Turnigy Accucell-6...Am I missing something?

OCD

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I was reading the manual I found online for the Turnigy Accucell-6 charger and saw something that didn't make sense. Assuming Lilo = Li-ion, why is it saying they are 3.6V and only charging to 4.1V?

Lilo
voltage level:3.6V/cell
max.charge voltage:4.1V/cell

allowable fast charge current: 1C or less
min.discharge voltage cut off level:2.5V/cell or higher

LiPo
voltage level:3.7V/cell
max.charge voltage:4.2V/cell
allowable fast charge current: 1C or less
discharge voltage cut off level:3.0V/cell or higher

LiFe
voltage level:3.3V/cell
max.charge voltage:3.6V/cell
allowable fast charge current: 4C or less(e.g. A123M1)
discharge voltage cut off level:2.0V/cell or higher
 

45/70

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You are right, for the most part, OCD. It's actually "LiIo", however, not "Lilo". The reason I think they have a "LiIo" setting is because originally, LiCo cells were charged to only 4.10 Volts. Somewhere around the year 2000-2001 I believe, this changed to 4.20 Volts, the same as "LiPo" (which is lithium polymer not LiFePO4). Actually this setting can be quite useful however, as charging LiCo cells to only 4.10 Volts extends cell life considerably, at a cost of only 10% capacity.:)

Dave
 

OCD

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Thanks, 45/70. I am seriously considering this charger since I am undecided on what batteries I will be running in some Mag mods I will be doing. I haven't gotten any responses from my other post regarding batteries and chargers for said mods. I just have to do some research on making some different size battery holders to use with this charger for whatever battery type I decide to go with.
 

jasonck08

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I'm using my Turnigy Accucell-6 to charge an IMR 26650 @ 3A right now. :)

Just about my only complaint with this charger is the fan. It is terribly loud. My fan died recently, and I have not bothered to replace it yet...

I really like how I can charge just about any battery. NiCd, Ni-mh, LiCo, LiPo, IMR, Lifepo4, and Lead Acid (trickle charged my car battery over night a couple of times when it was dead).
 

pae77

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Thanks, 45/70. I am seriously considering this charger since I am undecided on what batteries I will be running in some Mag mods I will be doing. I haven't gotten any responses from my other post regarding batteries and chargers for said mods. I just have to do some research on making some different size battery holders to use with this charger for whatever battery type I decide to go with.
You don't even have to make battery holders, unless you want to. It's very simple and easy to just use a few small rare earth magnets which stick to both the alligator clips at the end of the Accucell's stock charging cable as well as the battery terminals of cylindrical cells. So you can easily charge any size cell with just a couple of magnets plus the stock charging leads that come with the Accucell 6. I may get around to making some holders one day but for now since I only charge one or two cells at a time with the Accucell 6, so far I've been very satisfied with just using the magnets.
 

45/70

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Just about my only complaint with this charger is the fan. It is terribly loud. My fan died recently, and I have not bothered to replace it yet...

Heh, that's why after reading around on the R/C Forums I decided to go with a charger that didn't have a fan. That and the reports of the AC models switching PS's going south, convinced me to go with a DC only charger that had neither. With adequate heatsinking, a 50 Watt charger doesn't really need a fan anyway. These are power transistors, not CPU's.:) That said, the Accucell-6 and 8, both appear to be good chargers, from what everybody reports.

Dave
 

KiwiMark

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Just about my only complaint with this charger is the fan. It is terribly loud. My fan died recently, and I have not bothered to replace it yet...

My fan is fine - of course it wasn't not long after getting the charger, but by pulling it out and lubing it with some GOOD lube it has been fine ever since. I have done exactly the same thing with some computer fans. I bought some Nano-Oil from a member on these forums and it really seems to fix these noisy fans!
 

pae77

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My Accucell 6 stays so cool (albeit with the fan running), I suspect that it doesn't even need a fan if only charging at modest current rates that don't really stress the charger. It always blows totally cool air out and the charger never even gets luke warm to the touch anywhere on the outside top, bottom or sides of the case.

But so far, I have never tried charging with it at very high current rates.
 

hoongern

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You don't even have to make battery holders, unless you want to. It's very simple and easy to just use a few small rare earth magnets which stick to both the alligator clips at the end of the Accucell's stock charging cable as well as the battery terminals of cylindrical cells. So you can easily charge any size cell with just a couple of magnets plus the stock charging leads that come with the Accucell 6. I may get around to making some holders one day but for now since I only charge one or two cells at a time with the Accucell 6, so far I've been very satisfied with just using the magnets.

Yup, I do exactly the same, I just use 2 tiny magnets and put them inside the charging alligator clips, and they just stick to the terminals of whatever cell I'm charging - easy as cake!

I also have a cheapo plastic D cell holder which does my 10440s (with spacer), 16340s (with spacer), 14500s, 18500s, and 26500s completely fine. My 17670s and 18650s are too long, so I use the magnets for those. In fact, I use the magnets for pretty much all the cells these days - it's just easier.

Of course, if you want to charge multiple cells at the same time, you'll have to have more connectors & more magnets
 

pae77

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For those who have never yet tried a hobby charger and may be wondering what's involved for charging the kind of li-ion cells flashaholics typically use, it can be done with very minimal equipment. I was initially hesitant to try one after seeing some of the very clever and fancy battery holders that some members have fabricated and shown previously in various threads in this forum. But it's really not necessary to fabricate anything fancy or special to start using a hobby charger.

So here's a few photos showing use of Accucell 6 with a very bare bones setup (stock cables that come with charger, power source is an old laptop power supply that plugs directly into this particular charger's stock power input jack, and a few small rare earth magnets from DX):

qnr50h.jpg


For those unfamiliar with the display on these chargers, I think the display in the above photo is showing: Li1S (LiPo charging, 1 cell in series), 0.2A (0.2A charge current at this point in the cycle), 4.20V (presently charging at 4.20 volts, which also means the charger is in the CV stage where the voltage remains constant at 4.20 while the charge current gradually decreases until it reaches 1/10th of whatever the starting charge current was), CHG (charging), 017:48 (17 minutes 48 seconds elapsed since charging started), 00084 (84 mA pushed to the battery so far).

A pair of small DX rare earth magnets:
153pgz7.jpg


Fortunately the magnets stick to the alligator clips:
2znmmux.jpg



Close up of alligator clip attached to positive terminal of battery with 2 magnets:
2dan4n4.jpg


For scale, battery in above photos is a 14500.

Here's a shot showing charging parallel charging of two 18350 batteries at the same time using some additional short home made alligator clip cables and a few more magnets:

f3bcpy.jpg


When parallel charging as in the above photo, the charger just sees one big battery with the capacity of all cells added together. One could daisy chain even more than the two batteries shown in the photo together. The max voltage is unchanged (still 4.20V). So in this situation the only setting that needs to be adjusted is the starting charge current which should be increased by the user to accommodate the higher capacity of both batteries added together. The cells are self balancing when parallel charging.

Notes: 1. None of the magnets in the above photos have been soldered to anything. 2. For safety, it is preferable and recommended to not charge on flammable surfaces (although so far, all my li-ion cells and the charger have always stayed cool the touch throughout the charging process).
 
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Quest4fire

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Great info! This is exactly the kind of setup I was considering for charging the 26650 cells that are powering my 5 and 6 D cell incan mag mods. I really like my Pila for pairs of 18650 or 16340 cells, but 6 26650's, two at a time (One in the box, one jumped via magnets and clip wires) takes a loooooong time! :goodjob:
 

sluflyer06

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I was under the impression that the termination voltage was adjustable on this charger. Is it not the case? Just the initial current?
 

pae77

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You are correct, the termination voltage is adjustable. It depends on the charge program selected, (e.g., iirc for LiIon you have the choice of LiPo, LiIo, LiFe), and whether one selects 1S, 2S, 3S etc. up to 6S. For example, LiPo 1S (1 cell in series) is 4.2 V by default (although if you dig deep into the menus, even that is adjustable by the user although ordinarily, one wouldn't mess with that setting), and 2S (2 cells in series) would be 2 x 4.2 V i.e., 8.4 V and so on up to the 6S limit of this particular charger.

However, it should be noted that although the charger may be set to terminate at 4.2 V (for Li1S, which is the normal way I charge), the actual voltage of the battery after completion of the charge cycle you will see on a DMM will vary depending on the health, age, quality, etc., of the particular battery being charged as well as the starting charge current selected by the user. I have noticed that generally higher ending voltages are obtained in a given battery if the starting charge current selected is lower e.g., .25 C rather than higher e.g. 1C. So even though the charger is set to terminate at 4.20 V, most of my batteries usually come of the charger reading about 4.15 V on a DMM.
 
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biker1

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I was under the impression that the termination voltage was adjustable on this charger. Is it not the case? Just the initial current?

The termination voltage is adjustable, but I think there is a safety built in to the charger, whereas if you program it for Li-ion batteries, you won't be able to adjust the cut-off charge to be above 4.2V, which is a great feature.
This can be verified by someone else.
 

pae77

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Btw, here's a photo of a quick and simple parallel charging rig for doing multiple Li-ion cells made from some more rare earth magnets and some hanger rod cut in two pieces (from Dept. store plastic and metal hanger):

166bvrc.jpg


Note: Again, nothing is soldered. The magnets hold everything together. IIRC, these magnets are sold in batches of 20 and/or 100 at DX. 100 of them cost about $5.50 including shipping.
 
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sluflyer06

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The termination voltage is adjustable, but I think there is a safety built in to the charger, whereas if you program it for Li-ion batteries, you won't be able to adjust the cut-off charge to be above 4.2V, which is a great feature.
This can be verified by someone else.

My thinking was that if someone like myself having a good DMM like my Fluke 179 was noticing that the cells were not coming off the charger where they wanted them due to voltage inaccuracy of the charger you'd be able to adjust the termination voltage to end up at your desired final voltage.

IE. charger thinks its terminating at 4.2 but due to precision error your actually seeing ~4.15v on a calibrated meter so you choose to up the termination on the charger to maybe 4.23 to try to get it up closer to 4.2 if that's your goal.
 

pae77

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You could do that (there is a special menu that allows the user to set the termination voltage for each of the charger's LiIon charge programs), but the charger also has a special calibration menu that allows you to calibrate it to a known voltage source, such as a battery thats voltage was measured with an accurate DMM.

However, even if the charger is calibrated and accurate, I suspect that one still wouldn't see many batteries coming off the charger at precisely 4.20 volts because the CC/CV algorithm simply doesn't necessarily result in a battery charged to precisely 4.20 volts.

Anyway, it is all these adjustable features and parameters (along with many other features such as proper termination and a true CC/CV algorithm and versatility) that make these hobby chargers so superior to the simple "consumer" cradle chargers that cannot easily be adjusted without changing out the parts or doing various modifications. Now that decent budget hobby chargers can be acquired for less than $40, they are, imo, very competitive with the other kinds of chargers that are available considering all that you get for your money.

Btw, one more photo, this one of the inside of the Accucell 6 I took while I had it open to lube the fan:

2dm6w7.jpg
 
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Mr Happy

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Note: Again, nothing is soldered. The magnets hold everything together. IIRC, these magnets are sold in batches of 20 and/or 100 at DX. 100 of them cost about $5.50 including shipping.
I note you have your magnets doubled up, which makes me wonder if those cheap magnets are not as strong as the more expensive kind? I have some neodymium magnets of the same size as your picture that are too strong to use. They near chop my fingers off if I let them get too close to each other, and one broke into pieces when I let it snap together without cushioning it. I find I therefore use much smaller magnets which are easier to control. For one thing you don't need to be Superman to separate them. :laughing:
 

pae77

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I note you have your magnets doubled up, which makes me wonder if those cheap magnets are not as strong as the more expensive kind? I have some neodymium magnets of the same size as your picture that are too strong to use. They near chop my fingers off if I let them get too close to each other, and one broke into pieces when I let it snap together without cushioning it. I find I therefore use much smaller magnets which are easier to control. For one thing you don't need to be Superman to separate them. :laughing:
These might be the same diameter as your more expensive magnets, but are they the same thickness . . . ? The cheap one's I have are each only 1 mm thick. They are pretty strong and could be used singly but because they are so thin, I find I like to have the extra clearance as well as the added magnetic force that 2 together provide. But they do also get pretty powerful when two or more are combined together. One is very easy to deal with so they probably are less powerful than yours are and I suspect they are probably a bit thinner as well. So two of mine probably equals one of yours. :laughing:

I wonder whether there is any issue of added resistance I should be concerned about when using two or three instead of just one?
 
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