Which balancer is best?

[JEB123]

I'm an old nitro plank guy and I'm new to the Lipo thing, so I want to get a decent setup. I'll be getting a TRex 450 soon, to drop into my new Heliartist N23CP for scale flying. Unfortunately, I have a MRC Superbrain 969 (that's not funny) that's gonna stay on the shelf for this job after all I've heard about it!:thumbdown:.
I'm thinking of getting the Triton charger. Which balancer do you guys recommend to go with it? I'm a little confused as to when balancing is required. I'm guessing when they're in parallel, you want to keep the voltages even to prevent over charge/discharge of one cell in the group? Is this why some packs don't have a balancing lead, because they're series only packs? I know there are series/parallel combos to increase voltages and/or current, but which do you use when? And also, what do you think of so called "fail safe" Lipo's by Lightning Power? Do these really help prevent over discharging that anyone knows of? I hear they're supposed to drop to 50% power to warn you of low voltage and give you time to land, or something like that?
Anyone know a good Lipo tutorial?

[RC Accessory]

If you have to buy a new charger, get one with a built in balancer, such as the e-Station BC-6 or e-Station BC6-10. The BC-6 even has its own AC power supply.

www.rcaccessory.com (http://www.rcaccessory.com)

[fsusmithc2]

Or the CellPro 4s by FMA Direct or the 610c by Thunder Power. Both good options as well and they balance as they charge but you need external power for them.

If you need an external balancer, you'd probably want the Thunder Power 205V for up to 5 cells or the 210V for up to 10. With lipos you should always either balance during or after a charge session. Some packs have balancing circuitry built in so a balance tap is not needed on them. I believe those are mostly smaller packs like for your Tx.

[JEB123]

Very good point, I might as well get one with the balancer built in. Thanks for your input. I see I still have a lot of homework to do.
Jorge

[JEB123]

Any other replies about the balancing issue?

[lead47]

I have been using the DN Charger and Blinky Balancer combination for over a year which has worked well. I recently purchased the FMA 4S Charger/Balancer that I like a lot better. The DN charger gets the batteries close, then the Blinky balances them down to the lowest cell voltage. The FMA balances as it charges each cell and also displays how many maH you put back into the battery. Good value.

[Ultraviolet]

The Triton is a good general purpose charger, but e flight in my opinion requires purpose built lipo chargers ( wise decision to keep the superbrain on the shelf ). The following chargers work very well:

Cellpro 4S
Cellpro 10S
Hyperion Duo
TP 1010

or any charger with accurate, integrated cell balancing / monitoring.

For a Trex 450 I would get 1 or 2 Cellpro 4S chargers. Excellent value !

[JEB123]

Thanks guys. Pardon my ignorance, but who carries the FMA? I can't seem to find it?

[Ultraviolet]

You buy direct from FMA

http://www.fmadirect.com/

[JEB123]

Thanks, I'll check it out right now.

[JEB123]

Wow! You're both right, looks like an excellent value and quality product. How difficult is the wiring to other manufacturer's packs? Looks like a lot of adaptation or am I wrong (I hope)?

[JEB123]

Wow, you guys are right. Looks like the best deal. How difficult is hookup to other mfr's packs? I noticed you have to buy connectors separately?

[JEB123]

Looks great. Thanks for the advice.

[JEB123]

I got a blinky, I got a blinky! If anyone is interested, as of last week, they're in stock and available from hobbyshopworld.com.

[redgiki]

My LiPo charging setup:
1. A Great Planes Triton (version 1 from several years ago, the same as today's "Triton Jr."), with a Thunder Power TP-205 stand-alone balancer. Great balancer.
2. A Great Planes Polycharge 4 4-station charger, with four generic in-line balancers. The balancers only get the cells to within .02v of one another, but they are pass-through balancers that limit the charge to 4.2v/cell (preventing overcharging) and work well enough for everyday charging.

I've been thinking of picking up a new charger, but haven't felt the need really. 5 chargers can keep me in the air all day long.

If I were to start over today, I think I'd pick up one nice balancing charger like the TP-1010 or FMA Direct CellPro 10S, and still get the Polycharge 4. The Polycharge 4 is $100 for the charger and then you need (well, you don't "need" but it's good to have) a balancer for each station. People remark on how complicated it looks, but it's really simple when you look one station at a time.