Which charger

[Magnasanz]

I've read a lot of posts on which charger is best which is the newest etc blah. I fly a Trex 450SE not going to get a 600 simply due to cost of batteries and love the smell of nitro to much.

I run 2200mah batteries and want to charge them quickly! I've (Hopefully when i gets returned) a FP V-balance which is great, gotta love that fuel gauge. I've also got a Futaba CR2000 for all my Nicad and NIMH batteries (RX and TX + Glow) so got old skool batteries covered.

At present i've got a simple 1-3s charger no display and will charge at max 2amps which is ok when used with the balancer.

I've read that people are charging at 2 and 3c which would be awesome cos i could fly my rex pretty much non stop with 4 batteries. This is of course assuming i can charge any lipo (I have the new align 22c one and getting some cheapo hextronik 20c ones) at 2-3c.

I'm trying to figure out which is best for the money and my uses which are as follows for easy reading:

Must haves:
1) Must charge lipos/life(for future proof)
2) Must be able to charge at 2 or 3c
3) Must work with my V-balance

Would like to haves:
1) 2 outputs to charge more than one battery at a time (Probably not going to happen running off my car battery at the field)
2) Must look good :)
3) Have safety features like temp sens
4) Different charge/discharge options such as 95% quick charge etc

I've been looking at the TP 1010 and E-station 902. I'm guessing i can use my V-Balance with either as it just has banana plugs and has link through mode, but not sure if i can charge at the max the chargers will do. Any comments info ideas recommendations would be good, plus what people have setup atm.

[kgfly]

IMO your three best options are:

* Bantam eStation 902
* Hyperion EOS1210i
* ThunderPower 1010

However, each of these has a matched balancer (PB6/LBA10/TP205) which has a data cable providing info back to the charger. If you don't use the matched balancer you won't get per-cell voltage monitoring and you may not get optimal balance charge behaviour. AFAIK only the e902 is currently shipping with LiFe support. I believe there is a download available for the TP1010 that adds LiFe support but you have to buy the download cable. Hyperion are adding LiFe support to the 1210i and I think new stock from April will have it, but be sure to confirm when ordering as they are not field-upgradable. Both the e902 and the 1210i have optional temperature sensors, you would have to check about the TP1010.

The e902 has a "Fast charge" mode which modifies the CCCV algorithm to terminate earlier, around 95% charged, and this significantly shortens cycle time. It also has a second output which can be used for charging a Tx/Rx/glow-stick pack in parallel with the flight pack.

You might find this thread interesting: http://helifreak.com/viewtopic.php?t=32429

[RC Accessory]

The V Balancer will work fine with any of the chargers Kenneth mentioned. As he said, the downside would that you would not have balancer/charger communication regarding seeing the individual cell voltages. IMHO, I find this critical to know what is happening with the pack. Every li-xx pack I charge, I always monitor the individual cell voltages, paying more attention to that than total pack voltage.

The e-Station 902 is the most feature rich of the chargers mentioned. The TP 1010 is also an excellent charger, but if you do not use their TP-210 balancer, you miss out on the better features of the 1010. The Hyperion 1210i is interesting. The units shipping now do not have A123 support. New units shipping next month will. At such a low cost for the Hyperion, it can be replaced when new technology comes out.