charger / power supply question

[rbei312]

question on power supplies and chargers. Been in the hobby for about a year. Currently flying 450's with 3s and 6s. Planning on getting into a 550 next year which would be ussing 5500mah 6s. My current charger aint gonna handle it. So I was looking at getting the icharge 306B and using deep cells at the field and a power supply at home. So my question is where can I get a reasonbly priced power supply?
From what I've read here guys are recommending to stay with a single supply for safety. The 306B needs 24VDC and a 1000watts to run at full capacity. I haven't seen anything in the line of supplies for much less than 500 bucks. Is that what up against or am I looking in the wrong places? I would appreciate anyones help on this. I've flown nitro planes for many years but the whole electric thing is very new to me.

[gaurdian101]

as for the power supply I bought this one http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2206534 this guys sells them all the time and under 50$ and I like it allot you can buy 2 of them and use 24v if you like but I don't it works great on my 308 due and the only time I use 24v is at the field with deep cell battery's.... there is no reason for me to even use 24v PS at home I don't need to be charging battery's up fast for home use...

[Slyster]

www.feathermerchantrc.com or two $80 deep cycles (what I use)

[RedOctobyr]

The 900W/75A supplies are DPS-1200FBs, which have a reputation for being small, light, and quiet. They are becoming a common suggestion.

The user DSW, here on HF, sells those 900W supplies wired in series for 24V (which would be a really nice solution). He has a thread in the Vendors forum, I think, I can find it if you need it.

If you're up for DIY, you can also build a pair of 900W series supplies yourself for maybe $40.

You can run two supplies in series with the 306B. The single-channel iCharger line doesn't seem to have as many concerns about this as the Duo iChargers. The Duos have specific warnings about using series supplies (the risks can be managed by taking a few straightforward steps). The Duos also more likely to cause problems (by overloading a supply), as they can draw ~1500W and higher, at 60A or more.

Whereas a 306B can "only" put 750W into 6S packs, drawing around 850W to do so. Making it less likely to overload even a pair of smaller 47A supplies at 24V, which could put out 1150W.

I wouldn't worry about the supply too much. The PowerLabs are much less susceptible to series-supply issues. If you chose to buy an expensive, single supply just to use with the iCharger (not necessary, in my view), I would strongly consider the PL6 ($175) or PL8 ($240) instead. And I'd consider the PL6 regardless as an alternative to the 306B. It will provide more 6S amps (~34A on 24V), and has 1A of balance current, as opposed to 0.5A on the 306B.