Accucell 6 power supply
 

Okay I have read a bunch of threads on this topic and I know starting another will likely get me beat up at lunch recess, but I was wondering if anyone has found a common house hold items cord to power this this with?

I have used it once from my car batt with the supplied adapter and its a great unit, a bit involved for the simple mind of yours truely, but a great charger none the less.

I have a universal 2v-12v power supply that must be using too little amps because set at 12v and with a measured 12.3v-13.2v I get a low input err. So I decided to use the car batt adapter and clip the gator clips to my universal 12v adapter and for some reason it still said low input. I was only getting 11.5ish from my car battery and it worked fine with the same connections...I don't get it.

I have tried every power cord in my house and though they may be 12v and fit, it powers it up , but errors as soon as it goes to charge.
Has anyone found just the right plug layin around the house?

I have seen the hobbyco or hobbyking power supply for $10, but after reading the reviews and not seeing a single good one I decided against that. Also I know the $2 desktop power supply works great for some people but after reading the direction on how to rewire it and add resistors and whatever else.....I was lost by step two besides I cant solder to save my life. If someone has or could build me one for super cheap (around 15-20 bucks or so)that would rock.

I started with the Accucel 6 charger a few years ago with my helis and it's been great. Even bought a second one since gathering a number of various LiPo's. I searched eBay for a power supply for the first one and got a 12v 5A for about $10. The second one I went with a 15v 5A and it was about $20. They may be cheaper now since that was a while ago. Some even suggested a laptop power supply and you might get a deal on one at your local computer repair shop.

All the above is just fine for 2S and 3S LiPo's, but if you're thinking on 4S and higher, a stronger charger and PS will be needed.

Voltage input is part of the equation. If you had 10 AA alkalines in series, your charger would be happy to power on. As soon as you tried to charge a rig pack, the charger would scold you.
Why???
The load from charging would overload the supply and the input voltage would drop which would trigger tha alert.

Your car battery (which has a fairly HUGE capacity) is fine, but a ~500ma 15VDC supply can't do much more than supply a charger for your cellphone.
When you use this charger to supply a RC charger, the voltage drops too much and the charger screams at you.

Have more questions?, ask more questions.8)8)

This is why people do this....http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/elect...c-charger.html

maybe Ill just check Ebay, but was a bit uncomfortable with that since reading about the hobby shop one not working except for one or two times.
Charlie, thats the article I read about the pc power unit. Lets just say I would probably burn the house down or shock and kill myself before I ever got it to work. Looks like I'll continue to use my car battery for now.

So it says I can use an 11v - 17v power supply what amps should I look for to ensure it can keep up with demands of charging. 2s lipos and 6cell nimh.

50 watt charger divided by 11 volts input voltage equals 4.545454 amps. So it shouldn't take much, 5 amps or more should be all that charger can use.

I dunno, THIS one, maybe? I mean, it's cheap enough, supplies what looks to be enough amps, could be just what you need, no?

Do you have a basic car battery charger (something that does 6+ amps??), you can use this as a DC input. While not perfect, it will work.
I spent years using a Sears 20Amp battery charger to power multiple chargers as well as a discharger when I ran 12th & 10th pan cars.8)

A "Battery Tender" does not put out enough amps to supply your needs.:roll:

Thanks guys I think I get it now. Im going to check with radio shack and my LHS.
Should I be careful not to go too high with the amps? Or will it only use what it needs?
I do have a car battery charger I can use just didnt want the big nasty in the house.

I'm still surprised no common house hold electronics have a useable supply.

The RC charger will only use what it needs. No need to overthink this.

Most "electronics" you find are less than an amp, most times it is in milliamps (10th's of an amp), thus a 800ma 12vdc supply/charger is .8 amps @ 12vdc. No where near what you need.:shock:

I use an easily modified laptop charger for my power supply for my Accucell-8150. It provides 4 amps and is plenty good enough for charging my crawler batteries.

Just cut off the end that goes into the laptop and solder in 2 bullet connectors to connect to the charger.

I have a 2a-10a-50a charger I brought in to power this (ive been just using the car battery but now its raining) I figured 2a would not be enough power but its working fine so far. I'm guessing I should use the 2a setting if it works and not chance over doing it with the 10a, correct?

Alright, scratch that, it lasted aboout 10 mins then said input vol error. so up to 10a I go and that should be good. PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong.

okay, 10a did the same thing...so I'll stick to using the car batt until I order one from somewhere.

Maybe drop the charge rate down on your pack charger, also make sure the connection from your car charger to pack charger is clean & tight.

Unless you're charging at really high amps, I would think the car charger @ 10A would be enough as a supply.

I use a modified PC power supply in the garage at home, but when i'm at the track, or anywhere else and want to power my charger I use one of those car boosting packs. I picked one up that has a usb outlet as well as a car cigarette lighter output on it.

Just buy a cigarette lighter and solder a connector for your charger to it, plug it in and you're good to go. This is essentially the same as plugging it in to a car battery, except in a much more convenient package.

http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-J5C09-...=pd_sim_auto_2