Reccomend a dual charger?

[Benp]

Wait, so what's a paralell charging board for?

Because I only need to charge at most 2 at a time

If by adapter you mean, for ex.,Deans plug to xt60 , then yes you can. That’s how I have to do it because my one battery came with deans plug.

The parallel board is for charging multiple batteries off one channel. So for the Hota, you’d get one of the Safe para boards that king meow linked, switch the main lead to xt60 and then put your adapters on the xt60 charging plugs on the board. Plug your batteries onto those and then charge.

I think. This is still kind of brand new to me.

Here's a picture of my overall charging case. I used a Harbor Freight tool case. As you can see, the server power supply is in the back that feeds both channels. It's not too sexy, looking like a tin box. Note the $5 smoke detector for safety from Home Depot. All the cables tuck into the case for storing and the parallel board goes in too.







Here's a unit that I isolated the ground as my original intention was to combine two units for 24V output. You cannot connect the two units' ground or you risk an electrical shock. I added the label to remind myself.



It became too unwieldy when I tried adding a second supply and made it heavy and not too portable so I just used one supply. So far so good.



BTW, I check the label on the unit and it says 502 watt output at 12 volts. So the math says 41.8 amps! "thumbsup" I added the parallel board in the picture for a size reference.







This is a close up of soldering the correct jumpers and soldering on the terminals so you can use banana jacks for the charging leads or cables.







BTW, the power supplies cost me nothing. My work was throwing them out by the boat load even though they were perfectly fine and working. Server power supplies have a life expectancy rating (3 years in this case). When the time is up, you are required to replace them all with new ones to guarantee 99.9% up time, even if they are working. Don't want to tell the boss you tried to save a few dollars and the whole company shuts down.

That is Awesome!!!!! Way to repurpose!!!

I hope you scarfed up a lifetime of “trash” power supplies. [emoji16][emoji106]

You could probably make some cash building charging setups like that!

 

[Kingmeow]

Wait, so what's a paralell charging board for?
Because I only need to charge at most 2 at a time

As Benp said above, the parallel board allows you to charge multiple packs at once off of one port on your charger. Your charger may only have one port so that's the idea to make efficient use of your time.

Let's say it takes you 30 mins to charge a pack and you have four packs. Instead of doing it one at a time, resulting in 2 hours, you can charge all four at once and it'll take you only 30 mins. PROVIDED your charger has the wattage power and capability.

To take it further, let's say your packs are two 3S 2200 and two 3S 1300. You would set your charger to 3S 7000 (2 x 2200 plus 2 x 1300). Right there is 78 watts of power needed, even ignoring the 7A.

With a parallel board you can charge 1, 2, 3, OR 4 packs at once. You don't necessarily have to populate the entire board. THE NUMBER OF CELLS MUST MATCH WHEN CHARGING PARALLELLY. You can't put 2S and 3S on the parallel board and charge away.

You may only charge two packs at a time now but I'm sure that number will increase as you progress in the hobby. Remember the time you said to yourself you only need 1 crawler (or 1 airplane)????

 

[Kingmeow]

That is Awesome!!!!! Way to repurpose!!!

I hope you scarfed up a lifetime of “trash” power supplies. [emoji16][emoji106]

You could probably make some cash building charging setups like that!

I can make some money but my time is more valuable and the money made is not a lot. Shipping power supplies is costly with the bulk and weight.

Yes, I do have a lifetime of power supplies. :lmao: But they run $15/$20 each on eBay if you need to buy them. But the Ready Made RC one I linked to above is ready to go out of the box for $25. In my opinion, it's the deal of the century!

 

[j0e]

Wait, so what's a paralell charging board for?
Because I only need to charge at most 2 at a time

The board was from me... I was wondering if you could use that with your current charger.
Sounds like if you get the new charger you wouldn't need the board.

 

[Jboucher]

Parallel charging is downright dangerous if you are new to LiPo or not too good with electricity / soldering.

At least don't make your own board, buy one that's been tested.

I would just get a dual charger and charge 1 battery per channel.

If you mismatch LiPos or don't set the proper power, you can create a LiPo fire with these parallel boards.

Save charging time VS save you house
You choose [emoji23]

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Kingmeow]

That's true but the concept is not that hard once you understand it. Heck, you can burn your house down with just ONE lipo pack if you don't know what you are doing.
You definitely need a commercial parallel board with all lines fused. The fuses will protect the shorts/fires if you are not careful but nothing is 100%. If house fires were happening all the time, you wouldn't be able to buy these parallel boards.

The airplane guys do it all the time. I just came back from flying. I charged 6 packs in 35 minutes. My charger is dual port; 3 packs parallel on each port. One at a time would have taken me over 3 hours (or 1.5 hours if the charger is a dual port).

The airplane guys need to do this because their run time is 4-10 minutes per pack unlike a crawler where you can run quite some time on one pack.

I'm not encouraging or discouraging parallel charging but it's available if it suits your needs.

 

[TITANIUM94010]

think I'll get a Hota D6, but the XT60 plugs are the only things setting me back, I'd prefer bullets so I can charge different plugs.

As for parallell charging boards, I think 3-4 hours to charge a 3s 5000 pack with an old traxxas charger is plenty fast for me :lmao:, but faster is better.

Then theres the Protek Prodigy 66, which is a dual 50w (100w total), its not great value compared to the hota, but it's got bullets and is a brand I've actually heard of. Just it's only 10w more per channle compared to my Traxxas EZ peak.

So Hota or Protek?

 

[Kingmeow]

think I'll get a Hota D6, but the XT60 plugs are the only things setting me back, I'd prefer bullets so I can charge different plugs.

As for parallell charging boards, I think 3-4 hours to charge a 3s 5000 pack with an old traxxas charger is plenty fast for me :lmao:, but faster is better.

Then theres the Protek Prodigy 66, which is a dual 50w (100w total), its not great value compared to the hota, but it's got bullets and is a brand I've actually heard of. Just it's only 10w more per channle compared to my Traxxas EZ peak.

So Hota or Protek?

If you don't mind the slow boat delivery from China and potential lack of customer service if something goes wrong, I would get the Hota. It's specs are miles above the Protek. The discharge rate is much higher with the Hota so if you are into storing your packs it won't take forever.

If you are going to go with the Protek, I would get this Hobby King Turnigy Reaktor charger instead. Cheaper ($65), 2 x 150 watts, calculates internal resistance, touch screen, etc. US warehouse for fast shipping. Seems to have good reviews.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy...282&indexName=hbk_live_magento_en_us_products

 

[Benp]

To me adapters are no big deal and the banana plugs would be ideal. But that would not be a deal breaker for me.

Just get adapters and leave them plugged in.

Charger specs would my deciding factor.

Also keep in mind there are 2 Hota D6’s.

The standard D6 which was pictured earlier and the 6+ (plus) like I have.

Banggood has the best prices on them but shipping is long.

The Hobbymate on amazon is the D6 but 50 bucks more.


HOBBYMATE D6 Duo Pro Lipo Battery Balance Charger Dual w/ Wireless Cellphone Charging, Nimh / Nicd Batttery Pack Charger, Support AC/DC Input Gray https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DR8HW19/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5KVIFbNJTRSH6

ETA - if you do get the hota D6 plus, I highly recommend balance port extensions.

My one battery is contorted when I have it hooked up on channel 1. An extension would make life easier

 

[Benp]

If you don't mind the slow boat delivery from China and potential lack of customer service if something goes wrong, I would get the Hota. It's specs are miles above the Protek. The discharge rate is much higher with the Hota so if you are into storing your packs it won't take forever.

If you are going to go with the Protek, I would get this Hobby King Turnigy Reaktor charger instead. Cheaper ($65), 2 x 150 watts, calculates internal resistance, touch screen, etc. US warehouse for fast shipping. Seems to have good reviews.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy...282&indexName=hbk_live_magento_en_us_products

I agree on potentially dealing with a Chinese product directly from China. Definite item to consider.

With the charger you linked to is that 150w total for both channels or 150w each channel for 300w total? I looked at the link and couldn’t figure that part out.

I 100% agree on the higher discharge rates.

My Hota storage modes in 1/2 the time my RDX mini does.

 

[Kingmeow]

With the charger you linked to is that 150w total for both channels or 150w each channel for 300w total? I looked at the link and couldn’t figure that part out.

Dug a little deeper (I don't own one) and this is what it lists as the Specification in the manual (Page 3):

AC power: Ch1 + CH2 = 150 watts
DC power: 2 x 120 watts

https://cdn-global-hk.hobbyking.com/media/file/t/2/t240_1.pdf

Interesting! The way I interpret this is if you are using AC power, you max out at 150 watts total. So if you are only charging with one channel you can have a 150 watt single channel. Or combinations like 100W + 50W, etc. that totals 150W.

For DC, it's 120 watts each channel, total 240 watts. I'm assuming thus the T240 model name.

It does have a nice color touch screen.

 

[vinceherman]

Something I love about the Reaktor is measuring internal resistance.
I am sure there are many other newer chargers that also include this feature but my 2 port Reaktor was the first I had that displayed this battery attribute.
Lower internal resistance means it can push out more C
Knowing that the cells are reasonably matched on internal resistance gives confidence that the battery is healthy.
I had a pack that had been under-performing. I put it on this charger and say that one cell had 4 times the internal resistance.

 

[Kingmeow]

+1

IR can also tell you if the pack is going south. Near the end of life the pack's IR will steady climb. Much more important for the airplane guys as a malfunctioned pack in mid use can be disaster. For us land guys, we just stop in our tracks.

 

[Timmahh]

Still have my 10ish yr old Thunder power. Great Charger still.
I needed to go to a 2 port charger.
I decided on the Hitec X2. So far so fine.

 

[j0e]

Dug a little deeper (I don't own one) and this is what it lists as the Specification in the manual (Page 3):

AC power: Ch1 + CH2 = 150 watts
DC power: 2 x 120 watts

https://cdn-global-hk.hobbyking.com/media/file/t/2/t240_1.pdf

Interesting! The way I interpret this is if you are using AC power, you max out at 150 watts total. So if you are only charging with one channel you can have a 150 watt single channel. Or combinations like 100W + 50W, etc. that totals 150W.

For DC, it's 120 watts each channel, total 240 watts. I'm assuming thus the T240 model name.

It does have a nice color touch screen.

@Kingmeow
I'm a newb at the whole "charging multiple packs" thing.
But, based on the listed power I'd be able to charge (two) 2s 5000mah packs at 5amps each simultaneously, right?
Or any mixture up to 10mah at a 1C rate of charge...
If so, this charger seems like a pretty good deal.
YouTube reviews look good, too.


(sorry for hijacking @TITANIUM94010)
8)

 

[Kingmeow]

@Kingmeow
I'm a newb at the whole "charging multiple packs" thing.
But, based on the listed power I'd be able to charge (two) 2s 5000mah packs at 5amps each simultaneously, right?
Or any mixture up to 10mah at a 1C rate of charge...
If so, this charger seems like a pretty good deal.
YouTube reviews look good, too.


(sorry for hijacking @TITANIUM94010)
8)

So let's do the math together. 2S (7.4V) 5000 mAh, assume charging at 1C (5A) would require 7.4 x 5 = 37 watts of power. Two of those packs in parallel will require 2 x 37 = 74 watts.

Your "10mah" seems to be a typo. So I'm going to assume you mean 10,000 mAh. So if you have 2S packs that total 10,000, then yes they will require 74 watts. For example you can do (ALL 2S) a 3000, a 3000 and a 4000 in parallel and that will equate to 74 watts.

Now if you switch to 3S then a bit more power is needed obviously.

Us land guys are typically 2S or 3S. The airplane guys (I am one too) go all the way to 6S. That's when you REALLY need the power as you are starting with 22.2 (volts). You charge a 6S 5000 at 1C and you're looking at 111 watts for just ONE pack! Three packs in parallel will need a 333 watt charger.

 

[j0e]

@Kingmeow
Thanks for that math breakdown!
I was doing it wrong. Now I think I get it.

EDIT: ok... C=Capacity, so a 4000mAh would be 4.0A.

 

[Kingmeow]

"C" is the (C)apacity of your pack. So for a 3200 mAh pack, for example, 1C would be 3.2A. Standard rate of charge for lipos is 1C. Some of the better and premium packs you can go up to 5C. This would REALLY REALLY tax your charger!

 

[j0e]

"C" is the (C)apacity of your pack...

@Kingmeow
Thanks for all the details. I was more lost than I thought!


So now that I think I get what's going on, I can NOT charge two full sized packs with a parallel board on my Thunder AC6.
If I want to charge (two) 4000mAh packs at 1C (4.0 amps), I would need 59.2 watts, but my charger's max output is 50 watts.
It would, however, work on my 1.7mAh packs because 1C would only be 1.7 watts.
So, with my smaller crawler packs i could potentially charge 4 at once at almost 1C.
Right?
Also, if I did want to charge all four, would it take about the same time as charging just one because the charger would simply output more wattage?

 

[Honeyman108]

Hi there I hate to say it but Traxxas EZ Peak Live as much as I don't like Traxxas other than TRX4 and Slash most everything else is sub par to use nice language but the charger is easy to use and works flawlessly I use strictly xt60 connectors and I just bought off amazon a plug and I have all my lips saved on the app on my pad and I always check the cells and they are always on point I gave up on all the other complicated chargers an like I said I don't use Traxxas batteries anymore I]or most anything Traxxas IMO... BUZZZZ...