. I never liked the balance boards and stopped using mine a long time ago. I have a 12" TP extension and modified the male end to fit into where the balance boards normally attach. From there, I either attach a TP balance tap directly or use a short adaptor from HK to attach a Zippy pack. The Zippy adapter doesn't change the orientation of the wires which is why I'm confused when FMA says that JST-XH is different. Stick with the default FMA setting and you should be fine.

Verne

Verne, thanks again. I'm going to reread your last response and the PDF 10XP manual (page 13) to make sure I'm on the "right page". It may well be that it could be something I've either done or failed to do that's created this situation. Everette

I was in a very similar situation when I got my first 10XP and had to send it back. Likewise, I was a previous 10S user and was quite familiar with the standard battery hook-ups.

However, I now have 2 of the 10XP units and they have both worked flawlessly for quite a few charge cycles.

Vern or anyone else, How do you program the 10xp to charge a true 10s pack with two ballance taps ?

Kirk

Guys

I just got my new 10XP and am having similiar issues to Everette, I can't even get it to charge a single 4S pack without getting the bad S. count message, I am using the Cellpro balancing boards I use with my 10S for Rhino packs. I must say that I find the 10XP more difficult to set up than the 10S with maybe too many options, I basically only want to charge 4-10S lipo packs and found the 10S very easy to set up and use. It also appears that the 10XP will only charge at a max of 6amps in auto mode which is what I was using on my 10S which does not have this limit. I am now wishing I had bought another 10S!

John

I have also seen "bad S. count" messages with my 10S and the problem was with some disconnected balance wire at the FMA adaptor board. Once the board is replaced, the error goes away.

So double check the board.

The two 10S I have have been working flawlessly for over two seasons: well over 300 cycles at 5A charging current. I do use a small utility fan to help cool the two units and the power converters during the process.

nonstoprc, I'm not so sure about that. I have a 10S that works fine with it's balancing boards. I took these same balancing boards and tried to use them also on the 10XP and still had the same
error message. After 2 failed units (with the same problems), I asked for a refund and bought the ICharger 1010B charger and have been happy ever since. Regards, Everette

The board is ok, it's the same board I an using with my 10S and it works just fine. Meanwhile the dealer has asked me to send the 10XP back, he is sending me a new one today which they have checked out, will report on outcome.

John

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Everett,</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">I agree, Ichargers seem to be bullet proof. I have two 306B&rsquo;s that work every time. With two 306B&rsquo;s and two 1,000 watt power supplies I can parallel charge twelve 5,000 packs all at the same time.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div>