How A Balance Charger Works...

[Greywolf74]

Skip to 6:08 in the video. He does an excellent job of explaining it.

 

[majin]

thanks for that!!

 

[CertifiedMike]

Thank you!

 

[Lumikko]

I didn’t skip and found the single-cell charging lead to be a rather neat trick. He’s also nice to listen to!

 

[Greywolf74]

I didn’t skip and found the single-cell charging lead to be a rather neat trick. He’s also nice to listen to!

I kinda thought the same thing at first but I'm never in that much of a hurry so its probably not worth the effort to me personally. Nice trick if you need it though.

 

[Lumikko]

Yeah it’s better to have enough batteries so you don’t really need this. A proper charger also has a high discharge rate so the balancing doesn’t take ages.

For someone with a basic charger and fewer batteries, this could save a lot of waiting.

 

[WickedFog]

Yeah it’s better to have enough batteries so you don’t really need this. A proper charger also has a high discharge rate so the balancing doesn’t take ages.

For someone with a basic charger and fewer batteries, this could save a lot of waiting.

Just to clarify, since we get a lot of new folks looking for chargers, it is the balance current you really need to pay attention to with regards to how fast a charger will finish the balance cycle. A lot of mediocre chargers only have 1200mAh balance current or less. The better chargers will have a higher balance current.

 

[Littlemotor]

Yep. And this is the number one number people DON’T pay attention to when purchasing their chargers lol..

 

[RustyUs]

Just to clarify, since we get a lot of new folks looking for chargers, it is the balance current you really need to pay attention to with regards to how fast a charger will finish the balance cycle. A lot of mediocre chargers only have 1200mAh balance current or less. The better chargers will have a higher balance current.

Years ago, when I went to replace my "better" Ultrapower charger (shown below) that was "better" than my other charger... I found a lot of chargers fell in the 300~400mAh range current drain/balancing current.

Those racing breed names like Protek and Reedy screen printed onto OEM chargers to sell them faster... they were lacking in power department as well. This was when I went on the search for what makes the junsi iChargers so great, and how I learned about CC/CV part of LiPo battery balancing process. But even the iCharger 308duo (was going to be the last charger that I ever bought) drain/balance current is 1.2A... why I ended up buying a D6... ultimately the H6 Pro.

 

[WickedFog]

Years ago, when I went to replace my "better" Ultrapower charger (shown below) that was "better" than my other charger... I found a lot of chargers fell in the 300~400mAh range.
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Those racing breed names like Protek and Reedy screen printed onto OEM chargers to sell them faster... they were lacking in power department as well. This was when I went on the search for what makes the junsi iChargers so great, and how I learned about CC/CV part of LiPo battery balancing process. But even the iCharger 308duo (was going to be the last charger that I ever bought) drain/balance current is 1.2A... why I ended up buying a D6... ultimately the H6 Pro.

Yeah, some of the high end ones nowadays have really good balance circuits in them. Like 2A per channel. I don't forsee me ever outgrowing the D6 Pro on AC, but at least I can move to DC and it would be a decent upgrade. But 2A balance current sure would spped things up, so who knows.

Maybe if my kid gets into racing some day I'll up my game. But I would kinda like to get a badass PSU like @Greywolf74 has now and grab one of the high end iChargers so I can keep the tiny Hota at my workbench, because I love the power supply feature of it for powering servo testors and such. I charge my batteries on my Kennedy toolbox, away from my bench, and that means carting the Hota back and forth.

 

[Greywolf74]

Yeah, some of the high end ones nowadays have really good balance circuits in them. Like 2A per channel. I don't forsee me ever outgrowing the D6 Pro on AC, but at least I can move to DC and it would be a decent upgrade. But 2A balance current sure would spped things up, so who knows.

Maybe if my kid gets into racing some day I'll up my game. But I would kinda like to get a badass PSU like @Greywolf74 has now and grab one of the high end iChargers so I can keep the tiny Hota at my workbench, because I love the power supply feature of it for powering servo testors and such. I charge my batteries on my Kennedy toolbox, away from my bench, and that means carting the Hota back and forth.

A good quality charger and power supply are the one thing that people should really spend a bit of money on, imho. The difference between a high quality charger and cheap Chinese 4 button charger is worlds apart.

 

[BudUMfan]

 

[RustyUs]

Yeah, some of the high end ones nowadays have really good balance circuits in them. Like 2A per channel. I don't forsee me ever outgrowing the D6 Pro on AC, but at least I can move to DC and it would be a decent upgrade. But 2A balance current sure would spped things up, so who knows.

Maybe if my kid gets into racing some day I'll up my game. But I would kinda like to get a badass PSU like @Greywolf74 has now and grab one of the high end iChargers so I can keep the tiny Hota at my workbench, because I love the power supply feature of it for powering servo testors and such. I charge my batteries on my Kennedy toolbox, away from my bench, and that means carting the Hota back and forth.

That's exactly what I thought, but currently my Hota D6, with DC input, is holding me back... while charging 2S LiPo packs non the less.

 

[WickedFog]

That's exactly what I thought, but currently my Hota D6, with DC input, is holding me back... while charging 2S LiPo packs non the less.

Yeah, it's a good entry level charger. Has plenty of headroom for folks like me if I wanted to go DC. But if you charge at higher C rates on big packs any charger in that price range will show its limitations, unless you go with DC only.

 

[Greywolf74]

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Fixed it for ya

 

[Greywolf74]

View attachment 220022

Now I see what you meant this for.... I fixed it again just for you to use, and I must say as a Buckeye, this was incredibly difficult to make. I think I threw up in my mouth at least 3 times!

Let me know if you'd like me to tweak anything for ya.

 

[BudUMfan]

Thanks bro. That’s pretty nice of ya… knowing we hate each other! I love it. Except the body clips.

 

[RustyUs]

Skip to 6:08 in the video. He does an excellent job of explaining it.

I don't think all LiPo chargers work the same as shown in that video.... the part that talks about the charger balancing the other cells once a cell reaches the end voltage.