Battery charger recomendations

[Dewey H Lee]

Hey guys. Have come to greatly respect all on the fourm. That is why I have come back to ask this minor point on a new battery charger. As of late my hitec x1 seems to be acting up(I think). The charge times seem to get longer and longer even on brand new batteries( mostly admiral from motion rc). I have all of a sudden started getting CAPA errors as well as the charger just timing out. The cells will get up to around 4.18 to 4.20 and just bounce back and forth until it times out. Then it may just charge a battery right up and say full. This concerns me because I just bought some 6s 4500 batteries that I'm going to have to charge and at there price I really don't want to mess them up. I've tried checking the balance board connection at the battery and charger. Also I never run my batteries below 3.80 and always storage charge at the end of the day. I don't have alot to put in too the charger but a ball park figure of 150.00 dollars can happen without discomfort. Any recommendations or information as to what might be going on with the old charger would be great. My charger now is only 1 1/2 years old and really has been used less than a years worth. Thanks with any help I can get I'd certainly appreciate it.

[boomer108]

Hi Dewey!

I have the same charger have had it three years and I experienced the same problems you described. It didn't happen often but as far as what might be wrong I couldn't tell you I did however notice that when I stopped charging my batteries to full charge I didn't have a problem. I now charge my batteries to about 95% it's not as hard on them anyhow. I recently purchased the new Hitec X2 ac/dc it works great and I still use my X1. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Roy B.

[WintrSol]

I had issues with a similar charger; get a can of DeoxIT, or similar, contact cleaner. Clean the contacts where the balance board connects to the charger, and the contacts in the balance board, using a stiff brush, like an 'acid' brush. If that doesn't help (didn't for me), open the charger. There are probably connectors in it, too, which should be cleaned. Don't just pull the charger apart, as there are probably ribbon cables connecting different pieces. Examine any connectors carefully, as some ribbon connectors have locking devices on them. After carefully separating any connectors, do the cleaning. Some require Q-tips, others a brush, and some you can just spray the cleaner into and re-mate. Don't get spray on the display, or any carbon-zebra type contacts, if it has them. If you are not confident doing all this, either find an experienced tech who can, or just get another charger. You're going to need a 115W charger to charge those batteries at 1C, anyway.

[Dewey H Lee]

Thank-you both boomer108 and wintrsol for the information and the advice. I'll take it apart and check and clean the connections inside as well. That's really no problem. I'll also go ahead and get another charger that charges better than 115 watts. I was not aware of that because it said up to 6s on the x1 but I see see it only charges up to 55watts. Thanks for getting me straight on that wintrsol. Not familiar with 6s yet. Have a couple now for the Ferouis Frankie but just got them in. Thanks again guys.

[Dewey H Lee]

BTW boomer108 I was even considering the new x200. It boast 220 watt charging.

[WintrSol]

The math for charging is fairly simple; in your case, you have a 4.5Ah battery that will reach 25.2V as it switches from constant current to constant Voltage, and 4.5A * 25.2V = 113.4W. Most, if not all, new batteries will charge at higher rates than that without damage, so that 220W charger will nearly reach 2C with that battery, saving time if you charge at the field. Just get as much power as you think you will need as time goes by; of course, most higher-power chargers use separate power supplies, not internal ones. IOW, if you plan to get an even larger battery soon, consider its needs, too.

[Marco Polo]

Hey guys. Have come to greatly respect all on the fourm. That is why I have come back to ask this minor point on a new battery charger. As of late my hitec x1 seems to be acting up(I think). The charge times seem to get longer and longer even on brand new batteries( mostly admiral from motion rc). I have all of a sudden started getting CAPA errors as well as the charger just timing out. The cells will get up to around 4.18 to 4.20 and just bounce back and forth until it times out. Then it may just charge a battery right up and say full. This concerns me because I just bought some 6s 4500 batteries that I'm going to have to charge and at there price I really don't want to mess them up. I've tried checking the balance board connection at the battery and charger. Also I never run my batteries below 3.80 and always storage charge at the end of the day. I don't have alot to put in too the charger but a ball park figure of 150.00 dollars can happen without discomfort. Any recommendations or information as to what might be going on with the old charger would be great. My charger now is only 1 1/2 years old and really has been used less than a years worth. Thanks with any help I can get I'd certainly appreciate it.

I have the AC/DC powered D200 from SkyRC and absolutely love it. To be honest i haven't used the build in soldering iron, but as a dual output, high current charger it's been rock solid. It also has a built in Internal Resistance meter which is very handy for detecting bad or soon to be bad batteries. If you have your own power supply, you can also consider the DC powered iCharger brand of chargers which are very reliable and compact.

[StormyDog1962]

I am still using my Hitec Quad but when I get a new one having the IR Meter is definitely on my list as it will provide much needed information on the current health of your Batteries as Mark suggests.

[Dewey H Lee]

Hey guys. Thanks for all the information. I've went back and looked at the chargers that Motion has and I've put in the cart the SkyRc T6200 Touch Screen 12 amp 6 cell DC Lipo Battery Charger and the SkyRc efuel 540 watt 30 amp Power Supply. I would like to know if you think that this is a good choice for my needs. I would have posted the links to these products but to be honest I don't know how with this phone. That's all I have right now. Your honest opinion would be greatly appreciated. I really don't for see going higher than 6 cell in the future. If this seems to be a good choice all I'll have to do is go to checkout and get them on the way to my house. I value your input because of my lack of experience in this field. Thank-you again for your time and consideration.

[Dewey H Lee]

Hey guys. Been waiting to see if anyone would give me a recommendation on the choices that I posted earlier. I've also been looking at the Hitec X4 plus but just on one side it boast being able to charge at 100 watts if you use only one port. Wintrsol said that I needed at least 113.5 watts so I'm thinking I need what I posted. I'm really not experienced in these matters so that's why I've drawn on the experience of the fellow fourm members that are far more experienced. As I said before I do have somewhat of a budget that I can draw from so I want to get the best I can for what I can spend. I can't really see buying a charger at this time that charges multiple batteries at one time . l always try to plan ahead and charge the night before. I still have the Hitec X1 so I'm covered for my smaller batteries that I can charge while charging the 6s on the new setup.

[WintrSol]

IMO, the charger/power supply combo would be pretty good for your needs; you could charge your 6S battery at 2C (226W), and still have Watts left over to run another charger, if/when you want to operate another. You just have to do the math to calculate the power into your batteries, add about 10-20%, and that has to come out less than the 540W of the supply. For example, two chargers into two 6S 4.5Ah batteries at 2C would be ~450W; add 20% and you get 540W, so you could do that safely. And you might of thought you didn't need math to fly model airplanes.:rolleyes:

[OV10]

Dewey,
Since you are now in the world of big power with 6S, if I was in your shoes I would go with this Hitec® X2-400 2-Port Multi-Charger.
http://www.towerhobbies.com/products.../hrcp4170.html
Here is my rationale for suggesting this one:
o The SkyRC D200 that Mark recommended is a nice 2 port unit and will get the job done but barely doing so as Wintrsol pointed out. It would be maxing it's output capability all the time which will shorten the longevity of the units useful lifespan. The IR tester is a nice feature but the soldering iron is in my mind gimmicky. The two port feature however is something your should seriously consider and I'll explain below.
o The SkyRC T6200 which is your second pick and the better of your picks that you've posted because it has 200W which now gives it sufficient headroom for the 6S capacity that you presently want to charge. The ho-hum of this one is two more gimmicks that you don't need and the more important shortcoming is the single port.
o The Hitec X2-400 that I recommended is at first glance $83 more than the T6200 but since you are now in the big power league is not the time to start to cheap out. Firstly this unit has two ports at 400W each. With double the ports means double the amount of batteries you can charge in at the same time. A normal 1C charge is one hour but if the battery is capable of 2 or 3C this means that you reduced your charging time to 30 or 20 minutes respectively. This increased 2 to 3C charge which would require upwards of 300W per port is very easily supported by this unit and still have overhead to spare. So instead of taking 4 hours to charge 4 batteries with the T6200 you can get 4 done in an hour with this one or 2 an hour at 1C. Another charging option is you could be charging a 4500 6S on one port and on the other port you could be banging out 6 - 2200 3S or 4 - 4000 4S all in an hour time frame by using a Paraboard. Here's a reference to some paraboards(I have 2 of them) with all the different battery connector types.
http://www.buddyrc.com/power-system/...rge-board.html
If you fly a lot and don't wan't/can't wait to charge then this is really the way to go. The SkyRc efuel 540 watt 30 amp Power Supply that you mentioned is very capable of powering this charger also.
SO BOTTOM LINE........a little more invested into your support equipment will payoff in the long haul. I'm on my third year with a unit that is equivalent to this and I've banged out so far this year almost 500 sorties and close to 600 last year. That is a lot of demand but the key is the equipment hasn't been stressed to max because of getting marginal power specs. Happy shopping!!!!!
Best Regards,

[WintrSol]

The 540W supply is adequate IF you aren't using all that the charger can support, since, after you subtract about 10% overhead in the charger, you get about 490W, total, into the batteries. OK for your current needs, but once into high power ...
Otherwise, everything OV10 said is valid. If, in the future, you need to make full use of his recommended charger, you will need a power supply capable of ~900W at 18V. Isn't high power fun? Still, one X2-400 is cheaper than two T6200 chargers.

[Dewey H Lee]

Man you guys are awesome. I've always thought I was pretty smart but I find I'm at a loss. One of the things in tech college my instructor always said I don't want you to try to remember everything. I just want you to remember where to find it. Meaning the tech books we had to purchase. It's time for me to pull them out that's for sure. Yes Wintrsol you are correct it is fun. The guidance that you and ov10 has given has boasted my thirst for knowledge now on this. Thank-you guys so much. Took me 60 years to want to learn better math.

[Westsider]

I was looking at either the Hitec X-2 400, or the Junsi Icharger 306b. Any thoughts?

[OV10]

I was looking at either the Hitec X-2 400, or the Junsi Icharger 306b. Any thoughts?

No brainer........the Hitec, read my reasoning in post #12. Primary win is 2 versus 1 port.