picking the right power supply. need help

[ride1226]

Ohk...so I am left a bit confused on this subject. I currently have a TP-610c charger and would like to find a good power supply for it. The manual says 12v 10 amps at maximum charge rate if im recalling correctly. Many power supplies i see are 13.8v and much higher amps. Does the amp number matter if it is above the 10amps that the manual says to use, or is the higher amperage only head room for if you add another charger? I heard somewhere that 13.8v is more efficient than 12v, but at the same time I do not want to risk burning up my new charger. Also, the max I really ever anticipate running off of the power supply would be two TP-610c chargers and possibly charging 4 2200mah 3s lipos as i just found out that the 610 can charge two batteries at once in a series. I dont plan on ever needing more than two 6s batteries charging at once, and thats if I do buy a trex 500 down the line. Basically any explanations, recommendations, and help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!:noteworthy

[ronlund]

Here's a simple way to figure out how many amps your 12v (13.8v) power supply needs to be rated at.

At what rate will you be charging?

If you have a 3700 mah pack, 1C (the normal charge rate) will be 3.7 amps. If you plan to hook two chargers up, double it to 7.4 amps.

Now take the max voltage of the packs and divide it by 13.8.
Figure the max voltage by multiplying the cell count by 4.2. 3S = 12.6, 4S = 16.8 etc.

Let's take a single 4S 3700 pack and figure that.

16.8/13.8 = 1.22 Now multiply the total amps by that number. We get 3.7 x 1.22 = 4.5 amps.

You can see that if you want to charge a 6S pack at 5 amps, you would need a power supply rated at 10 amps. If you want to hook two chargers up at the same time, you would need a 20 amp power supply.

Most chargers can handle up to 15 volts, so don't worry about it being 13.8 instead of 12 volts. That's normal.

Good luck,
Ron Lund

[ualdrivr]

Ohk...so I am left a bit confused on this subject. I currently have a TP-610c charger and would like to find a good power supply for it. The manual says 12v 10 amps at maximum charge rate if im recalling correctly. Many power supplies i see are 13.8v and much higher amps. Does the amp number matter if it is above the 10amps that the manual says to use, or is the higher amperage only head room for if you add another charger? I heard somewhere that 13.8v is more efficient than 12v, but at the same time I do not want to risk burning up my new charger. Also, the max I really ever anticipate running off of the power supply would be two TP-610c chargers and possibly charging 4 2200mah 3s lipos as i just found out that the 610 can charge two batteries at once in a series. I dont plan on ever needing more than two 6s batteries charging at once, and thats if I do buy a trex 500 down the line. Basically any explanations, recommendations, and help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!:noteworthy

If you buy this power supply, you will have no problems and you will probably never outgrow it. Over 600 Watts of output, 40Amps at 15.5Volts. It is a bit expensive but, well worth the money. Check out this post.
http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=71398 :YeaBaby:

[marchambault]

If you want a good quality power supply (PS), look at amateur radio shops. Sounds like you would want 20Amps to run 2 chargers, so I would look at buying a 25Amp continuous to be on the safe side. The PS continuous rating must be at least equal to, preferably larger than the sum of all loads applied to it.

Not all chargers can go above 15V so sticking to the standard 12 - 13.8VDC would be better.

Here's what I use: http://www.hamcity.com/detail.aspx?ID=1237

Where's everydayflyer when we need him?