What is your charger of choice and a parallel question.

Pumpkinguy

Pumpkinguy

Member
On another forum guys are raving about the cellpro 8. What is your favorite. I am looking for something that do 6s10000, 12000, 16000 fairly quick. I have a 60 amp @ 24v power supply.

Also, I have seen they use a squid to charge a couple batteries (same cell count) at once. One squid for charging and another balance squid. How does the charger know one battery from another? Can't wrap my head around that.
 

Carapau

Carapau

Tek care, lambs ont road, MRF Moderator
Cellpro 8 is one of the best chargers on the market. It's competitor and my favourite is the iCharger 4010 duo or 406 duo. The two ichargers are the same except the 4010 will do 10 cell batteries and the 406 up to 6s. Go with the 406 if you are only going to deal with 6s batteries. I prefer the iChargers as you get two ports on one charger and I find the menu/screen so much easier to deal with. These three chargers are safe and do a great job of charging your batteries with all 3 offering a fast balance phase.

As for the charger needing to know which battery is which, it doesnt really need to know as the squids effectively balance between all of the cells. However, if you parallel charge regularly it is always good practice to do a non parallel charge from time to time.

As for power, your 60A supply will charge 3x 16Ah batteries at 1c and doing that it will be pretty maxed out once you take in to consideration power loss due to the charger itself requiring power to function.
 

Pumpkinguy

Pumpkinguy

Member
I'm my mind I kinda narrowed it down to the icharger and the cellpro. The icharger definitely has a better screen. Not by a little, by a lot but I didn't want the bells and whistles to sway my decision. Function beats form in my opinion. I have watched a lot of videos on both and I am still torn....
Btw, I think 12000's will be the biggest batteries I use and I will want to charge 2 at a time.
Is there a way to figure out charging time from empty to full?
 

S

SJBrit

Member
iCharger for me. If you charge at 1C (which you should) then that takes an hour from fully empty (which you shouldn't ;)). If you are stopping at 20% capacity then 1C charging will take 48 mins. Make sure you get a charger with enough current capacity - mine can charge at 10A which is perfect since the biggest batteries I run are 10Ah. I can charge bigger ones but it takes longer since I'll be charging at less than 1C.
 


Pumpkinguy

Pumpkinguy

Member
I like technical data. So when I compared the powerlab 8 to the icharger 406 I looked at weight. The icharger was 30% heavier. Yes it has a slightly bigger case. But that's mostly plastic so I consider the bulk of the weight difference is probably in things like the heat sink etc. I did notice the icharger has a higher discharge capacity so maybe my suspicions are correct. Maybe this is the route to go providing the reliability is there.
 

PeteDee

PeteDee

Mr take no prisoners!
I decided I would never use more than 6 cell packs so got a Revolectrix PL6, I also use a iCharger 206B, perfect for the smaller packs, I use both with 4 port para boards. I never charge at more than 1C per pack.
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
Carapau said:
Cellpro 8 is one of the best chargers on the market. It's competitor and my favourite is the iCharger 4010 duo or 406 duo. The two ichargers are the same except the 4010 will do 10 cell batteries and the 406 up to 6s. Go with the 406 if you are only going to deal with 6s batteries. I prefer the iChargers as you get two ports on one charger and I find the menu/screen so much easier to deal with. These three chargers are safe and do a great job of charging your batteries with all 3 offering a fast balance phase.

As for the charger needing to know which battery is which, it doesnt really need to know as the squids effectively balance between all of the cells. However, if you parallel charge regularly it is always good practice to do a non parallel charge from time to time.

As for power, your 60A supply will charge 3x 16Ah batteries at 1c and doing that it will be pretty maxed out once you take in to consideration power loss due to the charger itself requiring power to function.
Click to expand...

ProgressiveRC may be joining the site as an advertiser. I'll have to ask them if they can do a special coupon code to help promote the grand opening of their advertising presence here.

And a big thank you to them for even considering advertising here!

Bart
i306B owner/operator
 
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Pumpkinguy

Pumpkinguy

Member
I always try to find a Canadian vendor first. I like to support my own economy if possible. Unfortunately we can't get squat up here. I've been using Amain a lot. They have been good. But if progressive is a site sponsor I will order from them.
 


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