Ernie Misner

Greetings!

I will be purchasing a Triton charger (or a Super Brain 969 pro), and am wondering how potent of a DC converter I really need. On the Great Planes website, they say you need a 13amp (!) converter for the Triton to work properly. This seems like overkill to me since I will just be charging tx and rx packs at a slow rate.

I have a DC converter (Radio Shack type, about $30) that worked great with my Sirius smart charger. It puts out an honest 1.5 amps and the max charge rate for the Sirius charger was one amp on the tx side, and .5 amp on the rx side. It would charge two packs like that simutaneously with this little 1.5 amp converter.

Is there any reason this converter wouldn't work with the Triton at low charge rates??

Ernie

m.gramling

My Feedback: (8)

I am using the cheap converter from radicalrc.com I am using it on a Diamond ST charger. I paid somewhere inbetween 30-40 dollars for it. I think its only rated up to 5or 6amps. But I don't have anyproblems charging what I have.

If you already have a converter, at least try it before buying another one.

I am my 2 biggest batterys are 1650mh NImh one is a TX, and other is RX. And everything works fine. Everything I have is 1650mh or less.

I don't know how it would do charging 2-2000packs in a series. Because my fan never kicks on while charging. My brother charges a plane that has 2-2000mh packs that are ran in a series, he is charging them at 2.5amps and the fan kicks on immediately. But he is running them off of a car battery.

JustAnotherGuy212

If you have access to an old computer power supply make yourself a 12v power supply from it. You can follow the directions located here: http://www.marcee.org/Articles/PCPowerSupply.htm

I got an old AT power supply that puts out 8amps and my Triton works just great with it.

Ernie Misner

Thanks a bunch guys! I went ahead and ordered the Triton charger...... it should be here by next weekend. We will see what I can do with my little 1.5 amp converter here, at least for very slow charging. I found the article on building your own converter very interesting to say the least, but I am not that much of a builder. I'm off to check the current prices for a better converter. I do hate to spend the $70 that Tower wants for theirs....

Ernie

hroachen

Ernie,

As long as the power supply you use is rated at or above the charge rate you want, you'll be fine. I run my Triton on either a 20 amp Rivergate or an old PC power supply that'll put out maybe five amps on a good day. No difference in performance, with the obvious exception that I can't charge at anything over five amps with the old PC supply.

D

JustAnotherGuy212

If you follow those directions you'll notice its really simple to do...

Lynx

Using a PC power supply isn't the best choice. You'd have to solder all the 12volt leads together to get decent current out of it without hurting anything. The regulation on a PC power supply is extremely bad unless you're drawing at least 2 amps, not to mention all the noise (It's a switch mode power supply) Why use a converter at all? Just use a Field Kit 12 volt lead acid battery and leave it on the charger over night. It's cheap, it's portable, it's 100% noise free, and you can draw a lot of current off it.

Ernie Misner

Okay, now that makes sense. The little 1.5 amp converter worked fine with the Sirius charger (until it was stolen). The Siruis only put out 1 amp on the tx side and 250mah on the rx side. (it was an early sailplane version of the Sirius) That adds up to 1 1/4 amps, so the 1.5 amp converter handles it no problem.
We'll see if I can still squeek by with that converter for slow charging with the Triton for a while.

Lynx, I might just use the 12V field box battery as you suggested also. At the field that is a natural, but at home or on the bench it seems cleaner and easier for me to have the converter all ready to go.

One thing I have learned is that a good converter is not cheap and they sure as heck amount to more than a little wall wart converter. At Radio Shack a 3 amp converter was $40 and a 10 amp job was about $80. I think the 8 amp converter from Tower is about $70 or so.

Thanks for all the input!

Ernie

Thanks a bunch guys!

Ernie

JustAnotherGuy212

The instructions say to solder all the 12v leads together to help achieve maximum amps.

Noise? Do you hear your computer running under your desk? I can't hear mine and the power supply is made from the same thing.

Using a battery is fine but I got tired of charging it.

Lynx

Not physical noise JustAnotherGuy! Electrical noise! A switchmode power supply is small and provides a lot of current by switching just like an ESC does. Problem is switching means it generates voltage fluctuations. And they're bad trust me. Stuff meant to run on 12volt DC might not behave too well when hooked up to a 12volt switchmode power supply. Take a look at your modern day motherboard, and look around the processor, you can see how many capacitors they use to filter the power supply juice from.

JustAnotherGuy212

You may be right but mine is working just fine on the pc power supply and for a cost of only a few bucks I'll continue to use it unless something happens.

Lynx

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. <G> Cardinal rule of Murphey's law =)

Ernie Misner

My little wall-wart 1.5 amp converter finally gave up and died. For some reason it is now putting out 16 volts instead of 12 or 13. The Triton doesn't like that at all and now gives an error message. I'll be off to buy a new converter soon.

Which one should I buy?.... considering I will not be charging at more than 1 or 2 amps. Has anyone tried the one that Tower sells for $69 and the cheaper one from Radical battery.

Ernie

dropzone25

Check this out I found it in the battey forum
this is your answer cheap and powerful!!!!
Mike

http://www.nowonsale.com/ppf/itemnam...X/itempage.asp

m.gramling

My Feedback: (8)

I am using the cheap 1 from radicalrc.com on my diamond Super turbo, I haven't charged anything above 2 amps, and it works fine. I think I only paid $39 for it. The convertor puts out a total of 6amps. so far it works for me.

Like I stated ealier my brother is charging 2-2000mh 6volt Nimh batterys ran parallel and he only charges them at field at 2.5amps.

charging at 4 or 5amps would be 1 heck of a battery.

Ernie Misner

m.gramling, I can't find any powersupplies on radicalrc's website?

dropzone25, that looks like one heck of a deal from onsale.com. Wow 12 amps for $40. I might just spring for that one, but I am going to shop here locally today first.

Thanks for all the help guys!

Ernie

m.gramling

My Feedback: (8)

http://radicalrc.secure-mall.com/sho...=46&cart=59578

here is link.
when on radicalrc.com main page. click charging tools. then click 110 power supplies, and power converters

I bought the $39.00 4-6volt

Ernie Misner

Thank you m.gramling! Apparently I had a link to an older radical website that looks different. I am so confused. There for a minute I was thinking that radical rc and radical rc batteries were two different things.

Thanks loads!

Ernie