Lipos & chargers soon to be purchased – advice please!

[DomRC]

I’m shopping for a suitable lipo and charger to restart my club racing career….the batteries will be for a 2wd buggy (TBC which one!) and 7.5t motor. Searching through the threads it looks like a couple of stick packs between 3200 and 3800 and 25C upwards should be about right.. or could I get away with just one 5000mah and top it up?

As for chargers, I need a 12v/240v with balancer, but don’t want to fork out for a BC6… others from lrp, sigma etc seem to fit the bill, but why are they so much cheaper than the BC6 (just over half price?). Is it charging speed? If so what’s the difference time wise?

Cheers :)

[mark christopher]

bc6 has in built power supply and is the dogs danglies (you pay for what you get!!), two packs is better than one if time is limited as you have 10 mins extra (racing and marshalling ) where your second pack can still be on charge

[Medders]

Getting away with one pack is probably ok for the larger meetings where there are more heats and therefore time to charge between runs. I'm probably just going to go for one to start with, but I have some decent nimh packs I can use at club meetings if time is limited. As your starting from scatch may be best to go for two.

Charger is your choice, but you won't need anything that charges at more than 5 amps, which most should do.

[Chris Doughty]

the new LRP Quadra Pro charger is a great 12v/240v combined unit.

use it with the Trakpower balancer and you should be all set to go.

the Quadra Pro has 3 different profiles just like the Pulsar3, I have one set to 7.4v LiPo reciever pack, one of them for nmhi starter box batteries and the other one for 11.1v LiPo radio battery... easy!

[mark christopher]

dont forget the BC6 balances in one unit too!

[JCJC]

Are the lipos on the new list actualy in the shops ?

[Chris Doughty]

the LRP 5300 25c ones should be. we used them in the 24 hour race.

not sure about the 5300 LRP 40c ones

[JCJC]

I was just thinking - someone starting again, easy to pick up something not on the list, like the look of the lrp 4800 saddles my self, loads of power and locators in the base, would like to see a set in our D4 before parting with money tho. Guess at the end of the day, will have to go with what is available.

We use the BC6 to charge, balance - great charger, will balance all makes just need to match the balance connector - not as easy as it sounds.

[jim76]

the BC6 is briliant. I'm not sure you can get a mains/12v charger with balancer for much less? All the integrated balancing charger like the Core charger for £50 don't have mains.
And the LRP one will need a seperate balancer (another £35 and more spare/wires!)

The BC6 is a really nice compact little unit and will do anything. Also has easily available balancer plugs for all makes of cells which can be a real problem on other chargers unless you want to make some yourself.

[Medders]

The mains adaptor for the Core chargers costs less than £15 I think - or there must be plenty of second hand beefier power supplies kicking around for the same amount.

The Core charger has full balancing functions but no discharge capability, but if you have only have lipos there is no need to discharge anyway.

[colin563]

has anybody thought about 1 of these they seem excellent value for money

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ORION-ADVANTAGE-CLUBMAN-LIPO-ORI30126_W0QQitemZ250368329384QQihZ015QQcategoryZ1 40974QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksi dZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

[mark christopher]

I was just thinking - someone starting again, easy to pick up something not on the list, like the look of the lrp 4800 saddles my self, loads of power and locators in the base, would like to see a set in our D4 before parting with money tho. Guess at the end of the day, will have to go with what is available.

We use the BC6 to charge, balance - great charger, will balance all makes just need to match the balance connector - not as easy as it sounds.
its very easy, just but the correct lead and board from flightpower for your pack, ready made!!

[DomRC]

This has turned out to be a very helpful thread - thanks folks

Looks like the BC6 justifies its price well... now who can sell me one second hand?! :woot:

Now I just need someone to help me with my receiver / servo queries in my other (not so popular thread) - http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20022

:thumbsup:

[bald eagle]

Sorry to "butt" in... the bc6 charger talked about here, can someone confirm that the bc6 is the e station
bc6? not the cheaper rc power version of the same name???:confused:

[Bungleaio]

This is the Bantam

http://www.sloughrc.com/ProductImages/large/banbc6.jpg

This is the RC Power

http://electricrc.com.au/store/images/bc6.jpg

I've got the bantam one and it's never let me down

[mark christopher]

Sorry to "butt" in... the bc6 charger talked about here, can someone confirm that the bc6 is the e station
bc6? not the cheaper rc power version of the same name???:confused:

any of my references are to the Bantam one, not the cheap inferior one

[Chequered Flag Racing]

has anybody thought about 1 of these they seem excellent value for money

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ORION-ADVANTAGE-CLUBMAN-LIPO-ORI30126_W0QQitemZ250368329384QQihZ015QQcategoryZ1 40974QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksi dZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

I use to of the previous model for my LiPo

currently have it charging a TP32 saddle pack through the TP balancer and using a Pro-Trak to monitor the progress to use in another thread

[bald eagle]

I have a pro trak ver 11.18 20 amp.. I had a balancer to use with it, and xcouldnt get it to work.. (not sure the balancer was any good tbh). Do i need to input any specific settings to use a balancer to charge through the pro trak?

[Chequered Flag Racing]

I have a pro trak ver 11.18 20 amp.. I had a balancer to use with it, and xcouldnt get it to work.. (not sure the balancer was any good tbh). Do i need to input any specific settings to use a balancer to charge through the pro trak?

will let you know later when I've done using the PT to monitor LiPo's

which balancer was it you used?

[bald eagle]

UURM!!!! not sure mate tbh... i cost me £14.99.. tried all sorts of things on the charger, but it just wouldnt have it at all. Thinking of selling the pro trak now, just to get a lipo charger with balancer built in, save the messing around...?? (i'm annoyed really, pro trak after care is pants!!!, sent emails and phone calls etc, no response...??)

[Chequered Flag Racing]

will let you know later when I've done using the PT to monitor LiPo's

which balancer was it you used?

post a pic of it

[bald eagle]

I do believe it was one of the "black" prolux ones. I took it back to the shop, and got a refund. go to cml website and type in the search box lipo balancer.. you will see it there , top of the page...

[Chequered Flag Racing]

I have a pro trak ver 11.18 20 amp.. I had a balancer to use with it, and xcouldnt get it to work.. (not sure the balancer was any good tbh). Do i need to input any specific settings to use a balancer to charge through the pro trak?

no trickery to get it working,

here's my settings from PT with TP v-balancer

charge to 8.4v, 2 cell

amps from 3.5 with 0.5 cut-off

plugged the v-balance inline and away you go

maybe the one you tried was charger specific

[bald eagle]

no trickery to get it working,

here's my settings from PT with TP v-balancer

charge to 8.4v, 2 cell

amps from 3.5 with 0.5 cut-off

plugged the v-balance inline and away you go

maybe the one you tried was charger specific

Cant think of any other reason. Thanks for all your help ;)

[DomRC]

So I managed to get hold of a Bantam BC6 with trakpower 4900 lipo pack on ebay and am going to use it for the first time in the next couple of days (once my lipo bag arrives).. trakpower looks fine, and it came with balancing wires attached.

Just a couple of questions as my last experience of charging rc batteries was with nicads, using a nico charger with a clockwork dial on the front!! I have the instructions for the bantam, but they assume you already know the basics, and some of the translation from Korean is interesting....

1) I assume you connect it all up first, and then go through the menus before charging? I assume it won't just start charging when you connect

2) I've seen the other thread about problems with the BC6, so I'm hoping it doesn't overheat with my 4900

3) Can lipos discharge below the 6.0v if left without use for a long time, or do they hold their charge ok? I saw the BC6 has a storage charge function - what does that actually do to the cells?

4) Is the "fast charge" option 5.0 amps? Is that the one to use? I understand lipos aren't sensitive to charge speed like nimhs are.

5) Lastly - how does the internal 12v supply work? Does it charge up when plugged in to the mains? How much use can you get out of it at the club?

Sorry if any of the questions seem stupid, but i'm well out of the loop here and only ever charged with mains before.

Cheers! :thumbsup:

[jono83]

So I managed to get hold of a Bantam BC6 with trakpower 4900 lipo pack on ebay and am going to use it for the first time in the next couple of days (once my lipo bag arrives).. trakpower looks fine, and it came with balancing wires attached.

Just a couple of questions as my last experience of charging rc batteries was with nicads, using a nico charger with a clockwork dial on the front!! I have the instructions for the bantam, but they assume you already know the basics, and some of the translation from Korean is interesting....

1) I assume you connect it all up first, and then go through the menus before charging? I assume it won't just start charging when you connect
yes correct
2) I've seen the other thread about problems with the BC6, so I'm hoping it doesn't overheat with my 4900

3) Can lipos discharge below the 6.0v if left without use for a long time, or do they hold their charge ok? I saw the BC6 has a storage charge function - what does that actually do to the cells?
no they have an extremely low self discharge rate so this wont be a problem and storage function usuallly fills them about 80% full
4) Is the "fast charge" option 5.0 amps? Is that the one to use? I understand lipos aren't sensitive to charge speed like nimhs are.
recomended charge rate for lipos is 1c which would equal 4.9 on your trak power so using the 5amp charge will be fine
5) Lastly - how does the internal 12v supply work? Does it charge up when plugged in to the mains? How much use can you get out of it at the club?
when plugged in the croc clips become live with 12v so you could use them to power a soldering iron or summat but i would use them to power another charger

Sorry if any of the questions seem stupid, but i'm well out of the loop here and only ever charged with mains before.

Cheers! :thumbsup:


jono

[DomRC]

Cheers Jono,

I think I've missed the point on the 12v supply.. I thought it was a way to charge your cells when mains wasn't available... How do people normally charge their batteries at outdoor tracks? :confused:

[jono83]

by attaching them to a 12v battery or 12v power supply they are only live when using mains power

[Medders]

Outdoor you need a small genertor or a 12v leisure battery. I use the later cos this can be used indoors as well where mains power is limited. Should cost circa £60 from a caravan shop and i *think* your BC6 should be capable of charging it.

[jono83]

form what i can remeber you can use the bc6 to charge lead(pb) based batteries