EC6 Battery Charger - review
05-02-2009, 11:34 AM
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EC6 Battery Charger - review
I thought I would post a few comments on the [link=http://ecpower.com.hk/?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=182]EC6 Battery Charger[/link] for anyone considering it's purchase.
- Purchased through eBay from: [link=http://stores.ebay.com/BULK-VERKAUF-Store_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZQ2d999QQftidZ2QQtZkm]eBay Bulk-Verkauf store[/link] for $50 (free shipping).
- The charger took almost 3 weeks to arrive. A little long, but coming from Hong Kong my expectations weren't too high.
- The battery monitor software included absolutely no documentation or help files, it came on a mini-cd which was difficult to install. The drivers didn't want to install correctly, and the install software showed menus with a lot of ASCII type characters rather than English. You had to guess at what you were clicking on. Once installed, the software appeared to load ok, but no matter what I did, I could not get any of my computers to recognize the charger. I enabled USB on the charger - I tried a computer running Windows Vista, and two different ones with Windows XP - I tried different USB cables. NO LUCK. So, if you think the battery monitor software is a selling point for you - think again. I can't get it to work.
- Everything they promised was included. The Deans/Futaba connection did not work for some reason, even though the connections looked good. I emailed the HK office, and they responded real quickly. It looked like they were going to get right on it and replace that connection, but I never did receive one. So, I went to LHS and bought a banana plug/Futaba RX connection for $6.
- The manual was acceptable. It will not teach you any battery understanding so you will need to obtain a minimum level of battery knowledge. This was my first computerized battery charger. Until this, I had simply used wall chargers. With some experimenting on batteries I didn't care about, and reading the manual several times, I was able to figure out the various features.
OVERALL IMPRESSION:
I was really disapointed the software didn't work, and mildly disapointed about the bad connector. While unsatisfied with some of the accessories - I am satisfied with the quality, operation, available functions, and value of the charger itself. For $50 (with free shipping), you can't beat the deal. With the Triton 2 coming in at $119, not including shipping (Tower Hobbies)... well, let's just say Great Planes is going to have to get a little more competitive in pricing than that. I am willing to pay more for the name brand, but not 2.5 times more.
I have a few negative comments about this charger, but I would still recommend purchasing it. It seems to work fine, and is a great value at $80 less than my first choice for a charger.
- Purchased through eBay from: [link=http://stores.ebay.com/BULK-VERKAUF-Store_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZQ2d999QQftidZ2QQtZkm]eBay Bulk-Verkauf store[/link] for $50 (free shipping).
- The charger took almost 3 weeks to arrive. A little long, but coming from Hong Kong my expectations weren't too high.
- The battery monitor software included absolutely no documentation or help files, it came on a mini-cd which was difficult to install. The drivers didn't want to install correctly, and the install software showed menus with a lot of ASCII type characters rather than English. You had to guess at what you were clicking on. Once installed, the software appeared to load ok, but no matter what I did, I could not get any of my computers to recognize the charger. I enabled USB on the charger - I tried a computer running Windows Vista, and two different ones with Windows XP - I tried different USB cables. NO LUCK. So, if you think the battery monitor software is a selling point for you - think again. I can't get it to work.
- Everything they promised was included. The Deans/Futaba connection did not work for some reason, even though the connections looked good. I emailed the HK office, and they responded real quickly. It looked like they were going to get right on it and replace that connection, but I never did receive one. So, I went to LHS and bought a banana plug/Futaba RX connection for $6.
- The manual was acceptable. It will not teach you any battery understanding so you will need to obtain a minimum level of battery knowledge. This was my first computerized battery charger. Until this, I had simply used wall chargers. With some experimenting on batteries I didn't care about, and reading the manual several times, I was able to figure out the various features.
OVERALL IMPRESSION:
I was really disapointed the software didn't work, and mildly disapointed about the bad connector. While unsatisfied with some of the accessories - I am satisfied with the quality, operation, available functions, and value of the charger itself. For $50 (with free shipping), you can't beat the deal. With the Triton 2 coming in at $119, not including shipping (Tower Hobbies)... well, let's just say Great Planes is going to have to get a little more competitive in pricing than that. I am willing to pay more for the name brand, but not 2.5 times more.
I have a few negative comments about this charger, but I would still recommend purchasing it. It seems to work fine, and is a great value at $80 less than my first choice for a charger.
