Battery charger suggestions

[Plaidfish]

I am horrible about cycling my batteries for my nitro stuff...my car packs I'm more regular but I usually wait til I'm at a friends house w/ a good charger to do it....otherwise I have an old MRC charger I use for most charges...I want to get something that was at least made in this century....what's good for charging multiple packs for receivers and 12V bump box gel cell....and of course 6 and 7 cell packs....I want something fairly easy to use...I don't need printed charts on my packs or any of that froo froo crap....LOL

 

[scottm]

I am this site's biggest advocate of the Triton. I use it for everything, glow drivers, rx, tx, li-poly, rc car packs, and at this very moment mine is charging a deep-cycle 1:1 12V car battery. It keeps track of the charge put in up to 99,000 mah, or 99 amp-hours, plus it senses battery health and adjusts the charge rate. It can actually revive weak batteries.


http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCJG7&P=ML

 

[GilBeQuick]

I also have the Triton. I picked it up a few weeks ago and it's the friggin bomb. For the money it's the best charger you can buy. Like Scott said, it does everything...NiCd, MiMh, LiPo, LiIon, Pb (lead acid aka gell cells), and every size cell out there that you would use, not just the normal sub-C's.

I highly reccomend it!

 

[RustlerDood]

I would also support the Triton recommendation.....huge 3rd! Mine is charging my gel cell as we speak!

 

[Lessen]

I love the search feature. I think I'm gonna be in the market for a good charger and I ran across this one online. Figured I'd see if anybody here had anything to say about it. Guess I've made my decision! kewl...

 

[bigfreak]

I have a $50 Superbrain 959. I won't sit here and tell you it's the best charger in the world, cause it's not. If you want to slow charge your batteries, it only goes down to 0.5 amps which is too fast. I use it that way anyway, but it's not idea. It does a real good job for me if I'm in the a hurry. I put it at 1 amp and it's done in a jiffy. It's never false peaked on me (so far). I can also plug it into my 12v car battery which is huge.

I'm thinking about maybe looking for a cheap wall adapter to slow charge my hump packs with (like I do my glow plugs and my starter box). The Triton would be great if I could bring myself to spend that much on it. I'm such a tight wad.

 

[RustlerDood]

triton!

 

[Plaidfish]

well I guess the triton is the poop....I was hoping someone would come back w/ a $50 variety but the triton it seesm would be the long term buy one and foret it charger.....thanks guys....another high dollar item to get for an already high dollar hobby....

OH CRAP I just noticed I need a 12V Power supply too.....you'd think they could make this w/ one in it....

 

[Lessen]

yeah, I know plaidfish... chalk up another 80-90 bucks! sheesh.. never ending ain't it?

 

[mcvickj]

You have a couple of options for a power supply. You can make one out of a computer power supply like scottm did. Link to post

Or you might be able to find a Cosel power supply on eBay. This is the option I went with. Here is a link to my post.

 

[MonsterCowpower]

Above $100 the Triton is THE choice if you do not want to spend a real fortune,in the very inexpensive the SuperBrain 969 is a good charger.

Have both,both work great.

 

[Rolex888]

I also have to agree with the others. The Triton is THE BEST charger for all your needs. I've had the MRC, The Reedy Quasar, Integy, DuraTrax, etc. I've tried a whole mess and nothing is more reliable, out-performing than the Triton charger. Only downside is that you have to purchase a separate power supply for it. But it's the best charger out there because it can charge and discharge almost anything. And it will also save your settings for different batteries that you have. I.e., you can save the charge setting for your Nimh and Nicad batteries if you have different charging and discharging settings that you use.

 

[Plaidfish]

MY LHS recommended the Duratrax Ice.....said for the money it's the best electronics you can get....the shop mngr runs only electric TC & 1/12s....all his ESC are Duratrax and he uses the Ice charger....does pretty good on race day too....anyone else try these chargers and what did you think? compred to the triton?
looking hard now at getting one for the electric RC collection seems to begrowing now too...

 

[Lessen]

It's nearly identicle to the Triton as far as features. I read an article on it recently. The only negative thing they had to say about it was it's lack of discharge speed.

 

[Plaidfish]

only people I've heard praise the quality of Duratrax electrics is my LHS....anyone else heard the quality of this stuff.....I've already resigned myself to the fact that I'll be dropping around 150 bucks on a charger and DC Power supply......but I want to make sure I'm getting quality and features I want......I use the slow chargers I have for what electrics I have now but I'm getting another mini-t and a TC3 soon so I know I can use a new charger......I think I'm getting the triton unless others can vouch for the quality of the Ice charger

 

[Lessen]

I'm still going witht the Triton because of it's popularity mostly. Nothing attests better than good old reputation.

 

[Plaidfish]

true I can agree to that....I ordered mine just now.....now I need to get a Power supply....what are the spec required for the DC power? I can probably order some industrial PS for cost from my job.....

 

[scottm]

You just need 5-10 amps at 12 to 13 volts. I use a converted computer power supply because its cheap, but radio shack, Frys electronics, and I heard home depot have ones that will work. Do no try to use a conventional automotive battery charger as they put out unfiltered and unregulated power.

 

[Plaidfish]

I asked my LHS today at lunch he said like 15amps?!?!?!!? WTF are these batts doing? that just sounded a lil high......I try not to second guess his advice there but sometimes it's hard not to..

 

[scottm]

If you are charging a 6 cell pack at 5 amps, the charger will draw less than 5 amps from the 12 v source. The pack will get to almost 10 v when it is chargeing, so 10v x 5a = 50 watts charger output. The charger will have to draw probably 60 watts to deliver 50 due to inefficiency, so the input power will be 60 watts/13v = 4.6 amps. The triton can charge up to 18 cells though, so in that case the output will be about 30v x 5 amps = 150 watts. The input required will be about 180 W with inefficiency, so 180/13 = 13.8 amps input draw. So the triton specs probably do recommend a 15 amp source, but you won't need that unless you are running multiple chargers or big packs.

In case you are wondering, the triton has an internal voltage step-up converter to allow it to put out higher charging voltage than the power source.