How important is a charger?

[jmac]

I plan on running 2s lipos in basically a stocker. (I'm catching on to the lingo as I read LOL!) I'm planning on going largely toward the scale side of things and plan on basically being a "back yarder" for the most part. I do hope to meet more people and to some get togethers. The no's are: no I don't want to blow up my house. The yes's are: yes I want something relatively portable with performance and safety in mind. I apologize for the question because there are tons of threads on here addressing this. However without being familiar with the specs and needs it's downright confusing to a noob. Thanks in advance!

 

[Kaffine]

Chargers are wide and varied but the things I would advise is look for one that will take 12v plus 110/220V for home usage,m I've got a couple from HKing and they've lasted me for years. A good lipo bag is a must for transport as well as can be used during charging, don't leave your battery alone when charging, they like company in case it explodes (VERY RARE).:shock:, sit your battery in a lipo bag, ammo box or make a brick base and surround so if it goes up bricks don't burn. Saying this it is extremely rare that lipos explode from charging, mainly from heavy crashes, example I fly quad copters in races and in the thousands of crashes I've only seen one ignite. Cars are much safer

I have a voltage alarm on my battery when in use and set the alarm at 3.70v per sell this gives me 0.5v to get me back with I don't recommend letting it discharge any lower..

Hope this helps
Kaff.."thumbsup"

 

[Pavmentsurfer]

Chargers use different software to handle the most important job they have "balancing" or keeping all the cells in the battery at the same voltage. There are many reasons why balancing is super important... for now, lets just say "its important" and move on.

Higher quality chargers more precisely and more efficiently balance your cells. Ive owned more than 20 different lipo chargers from the cheapest to the absolute best and I have found cheaper chargers do NOT do as good a job of balancing your packs and it can take them a LONG time to get it right. I don't trust my packs to cheap chargers. After owning high end chargers I feel its well worth owning something you KNOW you can trust.

I run my lipos to 3.4 volts per cell before the ESC goes into Low Voltage Cutoff. Most lipo capable ESC's will have this feature. If they don't, you can get a $5 low voltage alarm that will sound a loud beep when youve reached your pre-set voltage level. I charge my packs to 4.2 volts per cell and I store them at 3.8 volts per cell. A good charger will have the ability to do all of this for you... most often you can even save different charge/storage settings for quick reference later on.

Ive never had a pack vent on me during charging. though I did crash a plane once and the pack split in half. The venting was not as impressive as many would have you think. Charge in a metal box, a pot or a lipo bag. Something that wont catch fire. I do this if I'm gong to be away from the charger when charging (not out of the house, just not paying %100 attention). If I'm sitting right at the charger while I'm charging, I worry much less about putting it in something. Lipos don't just suddenly catch fire. There are signs its going to happen and if your watching, you'll catch it before it happens. Nearly ALL lipo fires are the same story. A: bad crash that splits a cell open B: Unattended charging with a charger that malfunctions C: Charging/running a pack that is obviously damaged or has been abused (is puffed). Charging undamaged lipos, that have been treated well, with a quality charger limits the changes of a problem to almost zero.

 

[MONKEYPIARATE]

the fact that you can not charger without a charger answers your question.,,
but ..what you need to think about is ....
1) the fact that you will want the best quality charger that you can get is a given fact ,,,,
2) it is the requirements of the battery that is of the most importance,
the BATTERY needs the charging .
the battery needs the balancing .
the battery needs to be in a safe location outside your home while charging.
the battery needs to be @ storage charge if not used for long periods.
having the best charger you can will always be best ..
in the end ,,,there are many ways to maintain your battery,,
if you are not able to cover all the different needs of your battery ,,,then you should put out the extra money for a charger that has all the features ..so you will be able to maintain your battery with little experience.
without having to remember and trick or purchasing any additional items like a balance board or something to monitor your voltage level,,,,,
the most important things you cannot cut corners on ...that is safe charging area ..safe storage area ..and safety procedures while using the proper tools to charge your battery.

 

[Olle P]

... Ive owned more than 20 different lipo chargers from the cheapest to the absolute best ... I don't trust my packs to cheap chargers. After owning high end chargers I feel its well worth owning something you KNOW you can trust.

I'm aware that the very low end of professional chargers have price tags at around $5,000 and the really good ones cost ~$20,000 (or more?). How can you afford those as hobby tools?
I know for sure that I don't...

I think there are good chargers available at consumer prices too, just not the very low end of consumer chargers.

 

[Pavmentsurfer]

FMA Powerlab series, arguably some of the best "consumer" chargers you can buy. The PL6 runs under $200 plus a converted servo PSU for $50 (I have 3 if you need one) and your into a 40 amp, top of the line setup for $250 or less. Not sure what your getting at with $5000-$20 000 chargers. Im talking about the difference between $50 Thunder AC6 and... say, a Hyperion or Icharger or evan a Thunder Power if your on a budget. Im not suggesting everyone needs to spend $5000 on a charger. Im simply saying a $50 charger is a $50 charger for a reason. Spend some more $$ and get a charger you can trust. Most people who say their "budget" chargers are "fantastic" have never owned more than one or two low end chargers. How can their suggestion be useful? If the only car id ever owned was a 2003 Kia rio... it would be the "best" car id ever owned. But that certainly doesnt mean its the "best car ever".

I know a gentleman who owns and operates one of North Americas best respected hobby lipo battery companies. Even he doesnt own a $5000 charger... Ive never seen such a thing listed as a "hobby" charger. Im pretty sure everyone here knew what I meant when I said "absolute best" in regards to RC hobbies.

 

[MONKEYPIARATE]

the importaince of the charger depends on your expieriance and knowledge of batteries and chargers as well as your needs and capabilities
of maintaining your rc vehicles ..to many times the lack of expertice/knowledge of all the different makes and models of chargers becomes every bit an obstacle to the novice as the expert that in their infinate knowledge and wisdoms forgets that you are novice and for gets to help answer your question and find what YOU need and find what is in YOUR best interest...just because you drive a corvette does not mean you are qualified to drive an indy race car because your buddy owns one ..so your answer lies between where you and i are in expieriace and the more knowledgable expert ,,,i believe that Pavement surfer has provided you a great service buy letting you know that
there are good chargers for 200 dollars or less ....if you are going to stay in the hobby that is somthing to conciter and if you dont then you might be betteroff with a lower quality charger if you will never use it .....and bottom line is there are many choises for every degree of expieriance and some times you might want to acomplish your task in several steps with each step according to what is in your best interest not what my self or others tell say you need ,,,choose acording to your needs and expierance level and you will be fine..
the best charger for you is what suits your needs ..take the info from those more knowledgable and use it to find what suits YOUR needs.

 

[Pavmentsurfer]

Well said. I can get on board with that %100

 

[Reflektr]

I have only owned 3 chargers my whole "r/c hobby life". All of them Dynamites, and 2 of them were the old "Mega" series, if that says anything lol. They are over 16 years old and still charge a grubby old stick pack with ease. A few years back I joined the new age and purchased a Dynamite Passport Ultra. What it can do and what you get for the price is pretty decent really. It may not be the most fancy, and it may not be the best, but it is the best that I've owned. It's like anything else man... No matter what it is, what brand, or how much it cost - There's always going to be someone saying "It rocked my face! I love it! Buy one now!", and someone else saying "I wouldn't use it to start a campfire"...

 

[chopfather]

I'm a lipo noob, I still own and use several nimh packs. I recently bought a Thunder AC6 charger and even I can figure out the basic functions on it and it does other stuff that I'll probably never use. It was cheap and works great , can't ask for much more than that.

 

[MountainStorm]

I have been using my iMax B6AC (the real one not the knock off) on a daily basis for a year and it's something I really can't live without. It has kept my Turnigy Nanotechs alive despite having been deep discharge more than few times. Runs on 12VDC or 110VAC. Only cost about $45.

 

[novarider]

Buy the best charger you can afford. Who knows where this hobby will take you? Maybe in 6 months you will need to charge much larger batteries faster in the future. Cheap chargers balance very very slowly. I had 2 thunder ac6 chargers and they would charge as fast as they could but then would take 45 minutes to balance the last little bit.

I bought a powerlab 6 and converted 2 server power supplies (easy to do) and I couldn't be happier. It charges up to 40A and balances quickly.

 

[wildbill13]

I am a total lipo noob, I run the venom 3600 nimh 7.2 packs with the onyx 240 charger. this seems to work ok. long run times in a crawler and ok power. but haven't ran a lipo to compare too. these are the only packs we have ran so far so nothing to compare too. looking at the lipo's seems like a lot of stuff to know and worry about. some times our trucks may sit for months with out use. more due to son into every sport known to man! also everything is x2 with 2 trucks mine and sons that's why I went with the onyx 240 charger so we can charge 2 packs at same time. so for me to get a lipo and 1 for a extra would mean I need 4 lipo's this would be ok on cost but might be a lot of work keeping 4 lipo's in shape ? also sometimes we recharge packs when out at my truck and not always at house. main reason we make a day of crawling not just run down 2 packs and go home. with the packs we run now we can drain one switch to the second charge the first and by the time that one is dead the other is ready so we can crawl non stop if we wanted. but most of the time we are walking around looking for other rocks or stop for drink or something also to give trucks little time to cool down what ever the case is. so I guess the question is would it be worth the money and time to switch to lipo's ? and would it be a lot of work to maintain 4 lipo's ? that is in my case with the above said ! thanks for the input.

 

[wildbill13]

o forgot and do they make a lipo charger that can charge 2 at a time ? sorry I know a lot said here !

 

[heli0]

Save up and buy a good charging setup, icharger or FMA with a good power supply (sever/workstation)

 

[jmac]

Wow thanks for the great relplies! Ok so I first off want to thank Pavmentsurfer for the help along in PM's and replies, as well as everyone else who has helped. I actually am a Network Engineer with a computer science degree. I've only become a professional musician in the last 3 years. With being born into the music business I was approached by a record label 2 years ago and have a contract with them and that's what I do now along with other music biz publishing etc. So with said I have a working knowledge of power supplies and basic electronics along with a thorough knowledge of network environments. You know I have to to nurture my inner nerd at some point.:mrgreen: That's all well and good, but I'm having a problem deciphering the benefits of using a pc / server / computer in general power supply in an RC charging environment.........OTHER than the benefits of clean, regulated power that simply plugging into a wall outlet with generic grid power would leave much to be desired. And of course the obvious that the charger has no integrated power supply and would require one to function at all. Am I close to a base hit here? Thanks again and sorry to be such a noob.

 

[jmac]

Also like to note that unlike most situations I may be in luck with this. I have a computer / network equipment graveyard that may come in handy. Any part numbers or specs I should be aware of when creating this lipo charging environment?

 

[MONKEYPIARATE]

Also like to note that unlike most situations I may be in luck with this. I have a computer / network equipment graveyard that may come in handy. Any part numbers or specs I should be aware of when creating this lipo charging environment?

you may find this link interesting to surf/mine for information.

Battery Information Table of Contents, Basic to Advanced8)

 

[z50king]

I run a 4 channel charger. I like to charge all my batteries in a few sets. This is chinese but it's not the chinese copy.

iMax Quattro B6 Charger 1-15 NiCd/NiMH cells; 1-6 Lipo/Lilon/LiFe cells;1-10 Lead-Acid cells(2V-20V)

This will need a 20+ amp continuous power supply.

 

[Loverslie]

Thanks for asking this question, I was about to ask this same question. Anyone know of any cheap lipo chargers?