Battery Chargers

[Nuttcaze]

  BLUESTAR502 - The Charger automatically stops charging when the battery is fully charged and then it will beep a few times and flash a message telling you its finished charging.  



Also if you could, try not to type in all capital letters, thanks and again  

[BLUESTAR502]

Sorry about the caps. Thank you very much i didnt want to start charging until i was sure about that. Glad to be here

[Blackrain0119]

welcome Bluestar /... glad to have you here...

[Nuttcaze]

Sorry about the caps. Thank you very much i didnt want to start charging until i was sure about that. Glad to be here

Its all good, the reason we ask people not to type in all caps is because in the forum world, using all caps is considered yelling, and its actually a little harder to read (We learn to read not only by letters but by the actual shape of the word, most recognize words with lower case letters easier then with all capital letters.The fact for the day, lol) but really don't sweat the caps thing, just another part of being new to the forum sooo 

[redgtp-heli]

Sorry about the caps. Thank you very much i didnt want to start charging until i was sure about that. Glad to be here

Welcome aboard!

I am super impressed with my thunder AC6 charger. Both my father and I have one, and my brother is about to order one. It's very nice the way it "announces" completion - don't worry, you'll know when it's done!

This is a great place to ask questions; very friendly and helpful people here. I am very new to the hobby as well and I have been welcomed with open arms.

I would suggest, if you can afford it, a great way to get started is to donate and get a copy of a DVD that reflects the heli's you have to help you learn about it. I am so much further ahead after my purchase. Its like under $10 bux and helps out greatly-- not required, just encouraged. Marc works very hard for all of us and he certainly does a great job getting us newbs airborne!

-Red

[united]

I just ordered a AC6 charger on nuttcaze recommendations. What amp are most of you charging a 3s 1000mah 25c battery and about long is it taking to charge it?

[P3tras]

Don't charge it at more than 1A or you can harm your battery. With 1A current it should charge in around 1 hour 20 minutes

[Rumblecloud]

Hey Marc and all,
Just gt my B6A6 on your recommendation. Have used it a few times last night and today. It's really great. Charge times are cut in half. The accessory plugs are a little different than those in your video. It looks like they've eliminated the need for some of the intermediate connectors. All the supplied connectors come with the banana plugs. Some of them I'm not even sure what they're for, but I suppose over time, I'll figure that out. The temperature sensor is strange as you noted. I can't figure out how it works at all. Is it to sense bat temp or motor temp? If anyone has any insight, I'd appreciate it.

I'll post some pics of the plugs. Maybe someone can tell me what they're for as well.

Once again Marc, thanks for the recommendation. 

rc

[Rumblecloud]

K, I'm getting into this charger a bit more and I still really like it. It's educating me. I have three lipo batts. Two from Turnigy 7.4 1000mAh, 20c. Both charge identical and max out at 4.20V per cell when the charger says full. I'm waiting for the other lipo that I got with the Exceed Mad Hawk to cook to see how it measures up. (If that's a proper expectation). I'm really new at this so forgive me. I'm gonna ask more questions than I can answer. Sorry.

It just seems that noobs like me need more questions answered. So I'm gonna post all my thoughts.

I looked through the manual and read what I could understand. There are a couple of flow charts, but I need to digest those a little more. It looks like my Exceed Batt is going to max out at 4.20V like the other ones, but when I use it, it doesn't seem to be as strong or last as long as the other two. So maybe that number has nothing to do with battery health or capacity at all.

The Turnigy batts charged up in half the time of the Exceed lipo and they give longer flight times. That's about the only thing I can say for sure at this point in my education. Really anal I know but what the heck. I love this hobby.

I'm still tryin to figure out how to check the status of my battery. If I'm flying, I can notice the degradation inperformance so I usually just stop and cool down. But to check the charge on the Batt I need to hook up the charger and plug in both the connectors and start the charge program to see what's left in each cell. I'm sure that's not the way it'ss supposed to work so I have to figure that one out.


I'll have more boring stuff to r post tomorrow.
rc

[Rumblecloud]

More boring stuff on the B6AC+ SkyCharger...
Played with the USB hook-up to the PC and figured that out.

  First Tip: When you download the software from the xheli site (which is where you should buy the charger from). unzip it on your desktop, open and read the user manual BEFORE you just start installing stuff. Being the typical male, our tendency is to start putting stuff together before we read the directions. Believe me. take 5 minutes and read it. You might want to print it out so you can have it as reference when you start the install process. It isn't very difficult if you follow the simple directions.

  Second Tip: The Serial Number you need to register the SkyCharger is contained in a file labeled SN. It'll be in the unzipped file. The manual tells you this important tidbit if you care to read it.

The result is pretty neat. You have four windows that chart the progress of your activity (at least in the charge mode that I used). It monitors Voltage, Capacity, Temperature and current. There's a Detail Window that lets you get a closer look at each of those four categories. And it saves the data in a log file for future reference -if you're into that sort of thing).

Not sure what's available in the other modes (Discharge, Storage, etc) but I'll post that info when I actually do it.
This is a very good charger. I'm glad I made the purchase.

If you have any questions, please ask. If you like I can post a vid of the process to supplement what Marc has already done.

rc

[Donnie D]

If you have any questions, please ask. If you like I can post a vid of the process to supplement what Marc has already done.  quote:



Please do.
Donnie D

[Rumblecloud]

Mr. Don...

Sorry it has taken so long to respond with a video. I finished one but am not real happy with the quality. Now I have the flu,    So i sound like a fog horn on camera so I hafta wait probably till this weekend and do it again.

rc
 

Still don't like the quality...but it's better than the first one.

Sky Charger B6AC Plus

[drbrix]

Hi, I'm new here also and reading the posts on this thread lead me to believe that I should be charging my lipo's at a rate of 1AMP per 1000mAh (or a 1 to 1 ratio)?

I just bought the Thunder AC6 (waiting on shipping) and two spare batteries (3s 11.1V 2200 20C) for my Belt CP

So if I have a 3s 11.1V 2200 20C battery, then I should charge it for 2.2AMPS? Seems easy enough.

Questions:

1.) Does a battery's 'C' rating have any impact on what rate to charge it at? (will a charge rate differ if one battery is 20C vs 30C?)

2.) If its so important to not drain your battery too low then how are you suppose to know when you've flown it to the breaking point?  (I bet I hosed my stock battery the first time I flew it because I just flew it until it wouldn't fly any more and the stock esky charger has not fully charged it since) Will the ESC detect low voltage and shut down? I saw a thread earlier on making a low battery alarm but it didn't go into detail.  I would think that a low battery alarm would be mission critical for beginners. If so does anyone have info on making one or buying a low cost alarm?

thanks for any help you can give

[Donnie D]

Yes, charge a 2200mAh battery at 2.2A, a 4200mAh batt at 4.2A, and so on.

I would fly for 6 or 7 minutes, then when you charge the batt with the AC6  it will you know your individual cell voltages. Then adjust your next flight time accordingly. After a few flights you will know how long you can fly with each battery. That time will vary with each battery and heli. I keep a log book of each battery and record beginning cell volt level, ending volt level, time required to charge etc.

The "C" rating doesn't matter when charging.

Most ESC have a low voltage cut off that is usually programable.

Some higher end batterys, such as Hyperion, can be charged as high as 5C. That means you could charge a 1000mAh batt at 5A.

Hope this helps.

Donnie D

[L PLATER]

A very busy thread this one.

From what I have gathered so far my input is :

You can buy a low voltage alarm that fits into the flat plug on your battery, when the voltage drops to a certain level it beeps and you land and change your battery.

You can also buy a voltage checker( for want or a better word) that you simply plug into your battery and it tells you what voltage per cell than it tells you what the total voltage is.

You must never run your battery down to a low voltage as this will permanately damage your battery.

Always charge your batteries at the right amperage Eg.1000mha=1 amps   2.200mha=2.2amps   3000=3amps


It will always be better to trickle (low) charge a battery than at the highest rate, this may be an old wifes tale but years ago a trickle charge was always better for 12 v car batteries to be charged at.

I hope this clears some things up, as I have not read the entire thread I may have stepped on some toes if I have it was not intensional.

Cheers