What charger do you use?

[Sheepish]

As well as flying electric powered models I also fly IC powered aircraft which use 4 cell 4.8v NIMH Eneloop or Vapextech batteries for the radio gear. I often take more than one IC plane to fly and using a single output charger is a pain and buying multiple chargers gets expensive.

I currently use a Ripmax Propeak 4 output (3 x Rx and 1 x TX) peak detect charger to charge flight batteries. This is great as it copes with 4 or 5 cell packs and is simple to use and can be left unmonitored.
If I needed to cycle or capacity check the flight packs I can use a standard four button charger I already have to charge my Lipo packs.

I would like another multiple output peak detect charger but the Propeak seems to be out of stock everywhere at the moment and I was wondering what everyone else does?

or am I the only dinosaur still doing it this way?

[Robert Parker]

Hi,

I have two chargers from 4 max, one of which is twin output and twin input and is a 10amp/150w charger and the other is a GT power TD610 which is 10amp/100w both of these are more than adequate for my needs I charge up to 4s 5000 batteries for my electric flight and LiFe and Nimh RX batteries.

With the twin output charger, you can charge 1 LiPo battery and a 1 NiMh battery at the same time the outputs are independent of each other.

If that's of any help.

Incidentally, you state you are using 4.8v for your radio gear which is fine for 35mhz but ideally if you are using 2.4mhz you should go up to 6v.

Regards

Robert

[Trevor]

Posted by Robert Parker on 06/12/2020 17:

Incidentally, you state you are using 4.8v for your radio gear which is fine for 35mhz but ideally if you are using 2.4mhz you should go up to 6v.

Hmmm, not sure about that - citation needed?

Trevor

[Brian Cooper]

Imax B6 chargers seem to work well for me. . I have eight of them.

I bought them because they work... If they didn't work, I wouldn't have so many of them.

[Richard Wills 2]

On every system apart from perhaps early DSM2 receivers which the minimum voltage was higher than more modern ones 4.8V is perfectly fine, and even on those you only had a problem if the battery and leads were not specced properly for the servo current draw.

[Stuart Z]

GT X2, it does all I want.  (I had a couple of B6 units but they started talking Chinese so I didn’t replace them.)

 

S

Edited By Stuart Z on 06/12/2020 18:54:30

[John Lee]

I've still got my old SM Services charger/cycler/capacity checker which will do 6 NiMh/NiCd batteries at once. It is 3 separate units, the description below is just for the charger bit.

SM Services closed down in 2014 but the units occasionally come up on the second hand market and are worth looking out for Sheepish, one would seem ideal for what you need.

[gangster]

Posted by Trevor on 06/12/2020 17:54:16:

Posted by Robert Parker on 06/12/2020 17:

Incidentally, you state you are using 4.8v for your radio gear which is fine for 35mhz but ideally if you are using 2.4mhz you should go up to 6v.

Hmmm, not sure about that - citation needed?

Trevor

Why ? I think perhaps you might have been listening to the wrong old wives tales. The receivers have voltage regulators at below 4volts and some servos , including many JR and older Futaba will die on 6 volts. I will of course stand corrected if you give me a rational explanation but I will not be changing from 4.8v

Edited By gangster on 06/12/2020 20:03:23

[Sheepish]

Hi All

Thanks for the great responses so far.

I have to say I have flown RC for the last 30+ years and the only time I’ve ever had a problem with RX power is when I have either had a faulty switch or a battery that was failing and that includes 27 MHz (Futaba, Skyleader & Fleet), 35 MHz(JR and Fleet) and 2.4 GHz (Spektrum and now FRsky) Having said that I mostly fly smaller IC models with 4 or 5 low spec servos so perhaps that’s why I’ve been so lucky.
Going to 5 cells is no-go for me too as I tend to use a lot of my older JR 507 and 517 servos which I believe are not so good on the higher voltages.

I have a B6 charger and it’s been great but I was trying to avoid buy 2 or 3 more but perhaps that’s the best solution. This is what I use when I want to cycle my nimh batteries.

I’d forgotten about Mainlink and I have one of their really old Nicad cycler / chargers but it doesn’t play nicely with the nimh’s I’ve tried it with. Well built piece of kit though.

I wondered if anyone might still be using the Graupner Multilader 7e or similar, some of the outputs on these were peak detect if I remember correctly.

The most economic solution I have found is the Vapex smart charger which is about £11 and gives one output at any voltage between 4.8 and 12 volts @ 500mah. with peak detect. It’s also small and simple to use, an LED tells you where it’s at by changing colour I think.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

If you're using NiMH based batteries (which include Vapex and Eneloop) charging shouldn't take too long even using just one or two chargers. I normally charge at or just under 1C which tends to ensure an accurate peak detect and a short recharge from a typical flying session.

I tend to choose LiFe packs where the servos in the model permit it - normally with a silicon diode to take the edge off the voltage. These are also quick to recharge...

[Matt Carlton]

I use a fairly simple, basic Overlander RC6 VSR.

Does all I need it to, will charge everything I own or am likely to own and it's dual mains or DC. Comes with a lot of different plug and connection options.

It won't charge 17 packs of 18S lipos in 3 seconds, it is manual and perhaps a bit old fashioned and it doesn't sing happy birthday to me, but it does what I need 👍

[cymaz]

Accucell 6 and a SkyRC B6 max.

The Accucell is easier to use, while the B6 has more features. Pays your money.....

Edited By cymaz on 06/12/2020 21:16:33

[Sheepish]

Thanks again for the responses.

It looks like the B6 or one of its 4 button clones is the popular choice.

Martin, thanks for the thought about Life batteries.
Do you find they have a good usable life even if they are not used so often? I have a fair number of planes so they don’t all get flown so often. This was a problem with Nicads but the LSD nimhs seem to tolerate this treatment more readily.

[Richard Wills 2]

Most of my models now use life rx packs and they are better in every single way. Nimh's are old technology now, they do the job, but have had their day IMO.

[iflylilplanes]

I use the Accucell 6 as well, automatically detects the number of cells in the pack, I charge 4 and 5 Nimh cell flight packs as well as 6 and 8 Nimh cell transmitter packs, all different capacities 850 Mah AAA cells to 2600 Mah AA cells. Great for at the field and you get caught out with a low TX pack during a comp(happened 3 weeks ago, first time in 40 years)

LSD Nimh cells, if in good condition should only loose 15% capacity over 12 months, where the normal Nimh cells go flat over night in my experience.

[Gary Manuel]

Hi Sheepish

I use the same Ripmax ProPeak 4 charger. They are brilliant for just plugging your TX and up to 3 NiMh models in when you get back from flying. Not sure why you think you need another one. Just swap models when first ones are charged.

I've never found anything better and will look for another if/when my current one fails - but why would it fail? (Touch wood) It's simple technology but good.

[Sheepish]

Hi Gary

I like the Propeak too. It’s simple and does the job on three aircraft without me having to remember to swap it over and make a trip to the shed to do so. The only issue is the TX channel has failed recently and I would like another as a spare but they seem to be unobtainium at the moment.

Iflylilplanes, I like the Accucell idea as well, I’ll take a look at that and also try some Life packs (Thanks Richard and others for the idea) and see if they work for me too. Vapex Tech offer these and I have been very happy with the performance of their NIMHs.

[Cuban8]

Posted by gangster on 06/12/2020 20:01:44:

Posted by Trevor on 06/12/2020 17:54:16:

Posted by Robert Parker on 06/12/2020 17:

Incidentally, you state you are using 4.8v for your radio gear which is fine for 35mhz but ideally if you are using 2.4mhz you should go up to 6v.

Hmmm, not sure about that - citation needed?

Trevor

Why ? I think perhaps you might have been listening to the wrong old wives tales. The receivers have voltage regulators at below 4volts and some servos , including many JR and older Futaba will die on 6 volts. I will of course stand corrected if you give me a rational explanation but I will not be changing from 4.8v

Edited By gangster on 06/12/2020 20:03:23

The drawback with relying on a 4 cell pack is that should one of the four cells develop a weakness (they rarely fail completely), then you'll be flying with a battery of significantly reduced capacity. This is unlikely to show up after the battery is freshly charged and when put on a load test. Nothing to do with 2.4 or 35 or whatever.

Have a day of good weather and a lot more flying than usual and that weak cell makes its presence felt later in the day with a broken model. Running five cells gives a degree of redundancy should a pack suffer from a bad cell. I regularly run a capacity check on my five cell packs and have come across several instances where one of the five cells has lost 75% of its capacity causing the overall pack voltage to reduce prematurely. However, with the extra cell, not to a dangerously low voltage as would have been the case with only four cells.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

One of the reasons why I'm so strongly sold on telemetry - I bought a Jeti module systems as soon as it came on the market on the strength of it and over the years it's certainly saved at least two of my models from the scenario C8 has outlined - not the cheapest around, especially once I invested in one of their dedicated transmitters but many others are now available so the technology is available to most modellers.

It could be argued that increasing the number of cells increases the chances of catastrophic failure - there is another connection to fail and if any one of them fails, there is unlikely to be any warning, unlike an internal cell failure. In this respect, a 2S LiFe scores even better but (although I've yet to hear of it happening) sudden failure of one cell might well result in servos failing to respond.

For any significant investment or large model, I would always use a dual battery/switch system (which would incidentally allow control to be maintained under the 2S failure mentioned above). My preference here is for simplicity rather than battery backer systems but there are many differing views. It really has to come down to personal choice as at hobby level there are limits and you have to rely on your assessment of likely failure scenarios.

Edited By Martin Harris on 07/12/2020 12:20:15

[Cuban8]

Agree with your comments, Martin. I just wish that more flyers would take the trouble to familiarise themselves with their models' radio power requirements. Battery/wiring/switch harness contains so many weak links, yet we still see models being lost to problems that we've known about for many years. Keep it simple, use quality products, beware of 'compatible switches' costing a pound or two, know what will be required of the power supply, and check its performance regularly. Under specified BECs are a nightmare as well. Used to be a problem in the past, but even the cheapest chargers now come with a facility to perform battery and BEC checks that could show up a potential problem before a total disaster. Fit and forget is all well and good with many items, but not your models' power supplies.

[Doctor Chinnery]

“Interesting” phenomenon - new Overlander 4S 2300 Rx battery, first charged using a common or garden wall wart for 16 hrs. 
Battery then installed in my newly finished Wasp (Pegasus Models - looks a bit like a baby M.R.Gangster) then an evening of fannying about setting everything up, with the Rx switched on in total for an hour or so. 
Next morning thought I would top the Rx battery before flying, and as I was unhappy with the way I’d located it took it out and connected it to my Fusion TX/RX NX83. Returning with mug of tea and plastic sponge to pad the battery’s resting place I smelt hot plastic! The battery and wires were too hot to touch so immediately ( and carefully! ) I disconnected the battery and charger. When cold I connected up battery checkers - as dead as a nail. 
I have absolute faith in Overlander and their products, so I can only assume that the NX83 had gone rogue and was charging at significantly greater than the advertised 750mA. Anyway, the Overlander 4S 2300 is designed to fast charge at 2.3Amps. As the NX83 has a Delta Peak Cut-off for the RX output I can only assume it was this that failed to work. (Could it even be trying to charge at a higher rate?)
Anyone else had a similar experience with this bit of kit? 
Is there anything else on the market for a quick Rx battery top?

Finally - if the Rx battery had been in situ, i.e. tucked away with the wings on, in all probability I’d have had a small bonfire in my conservatory. 

[Nigel R]

I'm afraid that is entirely 100% user error.

 

The NX83 is a nimh charger, 750mA peak.

 

Never use a nimh charger with a lithium battery. Nimh delta peak is not the right method for lithium and will simply continue to charge at full rate until magic smoke appears.

 

Luckily you discovered the smell before you discovered fire.

 

 

[EarlyBird]

15 minutes ago, Nigel R said:

I'm afraid that is entirely 100% user error.

 

The NX83 is a nimh charger, 750mA peak.

 

Never use a nimh charger with a lithium battery. Nimh delta peak is not the right method for lithium and will simply continue to charge at full rate until magic smoke appears.

 

Luckily you discovered the smell before you discovered fire.

 

 

True if it is a Lithium battery but I assumed it to be a 4S Nimh as it was first charged for 16 hours.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

It would be an unusual receiver if it were fed directly by a 4S LiXX pack!

 

Many years ago, I connected a 4S NiMH pack to an autosensing charger for a precautionary top-up as I thought I'd charged it but wasn't certain. The next morning, I was greeted by a very sad looking pack which had been receiving a steady 1A all night and hadn't switched to trickle as it should have when it sensed the delta peak.

 

I have always assumed that it saw the fully charged pack as a well discharged 5S and simply pushed charge in all night looking for it to re-peak while already past that point.

 

Luckily there was no fire...

[Nigel R]

In which case I apologise for my incorrect assumption and retract my post!

 

I originally read 4S2300 as a main motor pack... would expect "4.8V" as the usual nimh description.

 

Edited April 29, 2021 by Nigel R