Best damn balance charger I ever had

[_paralyzed_]

Originally Posted by mistercrash

You can all agree with everything that anyone who never used this charger as to say. I have been using two of them on a daily basis for the past 4 weeks to recharge my 20S20P, 74V 30Ah battery in my E-Moped and the balance tabs barely become warm. My battery can be separated into four 5S packs fast so I recharge two 5S and then the other two 5S.
Even doing it that way is faster than using two Hyperion 1420i to recharge all at once or two Cellpro 10S to recharge all at once because they always go into a balance charge mode that tries to equalize 30Ah cells with each other at less than 1 amp

Once the charge is done, I checked the voltage of each cell with my Fluke and they all are below 4.205V so no over charging going on here. I did this for the first 5 charges just to find out if the chargers are consistant and they are. That is with the chargers adjusted to charge at 4.2V per cell. That is adjustable to a lower voltage if needed.

So hypothesize all you want, I know what I got and I know it works well Just wanted to share.

Originally Posted by pinkpanda3310

I think you missed what BrianG was saying. The final voltage will be reasonably accurate but when 3+ amps is charging through the tap that's when the cell could be over done. As the charger eases off at the end of the charge the resistance of the wire and connectors will have nil effect and the cell voltage can be read accurately.

I get it you like this charger and I'm not trying to speak out of turn, just seemed like a bit of misunderstanding

Like panda said, Art1ck and Brian were just pontificating and stating facts about electricity.

They said nothing negative of the charger itself, and we all agree individual cell monitoring/charging is the safest and most beneficial to the battery pack.

You're right, they're right, we're all right, just sharing knowledge.

[FG101C]

Lol, watched the video, it looks as if you could do two (or more) packs at the same time. At $80.00 two chargers is still less than one Hyperion duo.

[pinkpanda3310]

Originally Posted by mistercrash

Once the charge is done, I checked the voltage of each cell with my Fluke and they all are below 4.205V so no over charging going on here. I did this for the first 5 charges just to find out if the chargers are consistant and they are. That is with the chargers adjusted to charge at 4.2V per cell. That is adjustable to a lower voltage if needed.

I think you missed what BrianG was saying. The final voltage will be reasonably accurate but when 3+ amps is charging through the tap that's when the cell could be over done. As the charger eases off at the end of the charge the resistance of the wire and connectors will have nil effect and the cell voltage can be read accurately.

I get it you like this charger and I'm not trying to speak out of turn, just seemed like a bit of misunderstanding

[brainanator]

if you made a series or parallel adapter sure.

edit:
after actually looking at the product on DX:



Would you look at that, already set up to charge multiple packs at once. That is pretty nice.

edit2:

mistercrash: Does this have a storage charge/discharge option? (found answer, yes.)

edit3: I see that you can manually set what voltage you want it to charge/discharge to, cool.

Check out the end of this video, made me laugh.

[mistercrash]

The BC168 is adjustable from 1.5V per cell to 4.2V per cell. It won't go over 4.2V. But it does get the cells up to the voltage you set it at.

From what I understand, on most chargers like the Cellpro 10, the balance leads are plugged in just to monitor the cells and to slowly discharge the high ones while the low ones catch up during a sometimes long balance cycle.

I'm thinking that your GT Power GT8 did actually charge your cells to 4.2V but they simply got down to 4.18V quickly after the charge is done. Cells that are a bit tired because of repeated over charge might do that.

[nativepaul]

Originally Posted by mistercrash

I'm thinking that your GT Power GT8 did actually charge your cells to 4.2V but they simply got down to 4.18V quickly after the charge is done. Cells that are a bit tired because of repeated over charge might do that.

No, it's just a cheap Chinese charger with poor quality control, they hadn't calibrated the internal voltmeter before it left the factory and it was reading slightly high. It's just a cheap Chinese charger with poor quality control, they hadn't calibrated the internal voltmeter before it left the factory and it was reading slightly high. Voltages were measured immediately after charging completed so any self discharge was negligible, and that was the only charger I had charged the packs with, so they had been undercharged repeatedly not overcharged ever, it was only when I put a calibrated voltmeter on it and realised it was undercharging that I bought a replacement charger for it with an adjustable terminal charge voltage.

Because of inaccurate chargers like this, and that for every charger that reads high and charges low like mine did, there is probably one that reads low and charges high. LiPos are speced to 4.2v/cell +/-0.05v

4.23v/cell will reduce cycle life over 4.2v, just as 4.2v over 4.1v does, but also gives more mAh and is within LiPos spec and the rules I race to, I wouldn't do it to my sport packs as I want to last forever, but there are better race packs out every year that pretty much force an upgrade at least every other year so race pack cycle life is not so important. I wouldn't mind betting that if everyone registered on here measured their voltages someone would be charging at least 4.23v/cell due to an inaccurate charger with a nominal 4.2v/cell.

[lincpimp]

I have used a hobby king 4s charger like this for years. Basically charges each cell by itself just like this one, however it has no screen or any other bells/whistles. Many of the maxamps packs I reconfigured went on this charger to get them balanced, as using a std charger would take hours. Mine only goes up to 2 amps, but can do multiple packs up to 4s total. And it was 20 bucks. I might have to buy one of these bc168...

[pinkpanda3310]

My first lipo charger was just like that. The brand I had disappeared and it became venom branded. I just don't see them nowa days.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1400074

[mistercrash]

ebay, many sell them. The prices vary a bit, watch out for the shipping fees, some are just outrageous. Brainanator linked one BC168 at deal extreme for $80 with free shipping, second post up there.

[pinkpanda3310]

Best Damn charger! Thanks master crasher.

I bought this charger only on the strength of this thread. I have used it only once (tonight). I used it to charge a 6s A123 pack that's been sitting on the shelf for months. The cells measured about 3.4v each, it's usually about that point when my current charger slows right up to balance the cells (it takes ages). My packs are made up of reclaimed cells from disfunctional dewalt packs so balancing is essential.

I charged them up at 6A (yes I know what was said earlier). I swear it was only a minute or two before the charger stopped. Highly sceptical, I plugged the battery into my battery checker. One cell read 3.61 and one 3.59 and the rest were smack on 3.60 If it keeps performing without issue then this will be the best damn balance charger I ever had

[A RC Dude]

Seems correct to me zero, the higher resistance should make the voltage appear higher at higher current.

I now realize my post didn't make much since, sorry.

BTW, yes, I just now saw your post...I loose thread all the time on here for some reason lol

[BP-Revo]

I just replaced my ICE with a Hitec X4-Eighty. It has 4 separate outputs that charge 1-6S and have balance capability. The charger only comes with 1 balance board of each type, so I bought a couple additional ones that match up to the batteries I have.

There's also a temp sensor port for each output (but the sensors must be purchased separately).

The one drawback is that each output only has 80watts of output capability, so if you're charging a 6S pack you're limited to around 3 amps, so it will take a little longer. All of my packs are 2S and 3S (soon to have a few 4S packs) so this was not an issue for me.

http://hitecrcd.com/products/charger...harger/product

[A RC Dude]

I looked at the X4-eighty for a long time looking to buy it, then for what I have, I bought the iCharger 106B+ since it was $80 and could do 10amps even with a 6S. Works very well, much much much better than my old super brain 989 that i bought when it came out 7 or so years ago...lol