The time has come!
 

I don't know what chargers are available in the US, but i would use a Thunderpower balancer for charging.

About the batteries;

I hear/read nothing but great things about these packs.

the price is not too bad either.

well for a charger the schulze is the shiz but i wouldnt recommend the 977. the new 989 is much better. it can charge like 20 nimh and 8s lipo not to mention its only 85 bucks. the schulze is 160 for the 330d and is definately the best for the money but i am gonna go with the 989 since its cheap. as for batteries, have you checked maxamps? try them. they might be able to custom make you some.

Another cheap charger that can do up to 5s Lipo or 14 NiMh cells at up to 5amps is the Multiplex LN-5014 (there are other brands that sell this same exact charger). Here's a link to a cheap power supply:
http://www.emtel.com/search/product_...t_id=EMV15012V

Flightpower cells are sold as other brands. They are made by Enerland, and come in Polyquest, Hyperion, Duralite, and other brands' packs. There are also lots of other choices, and IMO, your choice is all about what you want (like price, customer service, quality, etc.).

Thanks guys.
I guess as far as the batts go, I can leave that up to Mike. I'll see what he can get that is of decent quality and price.

Metalman- That power supply scares me.J/k It looks complex?

Squee- I couldn't find anything on that 989, do you have a link for that charger? Now that I think about it, I would like a charger that would charge more than a 5s just incase I ever get bigger packs.
Thanks again.

It's not bad. You have to do your own thing about connecting wires to it, though. For the power, I just took a computer power wire and cut off the end that would plug into the computer power supply, and stripped the insulation off the wires. Then I screwed the wires on. There are dual outputs on this power supply, which means 4 terminals (7 total, including the 3 input wires).

Thanks squee. It looks pretty simple and straight forward. I like simple and straight forward.
It doesn't look like it comes with a power supply, not a deal breaker though.

MetalMan;
Would I be able to run two chargers off of that one power supply you recomended?

That depends on the charge rate. I did a few calculations (factoring in 80% efficiency), and it looks like you could charge 2 5s packs at 3amps each. Any more than that would put quite a strain on the power supply.

Any other recomendations for a power supply? I will run one power supply per charger. Just something cheap and basic that is plug and play.
Thanks.

if you've got a PS that can deliver 15-20A continues you should be fine using two chargers.

I have this power supply and have found it very good.

http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/158301.asp

Thats pretty cheap for a 20 amp power supply - Radio shack also sells them - i dont remember how much - around 80-100$ - 25 amp - i have one. - i have charged 2 sets of 6 cells for racing and a 5S(3+2) lipo at the same time with no probs ( last night LOL )

If you only need 12v at high current, why not use a computer power supply? The 12v rail on some of the newer ones can deliver 20-30A. This one delivers 36A@ 12v and is about $100. This one only delivers 25A, but is only $45.

Or, use a small car battery, and then a much cheaper 3-5A PS (a RadioSHack transformer and a full wave rectifier) that can charge that battery between and during uses.

thanks, i was going to ask about it

I went with a complete Hyperion set up for batts, charger and balancer. I can't compare them to anything else since I'm just getting into lipo but the use and performance has been great, everything I expected and more. I also like the simplicity of the whole setup. It gives me alot of confidence in what I'm doing, a real safe feeling. I would also recommend getting a ceramic pet food dish or something fire proof to set your batteries in while charging and if you have one keep a fire extinguisher close by or a small bucket of sand will work. Enjoy. :027:

Batteries
Charger & balancer

Are you saying that you had 3 battery chargers hooked up to this one power supply at the same time?
Thanks.

Ive got the Pro peak 20amp supply, great value for money

Ive had 3 chargers hanging on it charging a total of 36 cells @ 4amps at the same time.

Yep - 2 turbo 35 chargers - one charging @ 5.5A, another one charging @ 6.0A, and my astroflight charging my Lipos..

You got any pics HotnCold of all those chargers connected to that power supply? Do you need any additional cords or wires for this connection?
Thanks.

I use banana plugs with the socket on the pack, so you can plug them together.
I have seen a set up with 2x 10mm studs in a block of wood wired up to the + and _. then you can use crock clips to clip to the studs.....................if that makes sense?

Any pics?

No pics - But i can describe how I did id Johnymaxima - In the back of the charger where you make your positive and negative connections - i used the largest wire i could - made it about an inch and a half - on both sides - and then soldered 3 smaller guage wires to the positive wire and 3 smaller gauge wires to the negative wire - which i soldered my deans connectors to. Then on each charger - for the power leads i soldered deans connectors onto each of the chargers and plug them in as needed - I can have one two or three plugged in at a time. Really quite simple - not the prettiest if you were to look at the back of the power supply - but function beats form for me in this matter.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but:

Two 5s packs, while though they will power your truck, if wired in series the cells longetivity is at stake. Though you will have an LVP, what if the voltage per cell within the pack varies? The whole pack becomes usless b/c of one cell. Now if the 5s packs were wired parallel, if one cells charge voltage goes down inproportionate to the others, the other cells will proportionatly charge the cell to nominal level. In a nutshell, to power your sytem you should buy one motor (probably like a 12-14xl...why do you want to run two motors anyway?), one esc, save money (by only buying one system) and then buy--i know this may sound crazy-- two 10s packs and wire them parallel.

This is the only way to make sure your lipo don't undercharge and ruin themselves. An LVP is solving only 25% of your undercharging problems.

This is just an option though, the risk is yours to take.

If 1 of 2 5s packs in parallel had a cell that went south, then the other pack's voltage would be forced to drop also, perhaps into the unsafe region. The way I see it, the best thing to do is get packs that are built in a parallel fashion so that if any cells go down they will only take their "mates" (cells in parallel with them) down instead of a whole pack that's in parallel. So, instead of 2 10s packs in parallel, 2 5s2p packs in series would be a better option. This also makes charging easier because each group of cells in parallel (2p) will maintain voltage amongst themselves that can be monitored via a single set of taps (so 10 cells to tap total), whereas with 2 10s packs in parallel you have 20 cells to have taps on.

If one cell in a pack went bad (dropped its voltage), then the LVC may be hit, which would stop you from running with the bad cell, creating less potential damage to an already damaged cell.

That makes sense. The only thing I didn't understand is:

"This also makes charging easier because each group of cells in parallel (2p) will maintain voltage amongst themselves that can be monitored via a single set of taps (so 10 cells to tap total), whereas with 2 10s packs in parallel you have 20 cells to have taps on."

Superemaxx89-
I've been running dual 9L's for a while now. I run the dual's mainly just because I can. My truck is more of a "show truck" and only gets run in the street and occasionaly on the grass. I have another single BL Maxx that I use for bashing.
The dual's are run seperate of eachother, each with their own speed control and own set of batteries. So correct me if I'm wrong (which is highly probable as I am still new to this r/c stuff) if I am running my setup as described above, the 2 LiPo packs (one 5s per motor and speed controler) have nothing to do with eachother? Forgive me if this is not what you were talking about, because 99% of what you said was way beyond me.:002: :005:
I do however like your idea for a setup (12-14XL on two 10s packs) for my single BL Maxx!

Okay. Let's say you have 2 cells in parallel. That's 2p (I'm sure you know this). If these 2 cells are discharged, then between them they will maintain the same voltage (even if they are different capacities). For this 2p "group" (if you will), there is only one tap because the 2 cells in parallel will act electrically as one. But, if you have a 2s pack, you have 2 taps since the cells won't both maintain a certain voltage comparatively to each other. If you have two 2s packs put in parallel, you have 4 taps total since the parallel cells of one 2s pack won't maintain the same voltage as the cells of the other 2s pack. The net voltages of the 2s packs will be equal at all times because of the parallel connection between them. So, the possibility is there that either during charge or discharge a cell in one of (or both of) the 2s packs could reach a dangerous level (less than 3v or greater than 4.20v).

Hope this explains it :018:. Let me know if you need more clarification, I could draw something uop that might make it a bit easier to understand.