Li-po charger

[delanobe]

Hi,

As Li-po is making his way in the Rc world I'm wondering what charger would do the job best?

Thanks in advance!

[markwilliamson2001]

Any LiPo specific charger will do, so long as it uses the CC/CV method. However, there are more expensive ones, that do both LiPo and NIMH/NiCd. I used a robitronic overloader (as recommended by a few), but it ruined by battery as it was faulty. I can thoroughly recommend using a balancer (A MUST HAVE ITEM really), as I didn't use one, and am waiting for a new battery from Trakpower, and also my faulty charger to be returned.

HTH
Mark

[Zedman]

I use my Ripmax pro peak Mercuary Ex charger that I bought years ago for my model planes, it runs off a car battery, can be set for Lead Acid,NiCads, NiMH, LiPo, is totaly setable for number of cells ( 1 to 25 ), charge rate, discharge rate, number of cycles, has auto or manual mode and a nice LCD display so you can monitor every thing, ie how many MiAh you have shoved into the battery, also you can get any model shop to make leads to fit any battery pack. max charge rate is 5amp

[mark christopher]

Can strongly recomend the trakpower charger/balancer combo here www.trakpower.co.uk

[Ian Wall]

I would agree with what Mark stated above. TrakPower equipment is in my opinion far superior than a lot of other. In the model aircraft/helicopter world their parental company called FlightPower are very experienced and have been involved with LiPo power and equipment for a long time.

Additionally to what Mark suggested above, subject to your budget, at just under £100, (approximately £30 more than what Mark suggested) and is what I have been using for some time is what I would recommend. It is what FlightPower use themselves in their Technical/Testing/Repair Departments. It is called the Bantam e-STATION BC6 Charger. It has dual powered input, either AC mains or DC battery and has a built in Balancer amongst many of its numerous features.

A link to this product is here:
http://www.flighttechdistribution.co.uk/index.asp?page=Products/Chargers/Bantam/bc6.asp

I would also recommend that you purchase it from an organisation that are knowledgeable about LiPos and can provide you with honest and accurate information. I have used here and found them to totally experienced and would not hesitate to recommend them.

Unfortunately, when it comes to LiPos, there are so many old wives tales regurgitated and the amount of rubbish that I have heard authoritatively stated about them is unbelievable. I was lucky that my LiPo experience was learnt in the model aircraft/helicopter world that has already gone through the introductory teething problems that the electric RC Car world is currently experiencing. (rant over!)
Ian