Looking to upgrade my charging station.

[WonderedUnder]

I've done a bit of reading on the forums but things have come a little ways since i was last on here. I'm wanting to upgrade my battery charging ability.

The combo i'm thinking of is either the FMA PL6 or 8 powered by feathermerchant's 24V47A Plug-n-Play Supply with EC5 connector. will that power supply let me use the full charge power of the PL6? (is it just 24v x 47a = 1128 max watts?) Any reason to get the PL8 over the PL6 if i'm not running any packs > 6s?

I have batteries with many different connectors (from JST to XT60 to EC3 to EC5). Would the best way to charge them be to buy separate parallel charge boards for each connector type?

[Gregor99]

With the Feathermerchant supplies, you will get close to the Powerlab6's max output. 30v is required to hit 100%. Even with the FM supplies the Powerlab6 does quite well. The Powerlab8 will give you the full 1008 watts for 6s packs on the FM supply. Plus 100 watts of discharge vs 50 on the PL6.

I did this test with the HP DPS-600PBs, same supplies that FM sells.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...7#post20578347

For parallel charging the MPA with resettable fuses is quite impressive. Pictures really don't do it justice. Currently it only has Deans connectors. But its not hard to make short adapters, Deans to XT60, EC5 or EC5.

[WonderedUnder]

ProgressiveRC has these charge boards : http://www.progressiverc.com/paralle...st-xh-ec5.html

They have an option for the PL6. Will these work?

[rlclemmons]

That will work. Make sure you choose the charger option. Fma uses a different connector on the balance plug.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[The WoodCrafter]

I went with this one -

http://epbuddy.com/index.php?main_pa...nj7r2hhit57et4

[WonderedUnder]

Thanks for your help everybody. Went with the PL8 with 24v47A power supply and progressiverc parallel boards.

Once i plug this in, how close should i come to maxing out the system? What's the maximum voltage you all would recommend at this setting?

[Gregor99]

Set the input current limit on the PL8 to 45-47 amps and charge away. If you are charging 6s packs or smaller, you will not max out the power supply. If you are using the Progressive parallel boards you will need limit the charger's output to 30 amps. Those boards are designed for the lower output of the iChargers. They should not be used with a Powerlab above 30 amps or melting may occur.

Each board can charge up to six batteries, from 2S up to 6S, at up to a 30A charge rate.

This would be a much better match. It may not be too late to change your order.
http://www.progressiverc.com/fma-mul...xh-t-plug.html

[Slyster]

Just be aware with paraboards it is tough (impossible for my Gens Ace 6s packs) to plug them in.. the balance cords are just so short.. so parallel cables were much better for me.

[WonderedUnder]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I decided to stick with progressive boards and just not max out the power for now. I didn't want to have to solder up 18 connectors and have to plug and unplug all the connectors every time that i swap connector types... I'll take a bit of a slower charge rate for convenience at this point.

The PL8 is on backorder, so it'll probably be a few weeks before i get this all setup. I got the USB connector as well, so curious to see what sorta info that gives me.

[Justchill]

The USB adapter doesn't just give you info. It changes your whole charging universe!

Little advice: pick up a smallish light used laptop online and dedicate this computer to all your heli needs. As the cellpro software gives you ENDLESS options and functionality. You will never look at your PL8 LCD again! Also like me you can use this same laptop or tablet to run yor phoenix ice link for your ESC and your FBL software as well (beastx and whatnot).

A computer or tablet will take almost no power from your supplies or just run a separate cord to your power source. Also you can download an app to your smartphone to wirelessly see your batts current charge rate and capacity along with a live batterie status indicator to watch your batteries fill up on screen. It's pretty wild stuff. So you can walk around the fly field and just check your phone to see how close your batts are to completion.

[808Hanapaa]

Originally Posted by Justchill

. Also you can download an app to your smartphone to wirelessly see your batts current charge rate and capacity along with a live batterie status indicator to watch your batteries fill up on screen. It's pretty wild stuff. So you can walk around the fly field and just check your phone to see how close your batts are to completion.

What app is that?

Thanks