Quick Review of the SkyRC Ultimate Duo 400W X 2

[properchopper]

Lots more to say; some first impressions. Draw your own conclusions

The field by power/price :

Hyperion Duo 3 ; 500Wx500W - $249.95 + shipping (OSE)
TP 820 CD ; 400Wx400W - $269.95 + shipping (Horizon)
*Hitec X-2 ; 400Wx400W - $172.95 + shipping (Ebay)
*Turnigy Mega 400WX2 - 400Wx400W - 124.80 + shipping (HK Int'l Warehouse)
*SkyRC Ultimate Duo 400W x 2 - 400Wx400W - HobbyPartz $115.70 - FREE SHIPPING

* Reason to believe these are the SAME CHARGERS - I downloaded the manuals for all three and they are absolutely identical - minor variation in cases/graphics

Charging modes :
Charge (no balancing)
Balance (charges at .1C at end of cycle) -
Fast Charge(charges at .5C at end of cycle)(can be configured for any higher "C" you desire)
Storage(user configureable - will charge up or discharge down to any pre-set value)
Discharge

Programming

Seems clumsy to me; manual gets you to @80%-have to use intuition and large quantities of chilled malt beverage to 'git 'er done. Once accomplished choosing one of the ten available memory settings should be easy once you get used to it.

Info Screen(s) **

Basic charging info on initial screen - Battery type,Charging Current, Real Time Battery Voltage,Charge Mode,Elapsed Time, Mah put in

Toggle to second screen down - individual cell voltage

Nice to have a screen for both batteries while dual charging.

** Here's where my three Hyperions are "WAY MORE BETTER" in this category: The SkyRC & it's clones, and also the Thunderpower 820CD have no readout telling at what percent of final/full charge you're at in the cycle. The Hyperions have this essential data readout. Here's an example : You're racing several classes. Ten minutes 'till tape-up/get on the stand. With the Hyperion you look at the charger and can see how close (or not) you are to a finish charge. Or you're fun running with a friend; He's at the water's edge ready to play & calls out to you "Lets Go". Without knowing whether you're fully charged you'd be best to wait 'till the "finish charge beep" happens, and without the % readout you have no idea when that'll happen. ( The volt readout gives you a decent idea, but...)

Minor gripe : Battery leads are 12GA ; kind of wimpy & power cord is rather short. Gave in & bought one of these, needed one anyway: http://www.hobbypartz.com/26p-powerstrip.html

FWIW I'm glad I bought the SkyRC. For the $$ it can't be beat. Gives me an excuse to crank up the tunes to blank out the rather loud (but I'm glad it's doing it's job) fan. Time will tell how long it functions properly until it hits the smelly air freshener graveyard

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Remember : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOMTnLHDWRA


Tony
South Bay Home For Terminally Bewildered FE Racers

[Heaving Earth]

I'm rather impressed with hobbypartZ. Always have been, and look forward to more awesome stuff from them

[properchopper]

I'm rather impressed with hobbypartZ. Always have been, and look forward to more awesome stuff from them

Got my charger in LESS than 24 hours from the time I ordered it & they paid shipping.

Was schmoozing the GensAce guys for a Nat's sponshorship ; showed up once for a race but never came back. No biggie. Also just ordered some nicely speck'd cheapo disposeable servos; will report on them soon.

[Basstronics]

I was debating about that Thunderpower and considered the cheap route of Sky or Turnigy as well.

I bought the Mega 400W Turnigy and so far its a beast. No complaints.

[LiPo Power]

Same here.
I went the Turnigy way and got this 400W charger:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...y_Charger.html
It has upgraded new software, better options as for monitoring the charging or temperature regulated cooling fans.
So fare I love it.....
Just my 3 C....

I was debating about that Thunderpower and considered the cheap route of Sky or Turnigy as well.

I bought the Mega 400W Turnigy and so far its a beast. No complaints.

[properchopper]

Was using my Hyperion Duo Saturday for the P-Ltd Sport Hydro heats. Plenty of time for charging between heats with all the gas classes running - only used one 4S 5000 and charging was going just fine (and the % charge readout told me just how much time was left until full charge). Sunday was a whole 'nother thing. Less gas classes, less time between heats and we ran P-Mono so had to charge 2 4S 5000's at a time. Unfortunately my deep cycle poweer supply battery was caving in and the Hyperion Duo wouldn't charge with the lowering input voltage of the deep cycle battery and would just quit charging. The manual I have for the Duo refers to a screen where the input voltage threshold can be adjusted but my Duo (a very early one) wouldn't respond to the input voltage low threshold screen. I hooked up the SkyRC (which HAS an adjustable supply voltage feature); mine was set at 10V "just because" - and it worked just fine. The only downside was that the SkyRC doesn't have a "% until fully charged readout" - important information to know when your heat is approaching. Stephen saved the day by letting me use this goodie : http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...rod=emp-Sentry - besides being a balancer and individual cell readout meter, it has the all important "% charge" data readout. I'm getting two

AND was Second Place Finisher in P-Mono Class (behind that too-fast Tyler guy )

[twissted]

I bought the turnigy. I wish I would have bought through hobbypatz. HK riped me off 90.00 in shipping when I oreded 4 batteries whith this shipment and it took 4 weeks to get it. I'm done with hobbyking. They have good prices unless you need service or part replaced. They have no problem lying about what they do as well.

[jcald2000]

Tony, next time look at the PL-8 same price as your top 2 and by far the best charger I have ever seen in my 20 years including the Schultz's.
4S 2P in 12 min's at 2C, 8S 2P in 30 min's.
Jumper cables from your running car while charging will solve the charging problem.

[SirBudman32]

Tony, take the left side fan out (the one that sucks air in) and put a 2 washers on each screw between the fan and the case and it will quite it down. Did it on my Turnigy and now you don't even know it is running.

[MAMBA2200]

i bought the thunder charger T-6 and have never looked back i really like that it was cheap and has turned out to be very reliable

[properchopper]

Tony, next time look at the PL-8 same price as your top 2 and by far the best charger I have ever seen in my 20 years including the Schultz's.
4S 2P in 12 min's at 2C, 8S 2P in 30 min's.
Jumper cables from your running car while charging will solve the charging problem.

With four chargers, I think I'm done buying any more for a while. (Can't have a running car in the pits so I use a good power supply when there's 110V to plug into). Use a marine deep cycle most of the time.

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One thing I like about the SkyRc (same internals as the Turnigy & HiTec btw) is three charging modes : BALANCE, CHARGE, and FAST CHARGE. The first two modes drop to 1/10 volt near the end of charge cycle, the FAST CHARGE mode drops to 1/5 volt so that last "topping off" time is cut in half.

[keithbradley]

Tony,

As you know, the SkyRC chargers are what I now carry on my site. While I haven't had a chance to try them all, I'm currently using the 4 x 80w charger now (with the SKyRC 1200W PS) and it's working well. I checked final cell balance against other chargers and volt meters and it seems to balance well (this is a concern with a lot of the cheaper chargers out there...some will vary by up to .2v!). The only complaint I guess I have about it is the thermostat on/off parameters for the fans. It seems that the "on" and "off" parameters are very close, so the fan cycles alot, where I would prefer it just stay on or off. The constant cycling of the fan can be annoying in a quite room, but I'm willing to put up with it as the price/performance of this unit is pretty tough to beat.

Does your 400x2 charger do the same thing?

[properchopper]

Tony,

As you know, the SkyRC chargers are what I now carry on my site. While I haven't had a chance to try them all, I'm currently using the 4 x 80w charger now (with the SKyRC 1200W PS) and it's working well. I checked final cell balance against other chargers and volt meters and it seems to balance well (this is a concern with a lot of the cheaper chargers out there...some will vary by up to .2v!). The only complaint I guess I have about it is the thermostat on/off parameters for the fans. It seems that the "on" and "off" parameters are very close, so the fan cycles alot, where I would prefer it just stay on or off. The constant cycling of the fan can be annoying in a quite room, but I'm willing to put up with it as the price/performance of this unit is pretty tough to beat.

Does your 400x2 charger do the same thing?

My fan is always on. I like it because it drowns out the noises in my head

[MarkF]

For those of you who don't own a Hyperian charger, here is the fuel tank guide for referrence.
empty 3.209V
10% 3.683V
20% 3.747V
30% 3.791V
40% 3.812V
50% 3.839V
60% 3.883V
70% 3.936V
80% 3.999V
90% 4.085V
100% 4.199V

Mark

[MIGMaster]

ProperChopper,

Just wondering how you're liking your Duo ? Still working OK ? I'm in the market for a dual charger and it's on my short list..... Thanks !

[properchopper]

ProperChopper,

Just wondering how you're liking your Duo ? Still working OK ? I'm in the market for a dual charger and it's on my short list..... Thanks !

Very happy with it. It does seem a little clumsy in the programming steps so I made a cheat sheet to help. It could be that I'm just a slow learner.

It does lack the feature the Hyperions have (% to full charge readout) that is very helpfull recharging between race heats but the outboard cell meter goodies can add this & I'm hoping Santa brings me some

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[LiPo Power]

All 400W x 2 and up chargers need very strong power supply to get top performance or back to 5-10 amp per port, period.
Hyperion duo 3 needs a 24V, 1300W power source with 1000 Watt out to get 500 Watts charging on each side.
My quastion for you guys is what power supply do you use with all your 400 x 2 and UP chargers and are you
charging your lipos at up to 20Amp per port?
Thanks
Robert

[MIGMaster]

I'm a sport boater - there is no racing (or even RC boaters from what I can determine in my area) so amperage is not a big deal for me. Charging at 10 amps would be more than plenty for me. That being said I do run a coupla server PSU's (like the puppies you sell Lipo ) and I have them configured for 12 or 24 volt. I did it more as a fun project than requiring that kinda power.

The real kicker is that in order to get a quality dual charger I need to buy more capacity than I need (i'm sure it's different for Properchopper who races). I guess the best way to think about is that I'm buying for the future if my needs increase.....

[properchopper]

All 400W x 2 and up chargers need very strong power supply to get top performance or back to 5-10 amp per port, period.
Hyperion duo 3 needs a 24V, 1300W power source with 1000 Watt out to get 500 Watts charging on each side.
My quastion for you guys is what power supply do you use with all your 400 x 2 and UP chargers and are you
charging your lipos at up to 20Amp per port?
Thanks
Robert

Robert,

Lakeside I use a 12V Marine deep cycle battery if I'm only racing one or two classes and run maybe a single charger. I only use 4S packs; 5000mah or 4000mah so I usually charge at 5A or 4A. Recently we raced with only three classes (two gas) and I needed quick charging between heats. I tried 10A charging with my SkyRc Duo and it worked fine. What I really liked about that charger is that it'll accept down to 10V input (when the deep cycle starts to cave in) The Hyperions error out below roughly 11.5V and since they're older models there is no adjusting the input voltage threshold. The SkyRc saved my butt several times when this occurred.

When I go to AZ for Winter Warmups I race 3 or four classes each day and run as many chargers. I bring Big Bertha along (pictured).

I'll agree that the 400W x 2 is not all that necessary but I scored the charger for $115.70 delivered so I jumped on it.

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