LiPo Chargers

[Mike Johnson]

Tenergy have brought out a new charger it has four individual circuits to charge each cell individually whilst ballancing at the same time the LED display gives an update on the charge current and cappacity of each cell, in use this seems to work extreamly well, getting each cell up too 4.2volts, as each cell gets to max capacity it is blocked off and the other cell or cells continue at 0.2 or 0.1 amps if the capacity on the other cells drops whilst this is being carried out the other cells get a top up, so far I am inpressed with this piece of kit.

Mike

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Mike,
What model Tenergy is this and how much was it? I am loking for a sensibly priced lipo charger, mains and dc driven that will charge and balance my new Flightpower EVO 20 pack. Any other recomendations??

[the unmagnificent man]

Hi Danny, I dont know how much you were thinking of spending but I just managed to order an x power 601 bc. Its almost identical to the one reviewed on this site (the AD) except that the bc doesnt have a temp sensor. I found it on eBay being sold by therevolutionshop and it was £65 including postage. It has too many features to start listing, and the price includes the adaptor for 240 volt, which if you buy the charger in the UK they charge an extra £20 for. After getting such a good review here and the thought that just any old charger would set me back about £30 it seemed the best option. Buy quality, buy once as someone on this site once said... Al

[Danny Fenton]

Thanks Al I will look it up :)

[Mike Johnson]

Danny

These chargers are totally different the x power 601 charges all cells at the same time and uses an external ballancer to ensure you do not get overvoltage on an individual cell. The 601 is nothing new same technology that has been around for ages.

The Tenergy charges each cell individually up to a max of 4.2v and ballances each cell as it does so, its easy to see if a charger does this by how many leads it connects to the battery with, if it only uses the normal output leads then its a normal charger with a voltage guard on the overal voltage of the pack at best. If it connects through the ballancing lead ie for a 3S four leads its charging each cell individually. I am using this charger with my Flightpower 20C to very good effect, Each cell now gets up too 4.2volts and stays there much longer than using an external ballancer, which can only ballance after the charging current is already in the battery.

Cost was $79 from the US direct from Tenergy, as I consider this to be the best charger out there at the moment this is good value. Cheaper than a blown pack or one that goes down early through miss ballancing.

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Mike, thanks for your information, I will certainly take a look on the Tenergy site, it looks exactly what I want. The pack I have is the flightpower 150 EVO 20 and it does indeed have four smaller wires, 3 red and 1 black, does this need a special connector for the Tenergy unit?
I presume for home use you have a mains supply to simulate the 12v battery or do you use a car battery? Just as an aside what sort of 12 volt batts do guys use? small car batts, bike or specialist ones etc??

[Mike Johnson]

The Flightpower black plug fits straight into the 3cell port of the charger with a bit of wiggling, if I could post pics on hear I would show you, I use an inverter for the 12volt supply off the mains, for a 12volt supply I use what is called a leisure battery which is a gell type rather than a lead acid, these can be found at most hobby stores, if you need a bigger one try a golf cart battery, go to your local golf club and ask the golf pro if he has any that will no longer do 18 holes because it has lost capacity offer him £10.00 for it, they cost £50.00 but will outlast your batteries and can be charged on your normal PB charger at a slow rate to get it back up to capacity.

[Danny Fenton]

Thanks Mike, the smaller gel type sounds like what I need does it have to have a particularily large capacity? a golf cart battery sounds like it will be a bit of a weight to carry across the field LOL

[Mike Johnson]

The gell cell batteries are generally in the 7Ah range, now if you are going flying with a 2000Mah LiPo you will only be able to charge it three times from a fully charged 7Ah, the golf cart batteries are 36Ah that means you can get 16 charges out of it without dammaging the battery, the easiest is to use you car battery but don't disscharge it too far if you want to drive home.

[Mike Johnson]

I have thought of using my electric golf bag trolly to take the field box and all the other paraphanalia across the field, but I already have enough of a reputation on the field without adding too it.

[Danny Fenton]

I thought the idea with this electric game was just a model and a transmitter LOLOL
How long did the Tenergy gear take to arrive and did you get clobbered for customs??

[Mike Johnson]

Unlike the British post it arrived within 24hrs and yes I paid the correct duties, with the exchange rate at 2:1 at the moment most of my RC gear comes from the US at the moment because even with the duties and VAT its less expensive than buying anything in the UK, as an example the Extream Flight Yak is £350.00 in the US and is £500.00 in the UK, even with duty you can save £100.00 which buys some very nice servo's, mind you only one and a half servos for a plane that big.

[Danny Fenton]

Thats impressive! I also buy a lot of stuff from the States and I don't think it has ever arrived quicker than two weeks...

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Mike can you point me to the website you used as it isn't quite so obvious, also what model did you get?

Cheers

[Mike Johnson]

Try here: http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1327 I think there is only one model, anyway the like should take you straight there.

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Mike, thanks, sorry to be such a nuisance, the connectors on the edge look like white JST, do I need to buy the optional adaptors for the black connectors on my EVO 20 pack??

[Mike Johnson]

As I said earlier the black connector on the EVO20 will fit the three cell charge socket with a bit of wiggling, which is fine if you are going to stay with the Flightpower packs, but if you think you may get others at some time you will need the adaptors, I bought all of them its easier that way, plus don't forget you have the terminal block on the front of the charger to put whatever socket you wish on..

[Danny Fenton]

You are quite right the cables are only $3 LOL daft not to get them.
Thanks Mike I do appreciate your help, I am ordering mine as we speak/type LOL
Cheers

[Mike Johnson]

Glad to have been of help, I notice that you are thinking of electifying a 70" Warbird, I have a Graupner Extra with an AXI 4130/16 running on 6S2P on a 15x10 if you are interested.

[Danny Fenton]

I have the drawings for a Brian Taylor Hurricane that I will probably start next winter, and yes having seen the results of some of the guys electrifying these bigger models it is impressive. I will wait and see how my little dabble in the electric side goes first. It has not been cheap so far, and I still have to find a small Rx and mini servos.
I am looking at the small battery pack and tiny esc, not too mention the tiny motor and big prop, just trying to imagine how this can possibly pull up to an 800 gram model around LOL

[Mike Johnson]

Its watts/Lb that you need to compare, taking one HP as being 750watts or thereabouts a normal 40 according to manufacturers specs will produce one HP but at some astronomical revs so take it that in real terms a 40 produces about 500watts now that will fly a 5Lb plane with authority 100w/lb for 3D you need 150w/lb, to get the wattage of a motor multiply the Amps being drawn by the voltage I.e. my AXI draws at WOT 50amps multiply by 22volts we get 1100watts enough for a 10lb plane with authority or an 8lb with nubscull power, if you want Piper CUb preformance just use 50W/Lb.

[Danny Fenton]

I am in computer hardware so the advances in techology should not really surprise me, but it still does. your numbers make perfect sense.
I have been advised to get a wattmeter or at least a clamp type ammeter, have you any recomendations?

[Mike Johnson]

I use a Medusa Analyzer Pro, this has provision to plug into your Computer via the USB and has the following outputs that go onto a graph in the Computer.
Temp sensor 1(Motor)
Temp sensor 2(Battery)
RPM
Amps
Amp/Hr
Watts
Watt/Hr
Thrust through a weight scale
A ESC input so you can control the ESC from the Computer and not have to rig up your RC gear.

And it make wonderful Tea, and if you stick the broom.....................

[Danny Fenton]

LOL you've been sniffing cyano haven't you ;)

I think your gear is a little more high end than I need at this point LOL Just had a look at Aurorra.co.uk and the Medusa range does look good. I have certainly saved the bookmark :) I am off now to manually make a cup of tea LOL

Thanks again

[Mike Johnson]

I know what you mean, when I first started in electic flight I thought I am never going to need all that information, then the Engineer in me took over and I just had to be able to analyis all the data I could get hold of, it does make it easier in the end, because you buy less of what you don't need, wrong motor wrong esc wrong props, been there done that, but no more.