Steel Butcher
02-25-2007, 05:02 PM
The ideal charger, for me at least, seems to be the Bantam BC-6
I've been playing around with my T-rex 450 since September (currently on winter hiatus). I use the basic align charger and Apex 2100 batteries. I have been looking for an additional charger for some time, and here was my criteria:
- Built in 120V power supply AND 12v. I was puzzled why most of them are 12V, using a power converter (or your car, lead battery etc). Supposedly this is due to a work-around from having to be UL, etc. listed.)
- Built in balancer. Along with the above, It seems silly to have a power supply, charger, balancer, and cord adapter all spread along the workshop table.
- Multiple battery chemistry. I have a variety of batteries for driver drills, appliances, etc that use mostly nicads. The first thing I did with the BC-6 was to set up my drill packs (using alligator clips). I set up the unit to perform 3 deep cycles which really improved the packs! The BC-6 will also do nimh, Pb, and 3 flavors of lithium.
- Ability to charge two 3S 2100 batteries at once. This was also a biggie, I didn't want to keep swapping batteries back and forth. When wired in series (primary connections), and with balance connector adapters made up, the unit is just able to charge at the ~ 50Watt limit at 1C. (6S 2100 battery). Note that you would not want this unit for a T-rex 600 since you would have to charge at 1/2 C or whatever depending on the pack mah size. (Pic below)
http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/c82bde0bd30d341ab6ee698129d12049.jpg
Nitpicks:
-No firmware update via USB, although the port is present. This is a major disadvantage, I am sure some bugs will surface, and it limits future battery compatibility.
- Input power cord: The 12V power cord is permanently connected, the 120V cable can be removed. It would be nice to be able to unplug the 12V cord to get it out of the way and also to prevent shorting
- 12V input power: There is an option to stop the charging process if the 12V power supply drops to a certain level. The highest level you can select is 11V, which is a bit low as far as restarting the car. This function seems to be designed for protection of the battery from damage.
I've been playing around with my T-rex 450 since September (currently on winter hiatus). I use the basic align charger and Apex 2100 batteries. I have been looking for an additional charger for some time, and here was my criteria:
- Built in 120V power supply AND 12v. I was puzzled why most of them are 12V, using a power converter (or your car, lead battery etc). Supposedly this is due to a work-around from having to be UL, etc. listed.)
- Built in balancer. Along with the above, It seems silly to have a power supply, charger, balancer, and cord adapter all spread along the workshop table.
- Multiple battery chemistry. I have a variety of batteries for driver drills, appliances, etc that use mostly nicads. The first thing I did with the BC-6 was to set up my drill packs (using alligator clips). I set up the unit to perform 3 deep cycles which really improved the packs! The BC-6 will also do nimh, Pb, and 3 flavors of lithium.
- Ability to charge two 3S 2100 batteries at once. This was also a biggie, I didn't want to keep swapping batteries back and forth. When wired in series (primary connections), and with balance connector adapters made up, the unit is just able to charge at the ~ 50Watt limit at 1C. (6S 2100 battery). Note that you would not want this unit for a T-rex 600 since you would have to charge at 1/2 C or whatever depending on the pack mah size. (Pic below)
http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/c82bde0bd30d341ab6ee698129d12049.jpg
Nitpicks:
-No firmware update via USB, although the port is present. This is a major disadvantage, I am sure some bugs will surface, and it limits future battery compatibility.
- Input power cord: The 12V power cord is permanently connected, the 120V cable can be removed. It would be nice to be able to unplug the 12V cord to get it out of the way and also to prevent shorting
- 12V input power: There is an option to stop the charging process if the 12V power supply drops to a certain level. The highest level you can select is 11V, which is a bit low as far as restarting the car. This function seems to be designed for protection of the battery from damage.