ryin

im looking into getting a couple of lipo's and im looking for a decent charger to charge them, i dont know to much about lipos except they should be charged slow and balanced. I would really like to keep the price under $50, i was checking out the ones on hobbyking.com but not sure if people have any of these or have suggestions on good chargers.

guver

My Feedback: (325)

We'd need to know your power requirements to recommend a charger. Pack voltage and desired current would be a good start (along with number of packs)

ryin

I'm looking to get 3s 20C 5000mah turnigy batteries, possibly to charge to of them at a time

RobbieP

Not wise.

redfisher1974

I do use HK lipos, But I prefer a brand name charger. I have a new dynamite passport charger that works nice but it is really loud.

FoamyVictim

When looking for a charger for a battery beyond 2S(7.4V) you want to find something that can charge the pack @ at least 1C. This means 1x the capacity of the pack, i.e. charging a 5000 mah pack at 5 amps, or a 3000 mah pack at 3 amps. When you go up in battery voltage with a charger, you need higher wattage. Most chargers on HK's site are about 50 watts. That's fine for 2S(7.4V) but a little low for 3S(11.1V) Sometimes, that limited wattage limits the charger's ability to charge at 1C. Example, my 50 watt turnegy charger will only charge my 4S packs at 3.3 amps. My pack can easily handle 5, so I wanted a more powerful charger. I got a 250 watt charger, and now I can charge at full amperage.

This charger is a 200 watt charger, and more than enough to handle your 3S pack. It also has a built in balancer, critical for modern lipo usage.

http://hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store...dProduct=15167

4goodbuys2

Eventually I will buy a lipo charger either a passport or a duratrax ice , but right now I have 8 nimh 5 3000mah 7 cell , 1 4600 mah 6cell , 2 2600 mah 6 cells, but as soon as they go out I will get a high mah lipo probly a max amp 13500 mah 2s or something like that so I will only need 2 batteries.
I would like to hear about the different name brand charger's though.

guver

My Feedback: (325)

If you want 1 hr charging then A TC 1030 might be nice. It is 120 watts. If you want 30 minutes charging then look to something over 250 watts and 20 amps. The i-charger 206B might fit the bill.

Radamus

Ryin, I just did what your looking to do and I can tell u my experience so far for whatever it's worth.
I have a Revo brushless and recently bought my first set of lipos. I bought a pair Tenergy 2s 20c Lipos, 8000mah. These are the biggest you'll stuff in the Revo batt pockets. I definately wanted to charge both at the same time so that means 2 chargers, but also on a tight budget (got a grand in this thing already) I bought 2 Dynamite Passport Lipo/LiFePo chargers. They will do up to 6s and most importantly they are balance chargers. I could've bought a cheaper one yet but no balance port. I think I paid like $58 shipped each. I had $214 for the batts and the chargers in my hands.
Plus side-cost-balance charging-adjustable rate.
Down side- Lipo's only - only 5 amp max rate.
These 8000's take a while to fill up at 5 amp- but the runtime is insane. My bud runs a brushed E-maxx 16.8 (the newest Emaxx) and He went through 4 sets of Nimh ranging from 1-3600 set 4600 and 2 5000 sets and I just started to die. Ran a few more minutes and hit the cutout. IT's only happened once so far. We usually break something before I run out of pack. I know they're only 20c 30c burst but they were almost the same price I paid for 5000 nimh 7cells 2 weeks earlier.
So, I sold him all my Nimh stuff and a Dynamite Twin charger- I could never put anything in my Revo again except Lipos-

Charge time, well- After about 45min of running I'm still at full power- takes about an hour on the charger. first time I ran them to the cutout, took about hour and 40 minutes. Sure I'd love to have a high amp charger, but is it worth the 250 it takes for a good quality one? I dunno, probably but for the skins it's a great setup for me.

Hope it helps!

shenlonco

My Feedback: (2)

Hyperion makes top quality top of the line lipo chargers.

armoredsaint

but don't they have their special balance charger plugs?that would be a PITA compared to the standard ones???

plasmaedge

i have an imax b6 and its awesome.

deviltrigger529

I have a Hot Power H610 which is basically a Thunder Power T610 from Hobbypartz for $80 and its been great. I charge my 3s 4500mah LiFes at 10A all the time, paired with a Great Planes 12A power supply. I plan on getting another and a second power supply soon so I can charge 2 packs since it can take a little while with 7 packs.

http://www.hobbypartz.com/h610-hotpower-charger.html

I was thinking about the Turnigy Accucell chargers but I liked the higher amp rate this one provided.

EDIT: Actually the HobbyKing ECO6-10 looks pretty decent, maybe I'll pick one of those up.

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...dProduct=15167

shenlonco

My Feedback: (2)

Yes but they sell a adapter bord for a few bucks..

ryin

These chargers say they can charge up to 6s, is it possible to charge 2 3s batteries in parallel on the same charger? Also what sort of power supply should I be looking at since they don't come with them.

guver

My Feedback: (325)

Yes, it is. A ps should be selected that has at least the same power as your max power requirement and a voltage between the charger's low and high input voltage requirement.

AdamW

Stay away from LIPO's, they are just WAY too dangerous. Go with LIFEPO packs unless you dont mind having to always worry about the possibility of your house burning down. It has happened and WILL happen again despite what many in the hobby do not want to acknowledge and wish to keep HUSH about this!!! Its not the question of IF it will happen again, but WHEN it will happen again. Do you wish to be the next LIPO statistic??

They can burst into a HUGEball of fire at ANYTIME even when they are left undisturbed!! Repeat:UNDISTURBED!!!

These dangerous packs capable of huge destruction will soon be banned completely. So you all may as well evolve beyond LIPO packs anyway, as they will be history SOON ENOUGH!!

redfisher1974

Here we go again[&:]

AdamW

Yes, we cant just ignore the DANGERS of LIPO packs. I feel it is the right thing to do by informing folks of their true dangers. It is simply a fact that has to be acknowledged and revealed to the newbies whom are just beginning in our hobby. Their safety should be MORE important than our greedy self-centered desire for the slight increase of advantages these dangerous packs called LIPO offer. Think of THEM and their SAFETY!!!

Damon--

I love my LiPos... and my house is still standing.

Freezetron

$For 55, the Thunder AC6 is pretty hard to beat. Mine works well, might get another to charge 2 lipos for my Flux at a time

http://www.hobbypartz.com/thac6smbachw.html



And lipos require common sense and basicy safety learning. Going beyond that, your just entering paranoia, so Adam stop being a hazard troll. I actually let my lipo charge in the lipo sack while I took my cat out for a walk earlier today. If something were to go wrong, the circuit breakers would kick, the charger would shut down and the lipo couldn't damage much beyond the lipo sack beyond smoke which would set off the fire alarms that I could hear outside. . OMGZ....im unsafe!!!! NOooo....the worlds endingz cause Lipos beeings chargzzzed unsupervizzed! Lootzzz paniks!!!

redfisher1974

You are entitled to your opinions, But they are not shared by many on this site.

Freezetron

NimH battery explosion stories actually scare me more then lipo smoke "puffs"

inteva6184

Again with lipo bashing theyre worse than the antiabortion people. You act like the lipos are responsible for raping 3000 children a year. I would hate to see what you think should happen with gun control laws.

Freezetron

This is about as bad as it gets with "disaster" rated Lipo failures in cars


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ5xoAsDXc4[/youtube]