Lipos & chargers soon to be purchased – advice please!

[Chequered Flag Racing]

Originally Posted by 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]

Originally Posted by 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?

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]

Originally Posted by Chequered Flag Racing

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!

[jono83]

Originally Posted by 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
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!

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?

[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