yepe

Guys what is the best charger? Right now im using Revolectrix powerlab 6 and Hyperion 720i Super Duo 3. Powerlab 6 is a good charger but the down side is im using parallel board everytime I charge. Its hard to balance 4pcs 5S batteries at the same time. Every cell and battery has different voltage readings and its hard to equalize the voltage if your charging 4 batteries at the same time. The Hyperion 720i is a good charger coz its a dual charger so you can do separate charging, downside is charger is faulty. I already send this charger to HK twice for repair. Any suggestions? Thanks

ltc

My Feedback: (3)

FWIW, I have a Powerlab 6 with MPA board for all my parallel charging, a Cellpro 10XP for charging 2 5S in series at one time and 2 Multi 4s chargers for all my smaller LiPo and LiFe packs (charging via balance leads with low current).
I have always had good luck and good support with FMA Revolectrix chargers.

serious power

Hi,
I Charger 4010 seems to be the current mark.
Two channels - no parallel balancing

Brian

Malcolm H

Sorry to disagree with you but if you parallel packs with main leads and balance connectors then all the parallel cells must be at the same voltage. If anything this tends to make balancing easier not harder. I regularly charge 4x 10s packs using a home made balance harness and main lead harness on a iCharger 3010b and have had no problems at least for the first couple of hundred cycles!

Malcolm

blake26m

Hi,
Im using the Fusion Emperor L712B with two modified HP pc power supplies running in series at 25v 1200watts. More then enough power for F3A charging. I dont parallel charge but am interested in starting.

Mikey

Malcolm H

Why wouldn't you?

serious power

You've never heard of Murphy so !!

Malcolm H

Yes I have Brian,

He's one of your mates who drinks in Treacy's!

M

Jeff Worsham

My Feedback: (28)

This setup has parallel charged almost 2yrs now with no failure at a rate of 50-60 5s packs per week. Been real happy with it.

Velco

I totally disagree with parallel charging because Murphy is not my friend! I have recently purchased Hitec H4 (4x120W) charger and am very happy with it. I can charge four 5S 5000mAh packs at the same time at 1C with 18V 30A Hitec power supply.. With independent charging each pack is brought to its maximum capacity.


Velco

Malcolm H

Velco,

Please explain how Murphy acts more during parallel charging than having 4 charger outputs going at one time. The same amount of energy is being added to the same storage capacity at the same rate so why is there a difference? Why do you think the packs act differently in terms of maximum capacity when they are being charged separately?

Malcolm

Velco

Malcolm you are right about Murphy's act during parallel charging. I used to charge in series and that was not good as it was easy to reverse the balance ports.

But, when charging in parallel the balancer is reading only the average V of all the cells and cannot balance cells individually. We all know that not all the cells are the same and that some cells will not charge till 4,2V. With parallel charging all the cells will be charged on the average value. On top of everything you will not see if a certain cell within the battery has started to behave badly.

We all make choices, I made my choice and I am very happy with it. From the cost point of view it is all the same, but with 4 independent chargers, like I have, I definitely have more flexibility.

Velco

Neko

Revolectrix CellPro 8, with FeatherMerchant's 24V x 47A server power supplies. It will charge 4x 5S-5000mAh in 30 minutes or less. Parallel charging. I've charged well over 500 batteries on this setup without any problems.

Velco, the charger does not read the "average" voltage of the cells. When you parallel charge, you are shorting the cells of each battery together and so the voltage of each one is forced to be identical. In order to for them to be be identical, current will start to flow from the ones that started out slightly higher to the ones that started out lower. Or, during charging, the former will receive slightly less current from the charger, while the latter will receive slightly more. By the end of the charging cycle, by virtue of these differences, the charge in each battery will be balanced. That is, when you disconnect all the batteries from the charger, they will all read the same voltage to within a few millivolts.

So parallel charging is a perfectly legitimate way to charge, with little risk of things going wrong unless the connection to one of the cells through the balance connector is faulty. Even in that case, things won't get too far off, assuming that the batteries started with similar levels of discharge.

David

chuckk2

Parallel charging works. It works better in terms of final cell balance if the parallel cells are similar in behavior.
The quality of the balance connections can also have an impact, due to current flow between the cells and the charger.
A cell with lower IR and a better balance connection will have more influence than one that is just the opposite.
I use a DPL-8 and a 28vdc 65A Lambda for DC power.
The DPL uses the set charge rate to determine balance cutoff current. Thus, the higher parallel current setting may
influence the balance cutoff, and the eventual cell voltages at the end of charge.

Velco

OK, I expressed my self incorrectly. What I meant is that if just one cell which is in parallel connection wont charge above 4,15V then all the cells in that parallel connection will not go over 4,15V.

Also no one is mentioning that in order to charge in parallel all the packs have to be similarly discharged and of equal capacity, ideally should be identical. I really do not see any advantage over independent charging, only disadvantages!

I have been using LiPo since 2006 and really many different packs passed through my hands. With 4 independent chargers I can charge at the same time my flying packs together with my receiver packs or my radio or whatever I may need and monitor the behavior of every single cell independently.

Velco

woodie

Charger manufacturers have dropped back from 10S to 8s or 6s and upped the max charge rates (ThunderPower TP820CD, PowerLab 8, PowerLab 6, etc). If you are using 10S packs they force you to move to 2 5S charging so it is natural to move to parallel charging for those paired 5S packs. I didn't like it at first, but have had no issues. If you are running 2 5S packs in series for a 10S, they are at equal charge state after a flight, no worries about one 5S pack being at a different charge state than the other. Balancing has not been a problem at all. iCharger still provides 10S capable chargers with high charge rate capability but the general trend seems to be migrating to 8S or less cell count in the higher charge rate units. I will be interesting to see what direction this takes in the future as models move to higher cell counts and more capacity (12S, 14S, etc).

D

Jeff Worsham

My Feedback: (28)

I address this by checking voltage on each pack post flight using Hyperion battery checker, then connect in parallel only packs which are within 3% of each other for charging. Obeying my Tx timer and grouping practice flights similar in power loading helps create multiple packs discharged equally. When that fails, Plan B: I start charging lowest voltage packs, then stop and add on the higher voltage packs when V is equivalent. (Plan B rarely happens). As far as capacity goes, my 4400's, 4500's, 5000's, and 5800's can (and have been) charged together, provided their voltages are close at the start. But I don't usually do that since they're of different ages and different brands so I feel better about charging them in separate like groups.

ltc

My Feedback: (3)

I avoid high charge rates at all costs. There is no positive impact on the battery performance or longevity to high charge (and discharge) rates.
Temperature is the #1 factor in degrading battery performance and longevity, followed by depth of discharge.
Temperature is a function of internal resistance, so fast charging (or discharging) leads to temperature which leads to cell degradation.
Depth of discharge has a similar impact on longevity, although for different reasons. Battery physics are a ***** !

I always charge at 1-2C, make sure that a high discharge application has a high C (low IR) pack, only charge to 4.1V and try to never get anywhere near 3.8 and monitor cycle counts

blake26m

Fusion Emperor L712B with two modified HP pc power supplies running in series at 25v 1200watts.

Edge 540

My Feedback: (2)

Just my Opinion here, but I love my Turnigy 200W two port charger. I have been using it now for two seasons with no issues. I can charge 4 of my packs using a paraboard in about 35 minutes.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I have been using a pair of iCharger 1010's for a few years now. I would have no reservations buying another if I needed to. Of course I'd look at the more powerful ones but I don't know how much extra I'd pay - I have the two 1010's and a 6S charger in parallel off one 55a power supply. I probably paid less for all 3 than one of the new multi-port chargers. I can charge two 10s packs and two 2s flight packs all at once in 45min (because I choose to charge at 1C). With 3 flight packs I can fly all day and never find that I am waiting for batteries to come off the charger. Plus if a charger goes, I still have another to hold me over.

There are several features that allow you to discharge too by adding an external resistor.

NeilRivera

The best charger is the one that works and gets the job done . Period.

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,

I use two Hyperion EOS 720i Super Duo 3 chargers (with two Junsi S1200 Power supplies) and that works fine to charge my 8 cell (2 x 4cell) and 10 cell (2 x 5cell) packs quick and easy (in sync mode - a Hyperion only feature). The 720i Super Duo 3 was a popular charger in the past and set the benchmark for one of the most powerful chargers when it was released but today Hyperion lag behind and have not to the best of my knowledge released any new chargers for years. It almost seems like development has stopped at Hyperion. I will keep my Hyperion chargers as long as they work, they are easy to use and I have nothing to complain about them other then they may need USB isolator connected if one want to use the Hyperion software with the charger connected via USB to computer.
Picture below of my "charging station" at home.

For me a good charger is of course a charger that gets the present jobs done and also can handle my expected future needs, has long warranty, good build quality and is easy to use.
Not easy to know when one buy a charger if it will be good but if one read reviews etc and on forums one should be able to avoid the ones that do not meet the needs and may have not so good quality.

/Bo

ltc

My Feedback: (3)

You might consider building some extension leads for both balance and discharge leads. That would allow you to fully close the velcro flap on the Lipo bags, which will definitely help improve their performance in the event of a battery failure.
You might also consider charging a single Lipo in a single bag. Most bags are only rated for a single battery (in terms of combustion protection) and also if one battery fails, it will likely cause the other battery to be damaged, thus providing 2x the energy released. Much safer to keep batteries (physically) separate during charging.

bem

My Feedback: (1)

ltc,
That is good advice. My 8 cell and 10 cell packs are two 4 cell and two 5 cell that are one unit (taped with Kapton tape).
It is as You say bad if one battery (4 or 5 cell) go bad it might drag the other with it in a LiPo fire.

I might consider to split them and just use velcro on the side of the packs holding them side by side as a unit in the plane instead.

/Bo