How to use the balancer correctly?

[Turbo Boss]

Guys, please help me with this: I have a Orbit Microlader Pro charger and Thunder Power Li-Po Cell Balancer TP-205

My question is how to charge the battery using the balancer?

Do I need to conect the the charger to the balancer and then the battery to the balancer?

Or do I conect the charger to the battery and the battery to the balacer?

The balancer does not have a Positive and negative thick wires to conect it to the charger.

The worst thing is that balancer has very little and unclear instructions about how all of this works together.

This is my first electric heli and all my friends that fly electric heli does not use balancer.

Here are the pics of may charger and balancer:

http://www.rbckits.com/PC190010%20(Custom).JPG
http://imagescommerce.bcentral.com/merchantfiles/4695427/TP205.jpg

Thx,

Isaac

[lennydude]

I am not familiar with your charger but have used the TP205 balancer with other chargers.
When you first plug in the battery to the balancer with lets say a 3 cell lipo, the status light and all 3 cell lights will light up. After a few seconds either all 3 cell lights will go out or 1,2, or 3 of the cell lights will blink until the pack becomes balanced. I always do this after a full charge or after a partial discharge.
If you want to charge the pack and balance it at the same time, just plug the battery into the balancer and the plug the battery into the charger. The battery will charge and balance at the same time. Sometimes it takes longer for the battery to charge using the balancer.
I found that I only needed to use the balancer once in awhile. No need everytime.

Hope this makes sense....................

[WillJames]

This is my opinion an nothing more... Balance withthe TP balancer then charge.

With that Orbit Charger, you will probably just want to use the balancer on your packs after flying and before charging until the balancer shows they are balanced, then charge them with the Orbit. Then just for kicks once in a while hook up the balancer to each of your fully charged packs and see if it is in balance or not. As lenny described above, the lights 123456 will blink if balancing is taking place (1-3 for 3s 1-4 for 4s, etc). Once the balancing is complete the status light on the balancer will glow amber color.

Charging with the balancer attached will make the balancer pretty warm and IMHO is not necessary or your best option with that Orbit/balancer combo. Also, unless you are in a big hurry, charging at .5-.75 C seems to help make the packs last and also peak them best, at least for me. Others may disagree with this. Basically you have to figure out a routine that works for you and stick to it to achieve maximum battery pack life and power output.

Only chargers I have that I run the balancer when charging are the TP-1010's that have a data cable that hooks to the balancer while charging. I only charged with the method above (balance then charge) before I got the 1010's.

The other thing is, make sure you have a consistent input voltage to your charger when charging. I have never owned an Orbit, but inconsistent input voltage seems to false peak the packs for some reason, the 1010's seem a little worse at this than the Schulze 636 or 330 chargers I own.

As with anything there are a bunch of different ways to do things like charging and balancing. This way above has worked pretty good for me and some fellow E-Flyers I fly with and know.

[Chachin]

Hello, I use two orbit chargers and a TP-205 balancer to charge all my packs. The Orbit is an excellent charger for LiPos/NiCd/NiMH.

You can balance either with battery connected to charger or disconnected. I first connect my battery to the charger and then hook up the balancer to the battery. No need to connect the balancer to the charger since they work independently. Imbalance becomes greater as voltage increases. So at first the balancer will be off for the most part. As voltage gets closer to peak (4.2v/cell), the balancer will become more active.

After puffing a pack during charge, I now hook up the balancer on every or every other charge. Good luck!

Chachin..

[Turbo Boss]

Guys, thx for your advise. I am using a 10 cell 37Volts 4,000Mah lipo battery with a Logo 14.

Do the TP205 balancer is ok for thsi battery? I am new to electrics and this was the combo that the mail hobby shop send me.
Also waht is the correct setting on the Orbit for my battery? I adjusted to 10 cells but the amperage, were is safe to put it????. I charge it today and in the field they recomend me to put it on 4.0 amp.....Is this OK? Also I was checking that on the right corner in the down part of the liquit cristal the thing was showing like 1300mha with around 30 minutes on the charger. But I disconected because the 12battery we was using was like dead :( Do I have to way until it show 4,000mah???

THX,

Isaac