Hey All,
Here is my challenge every time I want to go flying.
Work schedule and winds look good to go flying in the next day or 2.
I have a dual channel charger. It takes a full day to charge up 4 and or 8 batts.
That is “if” I can hang around all day and do nothing but monitor my charger.
It is a bit overwhelming to plug and unplug that many batts throughout the day, and I have to stay home to do it.
Then the weather turns bad or work schedule does not allow me to fly, and now I have to go through the long process of discharging batts, two at a a time.
My dream is to have 1 charger that plugs into 1 wall socket. That charger will have 4 channels with 4 balance boards. That charger will monitor all cells in all 4 batts. that charger will also discharge all 4 batts at the same time.
Buying another 2 batt charger is the logical decision.
However before I spend another $300 on another 2 channel charger
is there a charger that can meet my needs?
Thx
John
You can find chargers for 4 batteries, but then they will charge only with max 300 watt each channel.
I use two 30 A 1000 watt charger and from storage to full charge I need 30 minutes for two batteries.
I bulk charge them to 24.6 Volt (4.1 Volt each cell) without balancing and only balance charge the last 0.1 Volt.
My ISDT T8 balance charge with 2.5 A and the ISDT T6 with 1.5 A. The balance charging is what slows
the charging… When I bulk charge I control the cells with my cell voltage checker on the balance port.
I think the fastest/cheapest charging would be 4 x ISDT T6 (600 or 750 watt) or T8 with two power supply’s.
I bought for discharging the ISDT FD-200 200W Smart Discharger…
It can discharge with 25 A instead 2 A what most chargers do.
Same here I bulk discharge to storage voltage without balancing. And balance charge/discharge only
the last 0.1 Volt for storage voltage.
You can discharge 4 batteries to storage mode in 90 minutes…
Meanwhile I bulk charge or discharge only, since I use two 1A active balancer.
Incredible how much more effective and faster the active balancing works instead the passive balancing from regular chargers.
The active balancer needs 90 seconds to balance 0.1 Volt difference from cells since it discharges the highest cell’s and charges the lowest cell instead discharging all cells to the lowest cell’s voltage. I will
install them fixed to my battery pack since they work as well under load and occupy only the balance port.
Chris,
Thanks for taking the time to post this…
I learned a lot;
Charge 1st and balance at the end.
I flew at both Oshkosh and Sun n Fun and it is quite a challenge charging in the field.
Thx again,
John
It’s not necessary to discharge the packs to storage level again when you’re able to fly again in the next week or so.
When you decide you’re able or going to fly you can charge the packs on forehand to 4,1V and top them up right before your flight.
Parallel charging is a possibility if you don’t want to plug/unplug several packs. Just make sure the packs have minimal difference in voltage before you connect them in parallel.
If you really want to discharge I would recommend one of the high end Ichargers. They have a regenerative discharge function.
@Chris, can you please provide more info about the active balancer(s) you’re using?
About 20 years ago I bought a high end charger from the German company Schulze.
I upgraded the software for Li-… but the charger has no balancing function so I didn’t really use it afterwards.
They had a for that time rare active balancer too but I could never lay my hands on one.
Thanks in advance!
I use 6 batteries you could do this with 4 and preset each charger to exactly what you need. I’m going to make a dedicated circuit with a 6 gang box that can handle the full power of my Solar inverter at 3.6kw. I’ll able to charge 6 batteries all of the same outlet all at 25 amps each
I also had a lipo fire charging with a bonka (insane). So, after a period of not flying for fear of charging now I’ve built a bunker and feel safe enough to leave them charging while I go back to sleep early in the morning to fly when the sun comes up.