Post your charging setup

[Benm1020]

When I was in the market for chargers I wanted to know the options so I will begin first

Charger-Thunder t6 multi
Power supply- green power 350w
Lipo safe bag
Cost is $130

[Benm1020]

Thunder AC6 + Lipo safe bag, cost ~$55

I have a question I didn't really want to start a separate thread about. Why are the lipos we used so potentially dangerous? They have to be charged/ balanced in such a specific way, but tons of other electronics also use lithium batteries and don't have this?

Well in phones they are 1 cell so they don't have to be balanced, and the charges are specifically for that battery so you can't change the amperage.

[alucard0822]

I have a pair of 80W Thunder chargers and just got a 200W Skycharger. I power them through a power box made with a deep cycle marine battery. It's a bit overkill for cars, but planes with all of 4-6min battery life need a lot of charging, and most of my packs can charge at 3-5C.

Lipos take a bit more care in handling than other types, the flat cells are easily punctured and shorted if not protected, and the electrolyte is volatile and flammible. If the cells get under 3v they are permanently damaged, if they are charged over 4.2V they also can be damaged or heat up and build pressure in the case, exploding in a ball of fire if the electrolyte lights. if they short out they can also quickly overheat, swell, and blow up. Most chargers set properly with balance ports are safe, but if you don't balance, and choose the wrong cell count, or the charger fails, then the battery can release noxious smoke, or catch on fire. The best practice is to use a good charger, double check the settings, and don't leave it unattended.

[ross93]

thunder power tp610c acdc
old back ups
mrc super brain 969
duratrash intellipeak mini and big

[pavmentsurfer]

FMA PowerLab 6 with a Dell 58amp converted server PSU for my bench. Its hooked up to a small laptop with an external 15" monitor so I can control and monitor all aspics of the charge process. Ill get pics of it this week.

Dynamite Passport Ultra for my travel charger.

I also have an iCharger 206B I use on my bench from time to time.

[DiggerPede]

Dynamite Passport Ultra Charger
Racers Edge 2010 Surecharge
Thunder AC6 Charger

[deerhurst]

Thunder AC6----$42.50
5.56 NATO ammo can instead of lipo bag---$7 bucks at a gun show plus I can store all my packs and transport them safely in the ammo can.

The looks I get carrying an ammo can to a race. Priceless.

[ksb51rl]

FMA PowerLab 6 (6S, 40A, 1000W) connected via USB to a desktop PC and powered by either:
two Dell AA23300 (12V, 44.5A, 534W) converted server PSUs in series for 24V and 1068W; or
one Iota DLS-30 (14.2V, 30A, 426W) Power Converter/Battery Charger, depending on how quiet I require the charging to be.




My beloved Duratrax ICE has finally been sold.

[Cameron]

I have a Triton EQ2. served me well up till now, but i have a feeling swapping to Electrics only i will be upgrading at some point.

[Josh2511]

i brought a cheapie imax b6 the legit one, it goes alright

[Draggin97S10]

I have a Venom Pro Charger.

[BanditTransit]

Hot Bodies Micro Charger.
1, 2, or 4 amps.
AC, or DC power
Only 2 amps on AC though

[dave00bear]

Nothing super special, Hyperion EOS0606i AC/DC.
Actually have two of them I use. Been using them now for a few years and they have been great chargers for my needs with no complaints.

[mamba max1]

I use a "charge box" method. It's very portable, powerful, and protective. I can charge 2 11.1V 5800mah lipos to full in 40 minutes. I can get them to 90% in 30. (balancing takes extra time). I charge each lipo at 11.6 amps so a total of 23.2 amps when its going full blast. Both the charger and the power supply hardly break a sweat.


Charger: Hyperion DUOIII
Power source: Modded server power supply 42A output @ 514 watts

[pavmentsurfer]

^^ That is beautiful... a work of art for those of us with the sickness... I love it.

[mamba max1]

^^ That is beautiful... a work of art for those of us with the sickness... I love it.

Aww, thanks.

The only hard part was getting that dang shelf to sit perfectly in the box. What a pain.......... I've been using the setup for about 2 years now, couldn't be any happier with it. Everything is held down by velcro, so nothing shakes.

I can unplug the charger from the top of the shelf so that I can hook it up to a car battery when I'm out.

It's ability to look like a normal tool box is very helpful when I'm camping (camp with 100's of people a few times in the year). Keeps sticky fingers away. haha

[ReaperGN]

Great Planes ElectriFly Triton EQ



Thanks for giving me a place to move this and get the thread formatted correctly again.
-ksb51rl

[shagnat]

Will have my new charging rig setup soon. Will post pics and description then....... assuming I can actually make it charge correctly! :lol" @ me.

[Jimmie Neutron]

iCharger 206B
Converted Server Power Supply; 2 in series for 24v/75a/1800w
ParaBoard

I have not found a tool/storage box that will house the PS and the iCharger yet.
Starting to consider making my own.

I have about $175 into this setup.

For now, I am running a MERV that uses 2S 2200mah 20C LiPo's in parallel.
I can charge all 6 of my batteries in about an hour at 1.5C.
This charge time allows me 3 hours of play time.

High amp chargers are the way to go!!

[pavmentsurfer]

Heres a pic of my setup. Im testing the forums new "auto resize" feature for photos... lets see if it works.

Setup again:

-FMA Powerlab 6
-Converted Dell 58amp PSU
-2S parallel adatper
-TRX Parallel mains adapter

Next step is adding the Laptop to control it all.

[Brewers74]

[thecoolman101]

just 2 onyx 230's. and a balancer...

[dcsally97]

I use an iMax b606 pro. It isn't the best, but it gets the job done.

[ajb1205]

Hyperion 0720i Duo III charger ($280)
2 - HP server power supplies connected in series (each 12v, 47amps) ($30 each + wiring, power cord, etc...about $100 in total)
I can charge 2, 5s 5000mah lipos in about 30 minutes or so.

[Toyboarder]

I'm really sick of my Onyx 220 hitting the 'watt cap' of 40, and seeing the amps drop to like 3.7 when its charging my 5000mah battery....

I wonder if I can get a refund for false advertising.

[snowslider]

Imax b6 ac pro... I don't like it.

[pavmentsurfer]

Just got the PowerLab 6 hooked up to my computer system in my shop... this thing is hands down the SHOW when it comes to chargers. Heres a pic of how its all setup. I just did a single 10 amp balance charge no one of my 5000mah 2S SPC lipos. Tomorrow I'm going to do a 32.8 amp parallel charge on my 2 SPC 8200mah 2S packs. That should be interesting.

[Toyboarder]

This thread got me to looking...I swear, batteries/chargers are more confusing then the cars themselves. I have a complete Rusty build laid out in Excel and ready to buy, but god help me with powering it.

I was going to post something more elaborate, but I just spent like 4+ hours trying to find power supplies and moderately priced chargers, only found a handful that were decent....didn't even think to go to the 'main' rc shopping sites and see what they had under 'power supplies'. There's an entire afternoon I'll never get back.

[shagnat]

^^^^^ now that's funny. How many minutes/hours/days/weeks/months I have spent on this addiction I call "Hotel California"?

It's fun most times, but, can be frustrating as we all know.

And you're oh so right about the main rc shopping sites....... not much to look at there.

Good luck for everyone going through this.

[Toyboarder]

@shag - Just spent the morning on the same adventure. Narrowed it down to about 10+ choices...god I need to work on my homework, stupid college interfering with my RC time.

[GlowThunder]

i have two power Thunder lipo chargers and i use a 13 AMP she power power supply unit. i have a fan on the back to keep the P/S unit cool. and i have jumpers on the side to hook up a cooling fan from a CPU to keep the chargers running cool.
i used a soap dish stand from walmart i cut the center tray out and used zip ties to hold a piece of lexan in place and zip tied the chargers to it. the P/S sits under the lower tray in the back.

[shagnat]

Just got the PowerLab 6 hooked up to my computer system in my shop... this thing is hands down the SHOW when it comes to chargers. Heres a pic of how its all setup. I just did a single 10 amp balance charge no one of my 5000mah 2S SPC lipos. Tomorrow I'm going to do a 32.8 amp parallel charge on my 2 SPC 8200mah 2S packs. That should be interesting.

That's great!! Just how loud is that server PSU?

[shagnat]

Heres a pic of my setup. Im testing the forums new "auto resize" feature for photos... lets see if it works.

Setup again:

-FMA Powerlab 6
-Converted Dell 58amp PSU
-2S parallel adatper
-TRX Parallel mains adapter

Next step is adding the Laptop to control it all.

Any idea if the software that comes with your charger works for any charger? (hyperion in particular)

[pavmentsurfer]

The software does NOT work with anything but FMA Powerlab 6... intact they have different software listed for each of their chargers. Its that specific.

The iChargers have software as well... I'm just not sure what level of control it gives you.

The PSU I have is definitely not quiet. I wish I could turn the fan speed down. I may look into a resistor to slow it down a bit at some point. But for now I can handle the noise. its worth it to have that much power on hand.

[ksb51rl]

That's great!! Just how loud is that server PSU?

Betcha mine is quieter but...
If I'm alone and just cruising the forums then it's no problem. If somebody else is in the same (family) room and wants to watch TV then it depends on what they are watching as to whether I can get away with the noise.

[shagnat]

Betcha mine is quieter but...
If I'm alone and just cruising the forums then it's no problem. If somebody else is in the same (family) room and wants to watch TV then it depends on what they are watching as to whether I can get away with the noise.

And just how much quieter is yours.............. and why?

[Benm1020]

keep it up i wanna see everyone charging setup

[Benm1020]

Bump i know there are tons of electric users on this forum so add yours

[BaldyDaniels]

I bought this setup a few months back and it's been really good. Way more than I need, that is until they start making lipos over 20,000mah that'll fit in the p2de.

Thunder Power RC TP820CD.



Specifications:
Type: Dual Port Multi-Chemistry DC Charger/Discharger/Cycler with Integrated Balancers
Battery Cell Counts/Types (Per Port): 1-8S LiPo/LiIon/LiFe (A123), 1-24 cell NiCd/NiMH and 6-30V Pb (lead-acid)
Balancer (Per Port): Integrated for 2-8S LiPo/LiIon/LiFe (A123) with balance connector adapter board for Thunder Power and JST-XH connectors
Input Power: 10.5-28.0V DC (40 amps max)
Charge Power: 800 watts max (400 watts max per port) w/24.0-28.0V input (see manual for additional information regarding input and output power)
Charge Current (Per Port): 0.2 to 20 amps in 0.01 amp increments
Charge Voltage: 50% storage and adjustable end voltage for LiPo/LiIon/LiFe (A123), adjustable delta peak sensitivity and end voltage for NiCd/NiMH and end voltage for Pb (Lead Acid)
Discharge Power: 100 watts max (50 watts max per port)
Discharge Current (Per Port): 0.2 to 10 amps in 0.01 amp increments
Discharge Voltage: Adjustable low voltage cutoff for LiPo/LiIon/LiFe (A123), NiCd/NiMH and Pb (lead-acid)
Cycles: 1 to 15 times with data stored for all cycles
Memories: 24 user-programmable
Firmware: User-updatable using USB

The power supply I bought for this charger cost me a little bit more than the charger did, which I didn't expect. But since my other chargers and devices that I wanted to run off this supply had different voltage and amperage inputs, I needed something that was fully adjustable in both respects.

The power supply is a ProTek R/C "Super Pro 1000" Five Output World Edition Power Supply w/USB (30V/40A/1000W)



Power supply specs:

110-240V Input
Adjustable voltage or current
LED display
Internal cooling fan
LED power indicator lights
Short circuit protection
Overload protection
Over-voltage protection
Over-power protection
100% full load burn-in test
Input Voltage: 110-240V
Output Voltage: 12 - 30V DC (+/- 5%)
Wattage: 1000W
Current: 33A @ 30V / 40A @ 12V
Frequency: 47 / 64Hz
AC inrush current: Cold start: 60A @ 100%
Output Connections:
(1) High output 40 amp 4mm banana plug/binding post output
(4) 16 amp switched 4mm banana plug outputs
(1) 500mAh USB output
Size (LxWxH): 305 x 191 x 108mm
Weight: 5.9 lbs. (2.67kg)

Total cost of the charger and power supply with shipping was just under $700. I don't have it all set up nice and neat like paves tidy charging station yet, but I'm working on it...slowly, very slowly. With all the balance boards and adapters for charging multiple packs per port, it kinda looks like somebody chewed up a stand up arcade game and threw it up all over a desk. Lol.

And I still have my old reliable venom pro charger plus that I still use quite often when I take my p2de on the road with me to work so I can bash the partially developed drill sites. Lots of gravel piles everywhere. 


Sent from Dan's iPad using Tapatalk

[SRTracer121]

i aint got nothing special, pair of onyx 230's and 2 blinky's. id like to pick up one of those powerlab's to have as a permanent bench charger and id like to pick up one of those new orion touch chargers for the track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2hEGQ4zOAw

its on my to-do list when i get a more steady job and some decent cash flow. my 230's are still fine but id like a charger for home that can handle my bigger packs like my smc 9000's or even my 5200spc packs that can be charged at 2c. and id like more data and feedback then some blinking lights and the voltage reading on the 230.

im sure if i knew what i was doing (and 99% of the time i dont) i could mod them to charge at a higher amperage than the 7amps they do now.