ems1016

Made the mistake of doing business with Hobby King, where there is NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT whatsoeverjust a lot of fraudulent representations that there is 24-hour customer support. Those reps who do respond, well, let's just say I have to question their sincerity in truly wanting to help at all. Won't buy another thing from them.

Anyway, I bought the B6AC charger from them together with the special 6-battery adapter cord they sold me separately. The instruction booklet is either poorly translated from Chinese or the font is so tiny, you need a microscope to read it! Please, can someone just tell me how I hook up the special adapter cord to the charger to (1) balance charge for storage and (2) charge all 6 batteries for usage? Also, what settings do I need to change on the unit before plugging anything in?

I love flying this little helicopter, but I've never seen a hobby so difficult to get started in. Very frustrated. An experienced response would be so very much appreciated. Thanks! Ed

matty_p80

Ed

the LiPo's for the mcx are single cells, so six of them would equal a 6S1P LiPo, therefore the plug from the adapter to the charger should be plugged into the 6 series (7 wires- 6 cells, 1 ground)!

as far as settings go, make sure if you're using an adapter board like that, that the cells all are of the same mAh rating or you'll screw them up!

i'm not familiar with that charger but your confusion might be that it requires the balance lead(s) and a main '+' '-' connection for the system to operate!

cut your losses and invest in an E-Flite Celectra ac/dc 4 battery charger, like the one that comes with the mSR! it has four 'D' cells or mains power! you can always use the B6AC for when you're really hooked and have bigger helis!!

the settings should be for LiPo; 6S1P; whatever your mAh rating is for the individual cells and a low voltage cut off of 3.1V per cell! the storage should be half the mAh value

i'm with you on the HK front and have been making it my mission to let people know about the service whenever possible! this is not slander but from experience! my last run in with them was for an order for over $100 which wasn't materialising and no-one could give me a straight answer. after more bouts on the 'online help' service than i care to mention i eventually just cancelled my order and have not done business with them since! i think Anthony and partners have forgotten why they started the business in the first place and have got too big too quick! just a personal view!

hope this helps some, gi'us a shout if you need any more help!

Matty

ems1016

Matty:

Thanks, my friend, for taking the time to reply. I am attaching pics from the instruction manual regarding balance charging and one I took with the adapter that Hobby King provided hooked up as I believe is proper. I will make the necessary adjustments to the setting to charge the batteries. Does this set up look correct to you? I still don't understand, though, what this extra hook-up is from the batteries back to the unit for balance charging since 1-cell batteries have but one connection possible.

I will look intoan E-Flite Celectra ac/dc 4 battery charger after I consult my attorney about a divorcebecause the wife is going to want one after I buy another charger! Actually, I bought her one as well and she loves it.

Any further help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. I have to say, as a newbie, I am a bit disappointed that there isn't more assistance on this site, but your one response is very much appreciated. Ed

trax de max

I've never seen that adaptor, so don't know anything about how to use it. But heres a link for a pdf manual which is more readable and if it's anything like my first charger the instructions are translated straight from chinese to english.http://www.pololu.com/file/download/iMAXB6ACmanual.pdf?file_id=0J525<embed style="visibility: collapse" id="DAPPlugin" type="application/x-dap-background"></embed>

ems1016

Thanks for your kind attempt to help me out, but that is the same manual included with my charger. Still don't know how to balance charge with what Hobby King sent me. Sure would help if they did have "Customer Service" like they falsely advertise. Very, very frustrating to a newbie.

Charlie

Plug two batteries into the adapter and use a multimeter to check the voltage, that will tell you if that adapter charges in
series or parallel. If it charges in parallel you don't have to worry about balancing them, it charges each individual cell (which I
think it does). If it does then you set your charger for 1S (single cell).
I have the same one but I can't find it to check it for you (I bought it and never used it). I use a different one but it does the same thing. The
one I use charges in parallel.

Charlie

Come to think of it (I had a couple drinks of coffee), that lead (adapter) would charge in parallel because it
doesn't have a balance plug on it, so if it did charge in series you couldn't balance them anyway. I'll have
to find mine this weekend and check it out.

To balance a battery you need a balancer plug on it which 1S don't have (because you don't need it, you can't
balance a single cell).


P.S
Sorry if I have you more confused .

ems1016

Charlie: thanks for helping me out. Believe it or not, I actually got a customer service response from Vin at Hobby King (same guy who sold me the unit) and it appears to confirm your post-coffee response:

Dear Edward,
Thanks for contacting the HobbyKing Support Team.

1S cells are single cell batteries and do not need balancing if being charged one at a time. Balancing leads are only required for packs 2S and above.

To use the harness, you must add together the total MAh value of all the cells to be charged.

Set charger at 1s which is 3.7v. Then add all the MAh together in this case, PRODUCT ID: N160.1S.25 that I recommended as the battery in ticket: 155986 is 160 MAh and you want to charge 4 of them together, you and set your charger at that 640MAh rating.

ALWAYS ensure that all the batteries being charged are at same state of discharge. 
If even one cell is almost full or half full, it will comprimise the self balancing effect and you will not receive a proper charge on any of the batteries.

Once you plug all the batteries that you are charging (once again, at the same state of discharge) to the harness, let the setup sit for a few minutes before charging on ANY brand's charger to allow the battery voltages to self balance.

Kindly advise me if this works, and sorry for any confusion.

Best Regards.
Vin 
HobbyKing Product Specialist 

Mikecam

Glad HK came thru for you. Glad you didn't go out and buy the eflite charger. I've had nothing but success with HK but understand some have not.

Very important you don't mix battery's that are empty and full. The full one will want to dump all it's energy into the empty one all at once and will get hot and or swell causing damage. Also make sure you let the battery's sit in the harness for a few minutes to let them all equalize before charging starts, look at previous sentence for reason. The higher the difference in state of charge the more time required to equalize. Can't see more then 5 minutes needed. Other then that it should work fine.

You need to learn the discharge function of the charger but pretty much works the same as charging. Not sure if your charger has a storage option but just end the discharge or the charge when the battery's are around 3.85 volts . So 3.85 X the number of battery's will give you the reading on the charger when it's time to stop.

For all my chargers I set it for 1S (3.7) and it will charge till battery hits 4.2 and then stop. Not sure about having to add up mAh but I don't have the charger you have.


I have the MSR for my son and found that the 160 mAh turnigy and nano-tech's last the longest. Make sure you don't pull them down below 3.7 volts rested 5 minutes after flying or you will shorten the life of them. By the time you notice the heli losing power it is most likely already past the cut off point. A timer works well for keeping the battery's in mint shape. The 120 mAh really die off quick with over discharge. Easy to learn that with a 12 year old who just wants to fly.

In your first post I understand you were frustrated but don't let that get in the way of this wonderful hobby. I see you have only 7 posts so maybe don't realize all the help you have at your service here. Lots of great people with great idea's, some are right on the money and some are not. You need to make an informed decision and sometimes that may take a day or two.

Do some research first and ask questions here before making a decision.

Here is the PDF instructions of the charger. These chargers are not complicated but they are not simple either. Time must be taken to read and understand the basics of the charger since bad things can happen if you do something wrong. Small 1S batterys won't do much damage but if you get into bigger lipo battery's with the same ideals then it could get more serious.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...X638718X26.pdf Hit the + at the top to make the letters even bigger.

Good luck to you.

ems1016

Mikecam:

Mikecam

Hi Ed. The Celectra is a good charger, I have one. The HK 160 mAh 1S battery's are good too. The turnigy or nano-tech's both work great. 10 minutes is a long time, my son gets about 4 minutes on his MSR heli. Not firmilar with the MCX2. Glad your having fun with it. If you have a simple multimeter you can check the voltage of the battery's. Keeping them at 3.85 volts resting (just sitting, not right after a flight) will have them last the longest. If any black ends come loose one drop of CA will fix them.

Any email I send off to Great planes, Horizon or the others usually takes a few days to get a response. Much quicker to do a search here or post a question.

I use these and they work quite well and the price is right. Actually they lasted longer then the stock eflite 150 mAh battery's. I have about 15 of them now.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=11893