Good Lipo charger

[Nick]

Looking for a good Lipo charger, does around 6s and 8000mah minimum. ;)

My price range is $180, it doesn't have to do Nimhs. Would like the best my money can afford. Seen some Schulze but they only do 5 amp charge rate for the ones in my budget, and for 8000mah packs I am considering, I would really want 1c minimum, or 7amp charge rate at least.

I saw the AstroFlight 109, here:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXFWW2&P=ML
It looks really good value but not heard much about it.

Thanks guys. :)

[squeeforever]

Mike sells the 109 and use to use it. He said he really liked it. What I would recommend the is the E-Station 701. It's ~$180 to $190. It does 7 amps max, 8S LiPo, 27 cells NiMh or NiCad, and it also does Pb cells. I have one and really love it. Only thing is it only has 1 output. It does have a temp. sensor, and a port for a special type of taps to monitor the individual cell voltage and display it on the screen. They also have a balance that connects to it through the temp. sensor port and does the same thing as well (I think). Mike can't get them so I got mine from Truerc.com.

[Nick]

109 isn't listed on RCM shop from what I can see? I will drop him an e-mail in a few weeks.

The Shulze looks good but I can't really pull apart of why pay $80 more for something that isn't that much better. I'm sure it's a great charger and maybe part of the cost is having 27 cell charging to - but I don't need it. ;)

[squeeforever]

You mean the E-Station? Anywho, it is worth it. Especially since the Astroflight isn't a standard CC/CV (Constant Current/ Constant Voltage) charge. There aren't many if any balancers that will really work well with it. I could have sworn Mike sold the 109. Or at least use to.

[captain harlock]

I am preparing to get my 2x 3s1p 3700mah Evo30 with a pair of V-Balances and the Schulze isl-6 636d. I am planning to sell my Futaba CDR-5000 charger after I get the 636d since it'll be way better.
Nick, you better save more money than rushing out and become sorry later.
Though I'm not sure how good the setup your aiming for.

[standard_63]

The Hyperion 7i and LBA10 charger/balancer combo for $150 is pretty good.
Charges up to 7A and I think 8 cells. So far very good!

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by standard_63

The Hyperion 7i and LBA10 charger/balancer combo for $150 is pretty good.
Charges up to 7A and I think 8 cells. So far very good!

The 7i charger charges up to 7A and 5s LiPo or 25 cells NiMh/NiCD. Even though it can charge at 7A, the output is limited to 120W. So, if you try to charge say, 18 NiMH cells, you can only charge at 5.55A because of the power limit. Max charge current = 120w / (18 cells * 1.2vPerCell). The max number of cells you can carge at the full 7A is 14 NiMH/NiCD cells or 4s Lipo. Any cell count higher than that and the charge current goes down.

The LBA10 can handle 10A and 6s LiPo. However, you can get two LBA10's and network them together to balance up to 12s. You'd still need a charger that can charge 12s though and one with a higher power limit.

Otherwise the 7i/LBA10 is a good combo, especially for the price.

[Nick]

The 7i sounds good. I doubt I will charge over 4s.