Is it better to balance while charging OR at the end of the charger OR it doesn't make any difference ?

Thanks,
Séb

I consider best to do so when charging.

Balance while charging is best.

Consider this...

You have 3 glasses of water sitting side by side connected together by a hollow tube.
You close off the tubes and fill the glasses with water, however, you can't get each glass filled with exactly the same amount of water.
Then you open the tubes to let the level of water equalize in each of the three glasses. The less full glasses takes some water from the more full glasses leaving all 3 glasses equal in quantity but not-quite-full.

Now...
Take those same 3 glasses and leave the tube open and fill the glasses with water.
As the glasses fill the water flows back and forth between the glasses keeping the level of water equal until all 3 glasses are full.
Now you have 3 full glasses of water.

Same while charging a battery.

What would be a good charger that does balance during the charge for 3 cell Thunder Power batterie ?

I am having a lot of problem getting my first electric setup to work properly. I have actually an Hobbico Accu-Cycle Elite charger that can charge lipos batterie but I can't find an external balancer that work with it. I had at first a Great Plane Equinox balancer but the pins spacing of my Thunder Power batterie doesn't fit on it. So, someone told me to order a blinky adaptor with a Thunder Power board adaptor and I did it. Now, I can balance the pack but I just can't charge it with the Accu-cycle Elite charger as I don't have a connector to connect it with my batteries.....

Please help me find a solution to this !

Thanks,
Séb

I'm in the same boat as you. My Equinox balancer plugs do not fit or mach my LiPo packs. I have Pollyquest and X-Caliber LiPo's. My Triton Jr does not have a balancer plug built into it either.
-Andrew

Yeah, I really feel like starting electric is so much more complex than going glow !! If you don't buy all the recommended equipments from a kit you really need to know exactly what is needed or....well you are in the same boat

I hope someone will help us
Séb

I'm not familiar with all the choices of chargers and balancers out there, I've only been flying about 6 months and since I don't use LiPo right now I'm not sure if this charger/cycler/balancer would do what you need, but I bought the TP-610C charger a little bit back and so far I have absolutely no complaint. It comes with the balance board that has pretty much all the plugs on it that I think anyone would need, can do Nimh/Nicd/Lipo and A123 batteries and can charge at a rate up to 10 Amps. The owner of my LHS has this charger in his shop and recommended it to me. Some have said it's a little pricey, but at $129 and change, it does everything I've needed it to do without any hiccups.

Hope this is of some help and good luck.
Paul

I have been looking for the TP-610C as well. Looks like a complete charger and since it's a Thunder Power it can go with my TP batteries. However, in the description on Great Hobbies web site they state it need a ( not included ) DC Power supply that they sell at something like $50 ! Is it true or does it come with it ?

Thanks,
Séb

I found the solution after a good discussion with a tech. from Great Hobbies !!

All I need is to purchase a Dean Connector and soldering it to some cable that are attach to banana plugs at the end to connect into my Accu-cycle elite charger. This way, I will be able to charge and balance at the same time with my charger and blinky ( with the TP adaptor board ) balancer.

This dean connector is also sold already soldered but I will make mine as I have everything at hand and because it's BO now: http://www.greathobbies.com/producti...rod_id=MPI2792

Séb

Good to hear you have your solution. Just for future information on the 610C, it does need some form of a power supply be it AC/DC for home use or straight up DC. It has alligator clips to hook up to the power supply. Of course I reckon you could change them if something else worked better in a particular case. Since I have another charger that can be powered by both AC as well as DC, I use that one at the house and take the 610C out to the field with me to use while I'm flying. I just connect it to a battery. It's a fine charger IMO.

I have the TP=610C and like it very much.
I wished I would have purchased it as my first charger.
It's my third charger. I went cheap and only bought the charger that worked with the batteries I had. Since then, I've advanced to bigger, better planes and had to upgrade the charger each time.
It would have been much cheaper to start with the 610C, or a similar charger.