View Full Version : Blinky vs Balancing Charger
Hello,
Is it better for my batteries to use a balancing charger to charge them rather than having a blinky attached to the balance lead while charging through the discharge leads? Or are they both the same in reality.
RC Accessory
09-08-2007, 01:28 PM
Balance charger. Blicky only balances at the end of the CV stage. Balance chargers such as the e-Station BC-6, DN, CellPro ect balance throughout the charge.
Big Fil
09-10-2007, 05:37 PM
Actually the Blinky charges before, during, or after charging. I have one that I use on my other non-balancing charger and it works extrememly well and is super accurate. Mine gets balances all the time when being charged. In addition I also have a BC-8 which works equally as well and shows you more info and have used it to also verify the Blinkies results.
RC Accessory
09-10-2007, 08:08 PM
Actually the Blinky charges before, during, or after charging. I have one that I use on my other non-balancing charger and it works extrememly well and is super accurate. Mine gets balances all the time when being charged. In addition I also have a BC-8 which works equally as well and shows you more info and have used it to also verify the Blinkies results.
You are correct, but..... :)
The blinky's discharge rate is very low. So when you are charging at 2+ amps, the sicharge rate is not effective. It becomes effective at the end of the charge in CV stage when the charge rate is substancially reduced.
Sorry, I should have been clearer.
kamtsa
09-11-2007, 08:37 AM
Actually the Blinky charges before, during, or after charging.
Did you mean 'discharges' ?
The Blinky just bleeds current from the high cells right?
Kam
kamtsa
09-11-2007, 09:00 AM
Hello,
Is it better for my batteries to use a balancing charger to charge them rather than having a blinky attached to the balance lead while charging through the discharge leads? Or are they both the same in reality.
Probably they are the same.
Many balancing chargers simply have the 'blinky' functionality inside (that is, current bleeding from high cells). See for example the 'balancing shunt resistors' of the Cellpro 4S here http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1284494
The advantage of balancing charges such as Cellpro 4S is that they don't need to guess the number of cell, they KNOW it. Much safer IMHO.
Kam
Big Fil
09-12-2007, 05:49 PM
Did you mean 'discharges' ?
The Blinky just bleeds current from the high cells right?
Kam
My mistake, I meant to type "balances before, during, or after charging"