The Ultimate Charger
 

It's that time. Time to upgrade, time to join the club for real. I've been a LiPo user for several years now but I've been insulated. I got into it with the FMA Scorpion packs and chargers. I still say those little 3200 packs are amazing but they are too small for my current needs. Then I upgraded to Trakpower 4900's from Flightpower - also great packs - and with an adapter I still used my old Scorpion chargers (I have two.) I ran both kinds of batteries in my E-Truggy in a 2s+2s config with a Y adapter.

For this year I'm considering moving to a single 4s or even 5s pack and that means I need a real, grown up, fully functional charger. I do own a Trakpower "V-Balance" which, with the right cable, is supposed to handle 2s-6s packs.

So, given the CURRENT market, what is the best charger out there for the racer? I've seen lots of info online but I wonder what you guys, the guys who actually use these things, think.

Feedback, feelings, opinion, comments, complaints, whatever - it's all welcome. The chargers I'm most leaning toward are the Hyperion EOS1210i Charger and the Hyperion EOS0610iNET Balance Charger however I'm open to any brand, any flavor, just something which works!

Thanks guys,

David Maffucci

I am not a racer, but I can say that I have been very happy with my hyperion chargers. They are the 5i small ones, and I have 3 of various ages. I also have a mrc superbrain 989, and like that too. It is good to 8s lipo, and 19000 mah, so it will charge almost anything I will ever use.

I'm sure you know the differences between the hyperion chargers, but go to this site:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=773058
and download the excel spreadsheet and it tells you all the differences.


I own a 1210i for my big pack (2000mah+) and for my A123 cells
I also have a hobbico accucycle elite for my smaller packs and misc NIMH stuff.

Thanks for that link, great spreadsheet.

I wonder, with the EOS0610i, can you bypass the built in balancer and use an external one?

DM

Yes. You don't have to use the built in balancer if you don't want.

I have the 0610i and I found the builtin balancer to be too much of a PITA to use so I just charge directly throuth the output jacks of the charger into the pack, I balance either before or after using an external balancer, and contrary to what people think Lipo technology is not dangerous, I have never had a pack even get warm on me, I suppose there is a possibilty that a pack could catch fire or blow up, but there is also a possibilty that while baking cookies in a gas oven that could blow up also.....

What about the built in balancer is a PITA? Just wondering b/c while I have a balancer for my current packs, I was leaning toward that charger mainly because of the balancer for my new 4s and/or 5s packs.

Thanks,

DM

I would try to use the balancer and I would get the message "Battery connect error", I have gone to various RC websites including the MaxAmps site, called MaxAmps (where I bought the charger) and I got the same story "try all variations of connecting charger-balancer-battery pack, nothing worked and what I have found out I am not the only one who has had this problem, it seems its a crap shoot on whether it will work or not, I just charge through the output jacks directly into the pack via the Deans connector, and you can either balance before or after charging with an external balancer, I have an old LBa6 when I used to use the Hyperion 5i charger

Never had a problem with mine no matter what order things are connected. Can't vouch for everyone but the value for money is excellent.

here are a few posts I have made on the subject

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10320

http://www.nitrokillers.com/showthread.php?t=822

The only thing to know on the 0610i built in balancer, is if you have a FlightPower or TunderPower 4s pack, you SHOULD remove the last red wire on the balance plug, and isolated it, if not, the charger will not recognize the pack.

Are you charging LiPo only ?

This is what I'm after....

http://www.fmadirect.com/new_applica...0s_charger.htm

I've had the 4s since it's release, and have loved every minute of it. I just need more than 3.5a charge rate these days. The 10s will do up to 10s at 10a, or two packs up to 5s at the same time. nice.


J.

I started a thread on that FMA a while ago - it does look really amazing! I had thought it was shipping last month but I guess it has been delayed a bit.

I am going to email FMA with a few questions and I'll post their replies.

DM

I got a rely from FMA - Man these guys are FAST!

I asked a bunch of questions, the first was about using the 10s to charge up my current TrakPower Packs and using the external V-Balance, unfortunately I was told that you CAN NOT use an external balancer with the 10s! Strange...


He did open the door to making a simple adapter to do it however from my reading online, that adapter would be limited to 1c charge rates, no big deal since that is what I use now. Making the adapter seems quite easy so the 10s is looking like it may be the ultimate charger after all...

I also asked if they have adapters for the Hyperion/TP taps and sure enough they DO!

Finally I asked about it's shipping status and he said that their initial run of 200 units has ALL been shipped. He said that orders placed today would likely ship in about 2 weeks...not bad.

I'd have to say that right now the 10s is the charger I'm most leaning toward with a slew of adapters.

DM

There would be no reason to use an external balancer on a CellPro. It charges each cell completely independent of the other cells in the pack. Not traditional balance charging, something better!

I've always found the guys at FMA to be great for support too. good communication and such.

J.

I had an FMA 4S and I must say, It was pretty idiot proof !! Just plug it in and away it goes ! I was seriously looking at the 10S , and am trying to decide if it's better to wait for the 10s ? Or go with the hyperion 0610i ? I'm biased towards the FMA cause I had one and was very satisfied with it. kinda waiting for someone else to get the 10s and see what they think about it . Jerry

Well I can think of one reason, hooking it all up. The TrakPower packs have a somewhat unique hookup and the V-Balance makes that easy. But I guess like many things, the easy path is not always the best. A hopefully a few quick solder joints and I can charge these beasts.

DM

83GT, its BB16, clear your INBOX! lol

any opinions on the xtrema? i'm too looking into chargers but can't make up my mind. i know its not as powerful as the big hyperions, but it does have other features.

What is the Xtrema?

Link please...

DM

Just FYI FMA replied to my further inquires, you can not use an external balancer of any kind with the 10s.

Doesn't matter to me anymore. I think I have a way to make adapters for their plugs and it is the current leader in my race to a new charger.

DM

In case anybody else is looking -

http://www.tmenet.com/xtrema.htm

have you developed an opinion about that charger duster_360?

I've been reading in a slew of other forums about chargers. It seems that the three big guns out there are the Thunder Power 1010C Charger, the Hyperion EOS0610iDUO Balance Charger, and the FMA CellPro 10s. Most of the established reviews point to the 0610iDUO as the most versatile and powerful charger of the lot.

My own sense continues to be that the FMA makes the most sense for my needs. There has been some buzz about the fact that the FMA has upgradeable firmware as a plus and a minus. Plus is that they can fix issues, some of which have already been identified (it's been shipping for just a few weeks) the minus is that it requires a $20 PC adapter and it means I've got to use a Windoze based computer (by trade, I'm a Mac man...)

I feel pretty confident that for me, the decision has been made but since FMA is sold out of the first run of 10s chargers and it's a few weeks before the next batch comes in, I still have time for someone to change my mind.

Thanks guys,

DM

I recently purchased the 0610i and am pleased with it as it chargers just about anything you can think of. I have also owned FMA HV packs and chargers for several years and they have always served me well. If I would have known about the FMA 10S cahrger, my decision would have been much harder to make. I'm glad I'm not looking for a charger anymore :intello:

Thanks for that feedback. I found a very cool set of videos on the 10s, very helpful for me, if you guys want to see them follow this link:

http://www.trextuning.com/blog/?page_id=324

The video links are on the right side, video 1, 2 and 3...very good stuff.

DM

I was also looking at the fma 10s charger.. i think ive decided on the hyperion duo though - I like to be able to charge NiXX for the odd occasion I need to. There are sections for firmware upgrades on the hyperion meda page, so I'm assuming theyre upgradeable too.

Also, can the cellpro operate in a solo mode like the hyperion charger? with the hyp duo you can effectively use it as two completely sperate charger, and looking through the fma manual that didnt seem to be an option with it...it will only let you charge two packs as a series pack.

Just yesterday I made it official and ordered my 10s. FMA announced some bundle's which make the PC cable effectively free so I went ahead. It won't be shipping for a few weeks but I think it will be a good choice for my needs.

The Duo certainly looked attractive however for me, I think it's more charger than I need right now. I don't know the answer to your question about solo vs duo, time will tell.

DM