new charger?
 

does any charger tell you how many mah's are in the cells before you start charging/discharging?

I also want something thats a bit future proof and does lipo, + discharging/matching.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Impossible. Like telling how much fuel is in a car without looking at the fuel gauge.

I think the only charger in the RC car market at the moment that can do NiMH and Lipo cells with a discharge/cycle function is the Orion Advantage Lipo version. Never used one myself though so couldn't comment on it.

much more
robitronics and the propeak copy
protak
to name a few
the new lipo balancer from Trakpower tell you how much is in the lipo packs

I have a advantage version 2 its a really good charger. And you can find out how much you have put into it. And its very very very good for the price and i think it is easily the best charger on the market.


A

You have obviously never tried a Pro-trak then :rolleyes:

I have an old pro-peak charger (upto 7amps) and discharger (only 3amps...) but it has a full digital readout of what's going on (ie mah's put into cells, cell voltage, supply voltage, time, etc) and it does lipo as well. I think this is made by ripmax? I bought second hand 1 year ago and it seems like a good buy to me:)

there good but not kind to nimh cells

You could wait and get the new Pulsar 3 which does Lipo and NiMH, discharges, motor break in mode(can also be used for powering a laith) and pack matching.

aww, how useful would that be!!! why do duracell have a yellow guage up the side when you press both ends then !!! :D

So guess I'm looking at 3 chargers then

LRP Pulsar 3 (when's it out?...I cant see anything on the website)
Pro-Trak
advantage 2

I like the idea of linking the pro-trak to the laptop, but thats about as far as my preferences go atm

The Pulsar 3 was on show at the Nuremburg toy fair and I belive it will be out some time in March.

I have had the Protrak charger and it is a very good chager. I liked the 30amp discharge facility, but of all of the features on it, how many will you actually use?

Where as with the LRP or Orion chargers you will find that you use all of the features on a regular basis.

I personally would go for the LRP charger but I am slightly biased;)

If i am correct the pular3 is pretty much the same as the advantage 2 and i dont get why people use protraks there Huge. And the advantage looks cool with its carbon fibre look.

A

I'm looking for a charger at the moment, i've looked at much more cell master and the pulsar 2. Anyone got any suggestions on these 2:confused: .
Are there any links for pics of the pulsar 3?
Cheers!!

I've got a propeak elite (the copy of the robitronics overloader) and it's a brilliant bit of kit, so good in fact that 1 of the guys who works with me (who used to drive tractors for a living and runs away screaming like a little girl if you show him a calculator :rolleyes:) has bought one. I've used it with all sorts of batteres, lithium (via a flightpower v-balancer), transmitter packs, receiver packs, you name it. I've found a setting on it to limit the charge to a percentage of the capacity of the pack, so after racing in the evening I plug my batteries in, hit the cycle button, and the charger automatically drains the pack, gives it a few minutes to cool down, then charges it up to 30% storage capacity. I've revived a few supposedly dead batteries with it as well, by cycling them at a high discharge current. Thumbs up from me. :D
-Steve

pulsar all day long

Thanks for that!!!!!

The LiPo function on the much more cell master isnt great. It charges at a maximum of 1amp, so you're never going to use it to charge a main LiPo pack unless you are very very very patient. As for charging transmitter LiPo packs, you'll want a balancer to go with it.

If you're serious about going LiPo sometime, you can consider a charger with a built-in balancer like the Bantam e-station BC5, BC6 or BC8. Some people like plugging in a separate balancer and then charging with a non-balancing charger (like the Orion Advantage) but you get more info (mah that's gone into each cell so far) with the balancer chargers, which is kind of cool. It's also a very easy way to charge every charge as a balanced charge. :)