New to PL8 Questions.

[spackermen]

I recieved my pl8 today. Pretty excited about it, I've had the CCS downloaded for about a month now! I hooked it all up, and have a few questions.

-Is there a way to simply balance cells without going through a charge cycle?

- I bought the MPA board with the charger. In a parallel charge, it says must use banana jacks. Can I not use the board? What does the message "use banana jacks" mean?

- when I start a charge cycle it starts out with "2c" on the screen for a charge rate. How is this number determined?

Thanks in advance for the answers, and I'm sure more questions are to follow.

[n6nev]

your have the wrong thread,,, this is flight stabliation..........your need batterys and such

[spackermen]

Isn't this forum for all revo electronics?

[sutty]

Yep, it is now. Changed to FMA's forum about a month back, as evidenced by the 'Welcome' sticky at the top of the forum. Sorry I can't help with your question though.

Cheers

Sutty

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by spackermen

I recieved my pl8 today. Pretty excited about it, I've had the CCS downloaded for about a month now! I hooked it all up, and have a few questions.

-Is there a way to simply balance cells without going through a charge cycle?

- I bought the MPA board with the charger. In a parallel charge, it says must use banana jacks. Can I not use the board? What does the message "use banana jacks" mean?

- when I start a charge cycle it starts out with "2c" on the screen for a charge rate. How is this number determined?

Thanks in advance for the answers, and I'm sure more questions are to follow.

Hi:

While there is not a balance-only preset, one could accomplish the same thing essentially by inputting a very low charge current. The PL's can go all the way down to 10 mA set point on current.

Use banana jacks just means you have to plug the banana plugs coming from the MPA into the banana jacks on the front of the PL8. At the same time, you have to also plug the balance connector into the balance port on the PL8. You also have to be sure to switch the PL8 over to XH WIRING MODE when you use the MPA. The PL8 supports balance-wire-only charging, but not in XH MODE; hence, not when using MPA.

For detailed information on how the AUTO charging works, consult the PL8 user guide, page 59:

http://revolectrix.com/support_docs/item_1377.pdf

Regarding other questions, fire away!

[spackermen]

I think I remember reading about it that you can charge with balance nodes only. I'll have to do some more reading about how it works exactly.

I got the "high IR on cell 6" thing going on, did a little research to find the XH wiring preset.

Day 1 is behind me with this charger, but honestly as of this second, I feel like I am in over my head... I have been using cheap chargers that don't have 1/100th the features of the power lab, and it's going to be a steep learning curve!

Good thing Tim is here doing product support, (unheard of in this industry to support something longer than 2 seconds after launch) and these chargers are growing more-so in popularity, so I am sure help is never too far away!

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by spackermen

I think I remember reading about it that you can charge with balance nodes only. I'll have to do some more reading about how it works exactly.

I got the "high IR on cell 6" thing going on, did a little research to find the XH wiring preset.

Day 1 is behind me with this charger, but honestly as of this second, I feel like I am in over my head... I have been using cheap chargers that don't have 1/100th the features of the power lab, and it's going to be a steep learning curve!

Good thing Tim is here doing product support, (unheard of in this industry to support something longer than 2 seconds after launch) and these chargers are growing more-so in popularity, so I am sure help is never too far away!

Hi:

Thanks for the vote of confidence. The PowerLab interface is different from what you might be used to, but I think you'll be using it one day and the light bulb will go off, and you'll think "now I get it". From that point forward, you won't look back any more.

Just remember this. A great deal of effort went into the development, including a year of beta testing and great feedback from the beta team to refine the product. In particular, we thought a lot about what the customers use in the industry and we did our best to craft the presets accordingly. I can tell you with a great degree of confidence, based on user feedback from the field that the PowerLab's will handle probably 90% or more of your battery maintenance requirements "out of the box". Don't get bogged down by all of the customization that you can do. First learn the fundamentals of the interface and just use the PL the way it was designed to work. Call up factory presets, answer the questions it asks you when you start a process, and charge your batteries. Once you start to get a handle on the basic operation, then you can start to go deeper into the 100's of user-changeable parameters. And when you go there, I highly recommend you use the Charge Control Software because, while you can do a lot at the interface itself, the CCS just makes everything easier. Why would you want to restrict yourself to a 2 line LCD when you can use a big old PC monitor and really get into the heart of designing custom presets, graphing, etc, etc. In the end, you'll start to see that maintaining your batteries can actually be good fun!

Good luck! We're here if you need us.

[ukiah74]

I have been trying to find a part number for it and can't find it anywhere.. A-Main has some cords but it doesn't specify if it will work from the Powerlab 8 to the FMA safe parellel board? I wish they would put the part numbers for the needed cord with there products.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.. Thank's just trying to get the cord to connect the pl8 to the FMA ballance board..

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by ukiah74

I have been trying to find a part number for it and can't find it anywhere.. A-Main has some cords but it doesn't specify if it will work from the Powerlab 8 to the FMA safe parellel board? I wish they would put the part numbers for the needed cord with there products.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.. Thank's just trying to get the cord to connect the pl8 to the FMA ballance board..

Hi:

This cable will connect either the SPA or the MPA to the PL8:

http://www.usastore.revolectrix.com/..._2/MPA-XH-PL_2

[ukiah74]

Thanks Tim,
Got the cable ordered, and a extra banana plug set w/fuse.. So far I love your
products... keep up the good work!

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by ukiah74

Thanks Tim,
Got the cable ordered, and a extra banana plug set w/fuse.. So far I love your
products... keep up the good work!

Hi:

You're welcome! Just shout if you have any other questions.