Newb to the 'battery charger' scene

[penskyc]

Hello Everyone,

I have a Blade 450 (2 batteries), mcp X,( 10 batteries), msr x(4) and a mqx (4), I also have a charger for each of these. I am by no means outgrowing my chargers, I work from home, and am perfectly happy charging one battery at a time, as I usually will take turns flying each and throw a battery on a charger and by the time i am done cyling through that battery is chaarged, so I never really even go through my stash. I recently purchased a Traxxas stampede RC Car, and the stock charger takes 6-8 hours to charge a battery! I can go spend 30-40 dollars and get a charger that would work just for NIMH batteries for the stampede or I could get a better charger that would be able to charge all 5 of vehicles. I than realized that the stampede can also take lipos and that people recommend "SPC Li-Po Power, Lithium Polymer (LiPo) Battery Pack; 5000mAh, 25C, 3S, 11.1V". I thought to myself, 3s 11.1v? thats the same as my 450 3d! So can I use my E-flite 3-cell 11.1V LI-PO Balancing Charger, with that battery? Than I would still be stuck with the stock charger for the NIMH battery so I think I may get this "Thunder Power TP610C 1-6Cell LiPo 0.25-10A DC Charger w/Balancer" recommended on rchelicopter fun and I could get this cable to charge the nimh Tenergy Octopus Multiple Charge Cable Deans Traxxas JST' . this would ideally charge and balance everything, correct?

Would Really just like some insight on everything. and what kind of power supply do I need, are theere any other better options?

Thanks!

Researching a bit and found that the icharger hs been mentioned in threads a lot, so I looked it up, looks to be the best deal, I think I would only need the 106b+ or shoudl I go for something bigger?

[Slyster]

Just be done with it and get a powerlab or iCharger and parallel cables. I use deep cycles but feathermerchantrc has great supplies for cheap.

I charge everything from 1s mcpx packs to 6s5300mah packs. Up to 1000W... with parallel cables I can charge six 6s4000mah packs in 40 mins.

[penskyc]

Originally Posted by Slyster

Just be done with it and get a powerlab or iCharger and parallel cables. I use deep cycles but feathermerchantrc has great supplies for cheap.

I charge everything from 1s mcpx packs to 6s5300mah packs. Up to 1000W... with parallel cables I can charge six 6s4000mah packs in 40 mins.

Thanks for the reply! I went ahead and purchased an icharger 106b with a 220w power supply,comes with a jst-xh & TP balance board, also got a traxxas charge cable, es3 charge cable and a parallel pico charge cable. Only thing I am not so thrilled about is the idea that I cant charge my rc truck and heli at the same time. nor my 450 or and my 4 pico connector devices at the same time. I dont ever forsee me really charging 3, 3s batteries at once.

[Slyster]

Originally Posted by penskyc

I dont ever forsee me really charging 3, 3s batteries at once.

LOL that's what we all say... and before you know it you are charging six 6s5000mah packs at once.

As long as all packs are the same cell count, you can charge different size packs in parallell. Just change connectors so they are all the same.

See this site

https://sites.google.com/site/tjingu...allel-charging

[penskyc]

Originally Posted by Slyster

LOL that's what we all say... and before you know it you are charging six 6s5000mah packs at once.

As long as all packs are the same cell count, you can charge different size packs in parallell. Just change connectors so they are all the same.

See this site

https://sites.google.com/site/tjingu...allel-charging

So what I would have to do would be get a ec3 parallel cables and than rip on off and solder a traxxas connector, and than I would be able to charge 2 3S for my 450 and a 3S for my traxxas, and than the pico parallel can do my mqx, msrx and mcp x batteies all at the same time cause they are all one cell. given i have multiple connects for mcpx and mqx.

[bmclaurin]

Originally Posted by penskyc

I dont ever forsee me really charging 3, 3s batteries at once.

Yep, that's what I said. I started with an iCharger 208b and a Junsi 350w 12v supply. Now, I have a 2x FM 12/24v 47A supply, a MW 24v 63a supply, 2 iCharger 3010b's, and a PL8. I'm charging everything from 1S packs for an mCPx to 12S split stick packs for a Synergy E7, and many things in between, almost always in parallel. It's a sickness. Be warned.

Originally Posted by penskyc

So what I would have to do would be get a ec3 parallel cables and than rip on off and solder a traxxas connector, and than I would be able to charge 2 3S for my 450 and a 3S for my traxxas...

Yes, that would work. I'd give a little bit of thought to what type of connectors you want to standardize on. Nothing wrong with Traxxas, but most folks on here seem to be using either Deans, EC3, EC5, XT60, or APP. It's easier to standardize at the beginning rather than changing everything over at a later date.