Question about Charger?

[DavidH]

OK,
Got a Blade 400 just to play with around the house ( Outside). Great package for the price. Was ready to fly upon taking it out of the box. Charging battery for about 40 mins and then putting batteries in transmitter. Just had to track the blades by one half turn on one link.
How long does it take the stock charger that comes with the kit take to charge the battery? It says 1.8 amp out put. So I would think 1 hour to charge the 1800 mah battery.
The charger that came with my kit is not charging the battery in that length of time. What kind of time are you guys seeing that are using the stock charger. How long does it take for all the lights to go RED from the time you start charging the battery lets say after a 4-5 min flight?

Thanks
David

[schirtzy88]

mine is a pice of cra- it startes to give errors after 10 minutes or so I use the charger that came with the cx2

[GreenBar0n]

OK,
Got a Blade 400 just to play with around the house ( Outside). Great package for the price. Was ready to fly upon taking it out of the box. Charging battery for about 40 mins and then putting batteries in transmitter. Just had to track the blades by one half turn on one link.
How long does it take the stock charger that comes with the kit take to charge the battery? It says 1.8 amp out put. So I would think 1 hour to charge the 1800 mah battery.
The charger that came with my kit is not charging the battery in that length of time. What kind of time are you guys seeing that are using the stock charger. How long does it take for all the lights to go RED from the time you start charging the battery lets say after a 4-5 min flight?

Thanks
David

Did you buy the AC adapter for the stock charger, or are you connecting the charger to yet another battery?

[DavidH]

I am using an 8-10 amp power supply to power the charger. Even used a 30 amp plus power supply that was supplying 14 volts over the weekend. Still took too long to charge the battery. Just trying to get some information to see if something is wrong with the charger that came in the kit.

David

[GreenBar0n]

With the AC adapter and the stock 1800, it takes me about 1 - 1 1/2 hours for a full charge.

[LockMD]

I am using an 8-10 amp power supply to power the charger. Even used a 30 amp plus power supply that was supplying 14 volts over the weekend. Still took too long to charge the battery. Just trying to get some information to see if something is wrong with the charger that came in the kit.

David


More power will not make it charge any faster, in will only take what it wants. Mine was taking about 1.5 hours too. I highly recommend a better charger. Out of the many I have I like the Cellpro 4S the best.

[DavidH]

More power will not make it charge any faster, in will only take what it wants. Mine was taking about 1.5 hours too. I highly recommend a better charger. Out of the many I have I like the Cellpro 4S the best.

Yes I know more power will not make it charge any faster. I was just making the point that I was supplying power to the charger from a power supply that put out more than the optional A/C adapter. E Flite sells.

I am just trying to get an idea if this charger is bad that came with it. I just charged a battery that had approximate 4 min flight on it. It was fully charged when I started. It took nearly 2 hours to charge the battery using the stock charger. That means it should have put 3600 mah in an 1800 mah battery. LOL

I have been flying helis for 17 years now. So not new to the hobby. Just wanted to see how the stock charger was working for others.
Yes I have a better charger. But was looking at how the stock charger works.

David

[LockMD]

gotcha - I havent heard of many getting 1 hour or less, they say an hour but I never did.

[craigf]

As far as I know from my airplane experience... if you are charging at the rate of 1C, then it should take about an hour and 20 minutes from near empty. Since the stock charger is rated at 1800 and the battery is 1800mAh then that would be 1C. I always made a habbit of charging my airplane batteries at less than 1C (to prolong their life and get a better charge) albeit with a MUCH better charger.

Using the CX2 charger would take even longer because it charges at a slower rate, but is healthier for the battery than the stock charger.

I'm actually thinking of changing my 400 over to deans connectors so I can use my real charger.. (and adding a power switch) I suppose that would give me the added benefit of being able to cycle my batteries once and a while using slow drains and trickle charges over night.

[visuvius]

The charger that came with my Blade 400 was faulty. I using using a 5A power supply I got at the LHS and after more than 3 hours, the lights would STILL not go red. Horizon was less than helpful and told me to try charging it a few more times and hopefully it would "work itself out". The guy at the LHS however was very helpful and told me to bring it in. He gave me a new balancer/charger and lo and behold it charged the battery in just under an hour.

FAULTY CHARGER. But don't expect Horizon to help you out. They go through a gigantic list of everything you might have done wrong before even attempting to help you out.

[Wilder]

David,

I bought a Blade 400 about 2 months ago. The charger would show 3 green lights and 1 red for about an hour and then the green lights would start blinking red to green indicating a charging error according to the manual. I bought this heli from my lhs but decided to call Horizon Hobby to address the problem. The tech person I spoke to wasn't sure if my charger or battery was causing the problem so he sent me a new battery and charger at no cost. It turned out that the original charger was the problem. The new unit takes about 1.2 hours max for a full charge. The guy I spoke to at Horizon was very responsive and I didn't have beg for help. He just offered to send the new battery and charger after a short conversation.

I also wanted to thank you for the great job you did in organizing the Bham. Flyin. I had a great time and look foward to next year.

Wilder

[Carpman68]

FAULTY CHARGER. But don't expect Horizon to help you out. They go through a gigantic list of everything you might have done wrong before even attempting to help you out.

you must have caught them at a bad time i had a featering shaft bolt come out while skiding forward and they have been great about trying to get it sorted out ( a bit slow but hopefully should have all replacement parts soon)

[skigolfmike]

The charger that comes with the B400 is pretty conservative and I thought it did a pretty good job at balancing the batteries. It took about an hour+ to charge the battery.

The last part of the lipo charge takes a while because the lipo charging circuit drops the amperage at the battery peaks. Even a 1.8A charger is going to take more than 1 hour to charge 1800mAh into a battery. Also the recharge is not 100% efficient. If you take out 1800mAh, depending on the battery and the charger it may 2000mAh to fully charge it again.

[Kindling Maker]

My charger works just fine it does it in about 1.30, Plus I believe that E-Flite chargers only charge to 90% and then cut off. It is that way on the CPPro and the CX2. It is supposed to be a fail safe. At least that is what was said in the other E-flite forum here about 6 months ago.

[hcopter51]

:thumbup:Slightly off topic, but speaking of charging, what do you folks use to charge battery at the field?? Thanks...:clappp

[skigolfmike]

Thunder Power 610c charging @ 2C and/or 2 Triton Jrs charging at 1C. Have 1 Equinox balancer to use with the Triton Jr. Also use any of these chargers to recharge the TX.

[LockMD]

:thumbup:Slightly off topic, but speaking of charging, what do you folks use to charge battery at the field?? Thanks...:clappp


I use alarm panel batteries, 12V 7A get them free from work ssshhhhhh

[DavidH]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I emailed Eflite customer support and discussed with them the experience I am having with the charger that came in the kit. They replied they would send out a new one to me.

David

[Kindling Maker]

Glad Eflite took care of you. I have had real good service from them.