Multiple Battery Charging Guide?

[ClintOnNitro]

Well, im wondering about charging more than one LiPo battery with one charger. i own the Passport Ultra charger, which can charge a 6s Lipo, so... with a balancing board, can i charge two batteries at once?

if so, how much does one cost? can i make my own?

can i charge two 7cell NiMh batteries as a 14cell pack with a series connector?

[chapinb]

To charge more than one lipo you need a parallel charge cable and ballance wire. Thats it. You can solder your charge cables up but I suggest buying the balance. Progessiverc or ebay has either. Each cable runs about 5$ or so.
Nimh can be parallel charged but ONLY if you have a temp prob stuck in there or you are sitting next to them to monitor temp frequently.

[87 GN]

First the Passport has a max of 8 amps ( I had two of them) it will not have much of a time savings charging two lipos at the same time..Not a big enough chrarger...

1 amp for every 1000 mAh.. is 1c

[DiggerPede]

Here is my FMA MUlti Parallel Adapter board. This thing is amazing.


FMA Powerlab-6

[Cameron]

PM'd ya with a link from great hobbies.

[ksb51rl]

The other limitation of the Passport Ultra (which I really like as an all-in-one charger) is that it has an 80W or 100W charge limit. I am parallel charging a couple packs right now with a very similar setup to DiggerPede's (above) and I am pulling 240+ watts from my 400W (30A) power supply. To parallel charge effectively, you need a power supply with high amperage. Series charging can work better with lower amp PSUs, but the charger still has to have a robust wattage rating to make it worthwhile.

[ClintOnNitro]

looks like 2 chargers is gonna be the road to go i guess.... :P oh well. just one more thing to explain to the gf i guess.

[djkurious]

See this thread: http://traxxas.com/forums/showthread...ing-Help/page3

[steveski4]

I bought 2 B8 chargers off Ebay (from Hong kong) at a very reasonable price. I then bought a heavy duty power supply to power them both...also off of Ebay from Hong Kong or China. Personally I like having 2 chargers.
The IMAX B6 charger is also even cheaper.

[ducati777]

Yep, I used to series charge with my AC8, but had trouble getting all the cells to stay balanced.

Now I've been using a para board and LOVE it. With all the packs forced to balance to each other, and each cell forced to balance to each other pack.... everything comes off the charger just perfect.

The downside is now I'm only charging at 3s, so my AC8 at 7 amps is taking a while.... Last weekend it put in over 14,000 mah, but took 156 minutes. I ordered up a 400 watt 20 amp charger. That'll be a nice upgrade... it'll still take an hour to charge up both the XO and the ERBE, but it'll be a big improvement over my current setup.



The next step is going to series charge on the para board... I'll take 2 packs, put in series, then put two more packs in series, but para them to the first pair... do it again with a 3rd pair... that'll get me back to charging at 6s, but also get the balancing benefits of the para board.

The charger should see it as a single 6s pack with 5.8+5+6= 16,800 mah.... at 20 amps I might be able to fully charge my 6 3s packs in an hour.



WIRES EVERYWHERE!




(4 packs parallel on the AC8)

[djkurious]

The next step is going to series charge on the para board... I'll take 2 packs, put in series, then put two more packs in series, but para them to the first pair... do it again with a 3rd pair... that'll get me back to charging at 6s, but also get the balancing benefits of the para board.

When they start making this with TRX connectors, I believe I will get one!