Hobbyking Chargers...

Discussion on reviews of all things related to electric-powered models

Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby Roger » Tue May 18, 2010 1:56 am

Anyone got a good suggestion for a reliable all round charger to pick...? Also want to power it from the wall, so was looking at the 5W laptop supply, the larger power supplies have very bad write ups...

Roger
Roger
 
Posts: 79
Joined: Mon May 10, 2010 11:00 am

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby RCModelReviews » Tue May 18, 2010 1:59 am

What kind of batteries are you looking to charge?

A 5W power supply isn't going to do much -- that's just 400mA at 12V so if you've got a 3S 2200mAH lipo it's going to take about 5 or 6 hours to charge!

Even a 3S 1300mAH will take nearly 3 hours.
RCModelReviews.com, just the facts.
User avatar
RCModelReviews
 
Posts: 2120
Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 3:40 am

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby jomarx » Tue May 18, 2010 3:38 am

Turnigy Accucel6 + 5amp 12v power supply is what I use. ;)
User avatar
jomarx
 
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 9:19 am

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby Daedalus » Fri Jul 02, 2010 11:06 am

Accucel 6 and when they come back in stock, pickup one of the new Power Supplies HK are selling.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... ccessories
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... _Chargers_

These have 20amp (240 watt) output,which is plenty for most chargers.
If you do buy one though, read the instructions and hook up your chargers before turning it on, otherwise it turns itself off.
I thought I had a faulty one till I actually followed the instructions.

cheers
Wayne
Daedalus
 
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 8:16 am

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby nzimmers » Sat Jul 03, 2010 5:36 am

jomarx wrote:Turnigy Accucel6 + 5amp 12v power supply is what I use. ;)


same here, works well and can charge many different types of batteries. I actually use a 12 volt power supply from an old LCD monitor
nzimmers
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:24 am

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby RobC » Sat Jul 03, 2010 9:12 am

Emax B5(50W) or for faster charging a GT Power A6-10 (200W) driven off an old PC power supply. The one I'm using came out of a throw-away HP desktop PC and is rated at 14A at 12V. As a bonus, it's got 5v and 3.3v rails for setting up models, testing setups etc..
RobC
 
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 11:38 am

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby jeffie8696 » Sat Jul 03, 2010 1:47 pm

I am using the Turnigy 5011. It is slow with the bigger packs but fine on the 500 to 1000 packs I fly in my smaller planes and its really cheap. I power it with an old portable car jump starter box thats not a battery charger but a portable battery.
The leads of the Turnigy 5011 need reworked to be reliable since they are not securely fastened (at least mine were not) but it is easy to do .
jeffie8696
 
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 3:50 pm

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby Mr Ed » Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:33 pm

The charger I like the best out of all of mine is the Cellpro 4S. As long as you are not charging big batteries then it gets along fine. I think I am going to get the 10S pretty soon since I am getting into the bigger batteries. I also have a Turnigy Accucell-6 and it works pretty good too. I use either a 5 Amp or 10 Amp power supply depending on what I am charging. Both power supplies are Samual and work great. I use the 10 Amp if I am charging my 5 amp batteries as the smaller one is only 4amp.

Ed
Mr Ed
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:42 am

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby ofer24 » Mon Sep 06, 2010 9:13 am

I got an IMAX B6 charger off ebay for $25.4 including shipping.
I'm very happy with it, though it doesn't come with a power adapter (I use a laptop adapter). It has two "crocodile" connectors to hook up to a 12v battery.
It balance charges with an accuracy of 0.03v (checked with a voltmeter).
I also got a temp probe for about $3 so I can utilize the Temp. cutout feature.
Features:
Power Input: DC 11 - 18v
Max power: 50w
Current range: 0.1-5.0A
Current drain for balancing LiPo: 300mA/cell
NiCd/NiMh battery cell count: 1-15cell
Li-Ion/Polymer cell count: 1-6 in series
Pb battery voltage: 2v to 50v
Weight : 450g
Dimensions : 137 X 87 X 33mm

Cheers.
ofer24
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2010 7:13 am

Re: Hobbyking Chargers...

Postby Roger » Sat Sep 11, 2010 12:03 am

I am currently using an Orbit Pocket Ladder charger with the addition of a Hobbyking battery medic - AKA a power pilot ballancer / discharger. The Power supply is from an old external hard-drive, and is only 3 watts at 12 volts (so it says) and yes, when I run the charger at 1 amp starting rate, the power supply does "squeel" a bit. The orbit charger cuts down the charge rate as the battery reaches full charge, so it actually charges the lipo quite nicely. Unfortunately since I forgot to disconnect my transmitter from its wall charger I stuffed that charger a few months ago when I ripped the plug out...! I've been getting better charging performance out of the orbit charger anyway... so now I have the problem that I have too many batteries that need charging and only one charger that will do the job. The solution is obviously to get a multi circuit charger, or simply get a second one... with the later in mind I have been looking at this one...
http://www.rcworld.co.nz/dynam-supermate-dc6-double-power-ac-dc-balance-charger-xidp259628.html
I like the fact that unlike most of the others on the market, it also has the functionality to plug it straight into a wall socket. Anyone used one of these Dynam chargers, any comments etc.

most of these units must use either the same or very similar charge circuit chips, just all put into a different case with a slightly different screen...
The Orbit is cool in the fact that its firmware can actually be re-flashed in order to add new types of battery chemistry - when i bought it, the LiFe chemistry wasn't available - now after the latest update it has been added to the chargers options... the down side is that the charger does not have a built in ballancer... there are some you can get which plug-in to the firmware port and provide feedback to the charger - but the current bat-medic system works great.

Not sure if a review thread is really needed for chargers since most of them operate in much the same way, but I wonder if it would be good to at least have a comparison chart to compare features and price / supplier - perhaps some with a user rating as well. I have heard of some of the cheaper Chinese (turnigy?) ones having less than accurate voltage output readings which could be damaging to lipo batteries and therefore dangerous. I'd be happy to compile a list in Excel which users could input details of the chargers under the category headings, fill in and email back to me - and i'll compile them which will then update on a regular basis giving a "score" system for chargers (popularity, rating out of 10 for features etc...) What do you guys think?
Roger
 
Posts: 79
Joined: Mon May 10, 2010 11:00 am

Next

Return to Electric (motors, batteries, ESCs, chargers etc)

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

cron