Looking for an ALL-AROUND hobby charger.

[AmmoBox]

I'm looking to buy a hobby charger, I've already got a Maha-C9000 and a bunch of other charges, trust fire, energizer etc.

The things I'm looking for are:

1. Priced between $0-$150 , but obviously the cheaper the better, but I DONT want to sacrifice quality and features for less money.

2. Be able to charge everything from a AA to li-ion/lipo all the way up to a car battery. I want it to be able to charge the most stuff that's possible.

3. Be reliable, and previously reviewed/tested by others, to ensure reliability and accuracy. Dont want to take any chances and buy something no one has used.

4. Be able to work from multiple power supply's, car batteries, etc

5. PC hookup/software is a plus.

6. Where to order it from.... I don't see many sites in the US that sell hobby chargers.

I was looking at the Icharger 208b , but would love to hear your opinions first.

Thanks!

 

[CKOD]

If youre only looking at single channel chargers, the revolectrix Cellpro Multi4 fits all of those requirements. Li-Ion/Lipo charging, lead acid, and Pb. Only limitation you might run into with lead acid batteries is the 4A charge rate, and it timing out after 24 hours, limiting you to 96AH of capacity into the battery, and with it timing out in 24 hours, obviously you cant use it for a float charger/battery maintainer.


10mA (iirc) to 4A charge rate, every setting changeable via PC, -deltaV termination for nickel packs, or constant current for trickle charging nickel packs. And though you dont have to use it, it features and automatic 1C charge rate routine for hooking up Li-po packs, by watching how fast the voltage changes and comparing it to a known 'fuel' curve.

 

[45/70]

I just ordered an iCharger 106B+ a couple days ago myself, to compliment my Dynam Supermate DC6 (DC only version). I have to say though that in the interest of reliability and so on, you probably should consider $150 and on up. The iChargers for example seem to be a bit "hit and miss", they have their "fanboys" and are supposedly better than the really cheap chargers (I hope anyway), but are not really up to the quality of the Bantam (which most cheap chargers, including the iChargers are copies of), Triton, Hyperion etc lines, and on up to the Shulze, Orbit, and other German lines, which are at the top of the scale.

Dave

 

[AmmoBox]

I just ordered an iCharger 106B+ a couple days ago myself, to compliment my Dynam Supermate DC6 (DC only version). I have to say though that in the interest of reliability and so on, you probably should consider $150 and on up. The iChargers for example seem to be a bit "hit and miss", they have their "fanboys" and are supposedly better than the really cheap chargers (I hope anyway), but are not really up to the quality of the Bantam (which most cheap chargers, including the iChargers are copies of), Triton, Hyperion etc lines, and on up to the Shulze, Orbit, and other German lines, which are at the top of the scale.

Dave

For quality and reliability , I can go 150+

I want something I can use 20 years from now, something that will last.

 

[Ardillakilla]

A lot of hobby chargers require power supplies so that's one thing you need to factor into your budget.

I bought an iCharger 206B from ProgressiveRC several months ago and have been quite satisfied with it. I've charged everything from RCR2 to car batteries. The makers of iCharger seems to really listen to customers and implements their suggestions:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=839657

That discussion contains everything you would ever need to know about iChargers.

 

[45/70]

That discussion contains everything you would ever need to know about iChargers.

That's where a good part of my research took place. Junsi does seem to care about what their customers want and accommodate their desires. Just the same if you look around RCGroups, and eleswhere, you will find that the iChargers have been less than perfect, for sure. I'm hoping that most of the bugs have been worked out by now though.

If I was still into R/C (it's been at least 25 years) I'd aim for one of the German chargers, probably a Shulze, but all I do now is charge Li-Ion cells for my flashlight, occasionally a welded NiCd or NiMh pack, and once used my Dynam to charge my car battery. It seems to me that I'm already way out of line with the chargers I have, to simply charge flashlight/torch batteries.

Dave

 

[BVH]

I have the previous "top of the line" of the last version of the Schulze and a PowerLab PL8. I'd never spend the enormous amount of money on a Schulze again when the Powerlab does so much more, has so much more power available, has excellent mfg. support, implements customer suggestions in frequent firmware upgrades - and all for much less money. To me, there is no comparison between the two.

Look at the FMA Direct section of RCGroups forum for a huge thread, multiple threads on the PL8.

 

[ecrbattery]

The FMA PowerLab PL8 is gear toward high power battery pack. So you will want to keep the Maha C9000 around for analyzing single cell AA and AAA.

Here is why:

Hi:

Sorry, PL8 can not discharge a single cell Ni chemistry. We use a bipolar transistor for internal discharge because there are many advantages over a FET in this application. One drawback, the voltage drop across this device exceeds the voltage of a fully discharged, single Ni cell. 2s is the smallest Ni you can successfully discharge on internal.

Tim Marks

What this mean is you have to use regenerative discharge for single cell NiMH and NiCD battery. So you have to keep the PL8 hook up to a 12V battery instead of a power supply.

There is no external temperature sensor for thermal shutoff.

Internal resistance measurement only work when charging LiPo and A123 battery pack.

The good thing about the PL8 is excellent mfg. support. They recently added a charging profile for NiZN battery in their VERSION 3.25 firmware. This something that is not available on other hobby chargers.

 

[45/70]

The FMA PowerLab PL8 is gear toward high power battery pack. So you will want to keep the Maha C9000 around for analyzing single cell AA and AAA.

I think the OP did intend to keep the MH-C9000. This is good advice for anyone going the hobby charger route. Unless you only charge NiCd/NiMh "packs", hobby chargers are not the best way to charge and generally maintain these cells.

Hobby charges are designed primarily, to charge multiple cells in series, often because there is no other choice, such as with R/C battery packs, where the cells are welded, or soldered together. Series charging is not the best way to charge NiCd and NiMh cells, however. The better approach, when cells are not in a "pack", is to charge cells individually in an independent channel charger, such as the Maha C9000.

I considered the FMA PL8, as it does appear to have the best PC software and a superior feature set. One thing I didn't care for was that the IR checking of Li-Ion cells can only be accomplished during the charge cycle, after waiting 3 minutes. IR checking isn't really all that big a deal, as it's not all that hard to do separately, but it is convenient to have it built into the charger. Also, the $239+ shipping didn't help much either. As I mentioned in my previous post, that's a bit steep for mostly just charging up cells for your flashlights! I say that, and then I think about how I have more than that in chargers and analyzers that are used primarily just for my lights already. Supernerd syndrome, I guess.:shrug:

Dave

 

[AmmoBox]

Thanks for all the responses , I think I am victim of the super-nerd syndrome myself. Looking into the FMA PL8 now.

 

[sadtimes]

I had a triton eq, it does everything you want and has built in ac and dc power capabilities...sold it to a friend and upgraded to the triton 2 eq... Only difference is the nimh charge rate, 5 amps vs 8 amps..

I use this for everything, aw 18650, imr 16340, 10amp d cell nimh, and of course lipo r/c packs. Actually not sure I would be able to live without this thing...

Etched with a thunderbolt from a 4g cloud

 

[HarryN]

It's good to look at EVERY application you have around the house carefully and make sure that it really will work on all of them.

Several years ago when I picked up a Triton II, the final deciding factor ended up not being the 98% of fancy cells and packs I had (or hoped to have someday ) but a hedge trimmer Pb type 24 volt pack.

While many chargers were certainly capable of supplying the charge voltage for this pack, surprisingly, many did not (appear) to have the software settings to do it. The Triton II was the only one that really listed that it could charge this pack up, and I could not find any evidence to the contrary, so it was the final choice. Of course the very high end chargers can do this, but I needed to stay under $ 200 total for the charger and power supply.

It would be nice to have a charger than can deal with 48 volts, but that is really stretching it and I don't have such a pack.

You can hit the charger wattage limit surprisingly fast though. My son's r/c car has 2 x 6 cell NiMH packs, 5 AH, and we have to charge at less than 1 C if we put them in series. Maybe that is a good thing.

Harry

 

[Wrend]

I'll put in my suggestion for the Passport Ultra for a nice all-in-one hobby balancing charger. It does just about everything you could want from a hobby charger, and runs off of either 12VDC or household AC. It's not going to be as powerful as the PL8 (which is one of the best, if not the best, hobby chargers you can get, by the way, but it's more expensive and requires a high power supply), but unless you're routinely using it to charger several high capacity LiPos in parallel or high capacity Pbs, it's powerful enough.

For charging/discharging it has user programmable voltage drop, time, capacity, and temperature charge terminations, and rate settings. It also handles NiCd, NiMH, LiPo, LiIon, LiFePO4, and Pb chemistry types.

It goes for around $100 (USD); at least that's what I payed for mine at my local hobby store.

http://www.dynamiterc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=DYN4064