I hate charging LiPos. Will this help?
LiPo are slow and painful. I am still not so comfortable with abusing Lipos because I always have always had charge instability on my Kyosho charger with early capacity excess before voltage peak and connection breaks for no reason. Even with new batteries. So I always charge at safe levels. once at a time.
This means charging the whole morning and then throughout the day to get 4 batteries up to speed.
I've tried power splitting boards to spread the power and charge simultaneously and speed up that 90 minute charge, but I'm still not convinced.
So, Anyway
This product was advertised in Japan in March. Then has been delayed again and again for 6 months. Finally released, so I jumped at it. Many people have been waiting as most tracks in Japan have AC outlets anyway. 3 firends have bought the same item having reserved it since March.
It's cheap too...! $220 Why? because it doesn't include enough ancillaries to be useful.
Instead of charging 4 lipo or 4 life. You can still only charge 1 because they don't include 4 connectors.
But out of the box you can charge 4 different kinds of batteries? Like I want to do that.
I only charge 2 kinds. Transmitter and Lipo. Sometimes a friends NiMh.
I think another $50 or more will see me purchase the following.
3 x LiPo connector balance boards,
2 x Euro -> Deans connectors with 2s balance wire.
2 x charge safety bags.
And
Cut and solder more deans connectors on half of the unwanted ancillary cables. (I have 3 spare luckily)
Anyway. Charger project start.
.... Update....
I went back to get the connectors... They had dropped the price by $20 GRRRRRRRRRRR!
No discount for those who waited so long. That could have paid for my connectors.
.... Update....
All leads made up and ready to charge 4 at a time. May give it a whirl tomorrow.
... Future plans....
Red and silver bling wire for direct charge leads.
New custom face design.
...Update...
Pins for the balance charge boards already bending.... dangerous.
The place for the charge board connectors to connect is just a big hole with no support.
I've already broken one pin as they don't line up.
so I have to be very careful as I always am with these lipos and especially this charger.
I'm also having trouble charging AA packs of NiMh that my old Kyosho charger had no issues with.
so you gonna need a 20A power supply at least right?
ReplyDeleteIt's Ac already
ReplyDeleteHow good are the balancers in that charger? Looks to me as yet another rebadged Imax B6, and the balancers in those are not very accurate and reduce battery life quite a lot. Not to hate on your new charger, but its something to keep in mind.
ReplyDeleteI've been using the same batteries as my mates, but mine are still like new even though I've used them a full season longer than most, and the others have batteries going dead all the time.
The difference is I'm using an expensive (and slow) Trakpower balancer, and they use an (rebadged) Imax B6.
My Kyosho charger was Super Slow.
ReplyDeleteIt would drop connections and give max capacity errors and all sort of rubbish.
I have no idea what is inside.
I've had my lipos for about a year. and they are still good. I believe.
My 4 Yokomo short packs 2x 4200 and 2x2800 seem to give good run time.
they always get about 4 hours break between charges (2 per day) once a week.
People here in Japan usually only balance every 3rd or 4th time anyway.
For fresh packs this is usually ok. (so I've been told)
literally there is little to no information on the web about care and techniques of lipo charging.
If you have any pointers please share.
I have found that this charger was quite quick today compared to my old one even in balance mode. Whether the "waste" time function is shorter or not I'm not so sure.
but no lost connections or capacity limitations.
I'm happy at the moment.
I did notice some inequality on the first day...
ReplyDeleteBut actually, the charger highlighted the fact that my ESC was not balancing correctly.
I've since updated the firmware and set the cutoff a bit higher.
seems better.
I will get a separate balancer anyway.
but the main thing is the charger has already proven better than my kyosho.
I has more functions and highlighted some irregularities I would never have found otherwise.
4 other guys have bought these at my local track so I guess i'll get some real world feedback.