Looking for input on a good CHARGER/BALANCER

[Frazzo420]

like the title says ..... i have a venom procharger now but it seems to take forever to balance a 2s 5000mah bat (120-160 min)..
it also seems to charge to almost full then balance which takes forever..
and when it stops it reads 4.19....4.20 not 4.20 each??? also i dont have a ton to spend but i dont want anything cheap??? this venom charger was almost 100$ and it just seems cheap....

[Boaterguy]

OSE has some nice hyperion ones, never tried them, but I've heard they are top - end.

[Stinger9D9]

I'm sure Hyperions are great, but I picked up a Duratrax ICE and Electrifly balancer for $40 (!) off Ebay a while ago.

Before that, I was using a Triton 2 (Tower Hobbies scratch and dent $70) and an Astroflight Blinky balancer ($30 at the lhs).

Both of those combinations work great. You do need an external 12 volt power source, but you generally do with the higher amp chargers.

I just looked up the Venom charger, yeah, it llooks like any number of cheap Chinese charger/balancers on Ebay.

Keep an eye out in the Swap Shop. A Triton jr and Equinox balancer just sold for $30 shipped!!! That's a crazy good deal!
http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/showthread.php?t=26071&highlight=triton

[jkr]

I use a hyperion eos0606i.
It is a very accurate charger but i doesn't have lipo storage and battery internal resistance.
My next one will be an icharger 208b or 308b.
I thing they are very good , accurate and you can calibrate them.

[Frazzo420]

Thanks for the input those chargers seem a lil on the pricy side hows abt this one from the king http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=15986 i guess i would also need a power supply also....

So i just finished balancing my 2s 5000mah bat on my venom charger....

It took 5200mah
took 210 min to charge:help::help::help::help:
but balanced fine:smile:

[Frazzo420]

what kind of time is it taking you guys to charge and balance you packs

[Boaterguy]

I got a turnigy accucel 6, most old laptop power supplies will have the correct voltage, had it for a month or two, still works fine.

[Diesel6401]

like the title says ..... i have a venom procharger now but it seems to take forever to balance a 2s 5000mah bat (120-160 min)..
it also seems to charge to almost full then balance which takes forever..
and when it stops it reads 4.19....4.20 not 4.20 each??? also i dont have a ton to spend but i dont want anything cheap??? this venom charger was almost 100$ and it just seems cheap....

When it comes to chargers its all about the wattage. Most ac/dc chargers are 50 watts which is ok for smaller packs but struggle (take longer due to lower amp charge rate) with the larger packs. They can't meet the demand. I have had a few chargers and my current favorite combo is this:
Power Supply: http://www.commonsenserc.com/product_info.php?cPath=38_85&products_id=649&osCsid=ieamdbd85jlh4rai3rhfj1cat4
Charger: http://www.commonsenserc.com/product_info.php?products_id=2230&osCsid=ieamdbd85jlh4rai3rhfj1cat4

My favorite charger to date. Charges my larger packs with ease.

I think tower has that same charger a little cheaper though: http://towerhobbies.com/products/sky_rc/sytm1001.html

[G-UNIT]

I have a hyperion and it works great, but some times the batts don;t balance out the same,
like you said 4.19 on one and 4.18 on another or 4.17 on one and 4.15 on another.
I tried to charged with out using the balencer and after charged then I connected the balencer and got different results ie they then balenced alot closer togeather.
how old are your batts and have you ever discharged them and then recharged them?
and @ what amps are you charging them at, I;ve expermented with different amp rates and of cource it takes longer at lower amps and at the end I get deffer'ent resulst on the balencing,
just my observtions

[Frazzo420]

I'm charging at 4 amps and yes the batts a fairly new
But is 210 min average for this

[G-UNIT]

I don,t think so way to long IMO, whats the max amp charge rate on your charger, mine is 6 amps and I can charge in less then 1 hr,
5000mh and when I charge them they take about 2500-3500mh so as you can see I hav;ent been running them down to far.
when I hook up the charger it shows about 7.7-7.9 volts left in the batterys,
mind you that I'm no expert on this and I even wonder how far I can run the batts down,
I don,t think I should run them down to7.4 but I'm not sure, I guess this is a battery ? in that thread

[Frazzo420]

Good info :popcorn2: let's keep the info going

[Frazzo420]

so i was thinking about this "100$ venom procharger":sarcasm1: .... and i busted out my digi multimeter to do some investigating... so i set my venom 2s 5000mah battery to balance...........220min later its done so i check pack voltage 8.41v......so i look at the lcd on the charger and it reads 8.40v and the cell readout was 4.20. 4.20...and when i checked the cells on the multimeter myself cell 1=4.20 cell 2=4.21..............

then i balanced my venom 3s 4000mah battery and the results..... The charger read 12.60v cells where 4.20...4.20...4.20......then i measured with my multimeter and the results where pack voltage was 12.57 cells where 4.20...4.21...4.16????????:ThumbsDown01::ThumbsDow n01:


wow i didnt know venom bought cheap ass chargers???????? and then resold them........

[Stinger9D9]

wow i didnt know venom bought cheap ass chargers???????? and then resold them........

I didn't know anyone expected Venom to sell anything but cheap stuff after seeing the sub-NQD quality line of boats they sold up until the KoS came out:

http://www.venom-group.com/info.asp?sid=120

After seeing that lineup, especially the first 3 nothing Venom sells surprises me.

[Frazzo420]

I didn't know anyone expected Venom to sell anything but cheap stuff after seeing the sub-NQD quality line of boats they sold up until the KoS came out:

http://www.venom-group.com/info.asp?sid=120

After seeing that lineup, especially the first 3 nothing Venom sells surprises me.



BWAAAAAA!!!:rofl:

[pmx]

AstroFlight charger and their Blinky balancer
http://www.astroflight.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

[HYDROJERRY]

Im not sure but i just orderd the iCharger from HK,,, it shows all good reveiws and very acurate ballancing,,so it says and can be calibrated,,so i hope it works good cuz my old accucell-6 is charging all over the place..

[Frazzo420]

i ended up ordering the turnigy 4x6s charger from HK and a 20ax2 power supply off e#ay.....

i hoping it works like others have preached..:Praying:

[HYDROJERRY]

I orderd this one hope yours and mine work great!!!

[Frazzo420]

I'm just going to need another parallel :thumbup:

[maxmekker]

I started with the bantam bc-6 (50watt)when I got the t-rex 450. then when I got the t-rex 500, I had to get a bigger one. Bantam bc6-10(up to 10 amp),and then I also got into parallel charging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8L_c-cFpSQ&feature=channel_video_title

Now I have the I- charger 3010. Got it mainly becuase it has firmware upgrade, and are much stronger,fast and has many adjustments for both lipo's and nimh/nicd.