Just bought a Bantam BC6, question about balance boards

[Steve-O]

Just bought this charger to replace my old old Apache 2500 and Polyquest PCM guard lol

Anyway, I need to be able to charge 2 and 3 cell Polyquest / Hyperion Lipos and from the looks of it Bantam dont use the standard universal style balance boards.

The charger does come with a Bantam balance cable for 2s lipo but unsure of the make.

I have Polyquest Male / Female connectors and from the looks of balance boards all they do is link the required pins to the pins on the charger.

Hyperion / PQ 2 and 3 cell packs use the same balance adaptor (just one less wire) So my question is, can I not wire a new connector upto the Bantam balance adaptor thats with my bantam? Seems silly paying £10 for a board when I have connectors sitting here...

Does anyone have the pinout / wiring diagram of the Bantam port?

This shows you how simple these balance boards are, look at the tracks joining them -



Oh and another question, Is this a good charger?

Thanks

[Steve-O]

bookmarked this site, should help - http://sites.google.com/site/tjinguy...ce-connectors/

[ianjoyner]

Yes it is just a case of connecting the right pins up, but take care with the BC6, the first two pins of the connector are both negative (rather than -ve then +ve of first cell). There is a diagram in the manual:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct...DmKlcxEjQNhDSg

[dale]

The Bantam is a fantastic charger. It's the original high-quality charger that all of the current HK clones copied. Unlike a lot of the cheap clones it's calibrated properly so won't overcharge and puff your cells up.

As for balancing, no board is needed, its just a matter of connecting the pins up correctly. Then you just have a lead which looks a lot tidier.

[Big paul]

If you Have j u s t plugs on your battery have a look on Giant cods site for j u s t balance board for both 2s+3s in one board.£3 tops .

[Steve-O]

Thanks, looks easy from looking at the manual.

Will look at the other site as well but if I can make it I will just do that

I was wondering what that extra wire did... Seems strange how they connect two upto the negative at the end, is there a reason or is it just to make you buy their board and not one from ebay that fits all??

[Steve-O]

Balance lead made and tested and all works fine

Selected Balance mode and the individual cell readings were showing, tested with 2 cell and 3 cell

Im guessing this charger will detect when a battery is fully charged wont it and not just over charge it.

[traffman]

Ive owned my Bantam charger for nigh on 3 years and its been fantastic , just set it to balance charge stick in your cell capacity and it will charge and cut off , no overcharging involved.

[Steve-O]

excellent so says its my 2s 1300mah 1/18th Minizilla pack. I just, hook it up, select Lipo Balance, set it to 1.3 amp and hold start button for 3 seconds, confirm its 2s pack and away it goes. It will detect when pack is full and cut off.

I will be reading the instructions as well but like to make double sure with people who have used this charger before as we all know Lipos are not the worlds safest cell type when it comes to charging problems

thanks

[mark christopher]

yup but you need to select charge or balance in the menu, dont panic when the amps drop its normal and they charge on constant volt, not amps

[Steve-O]

yea, thats what I didnt do yesterday when testing my cable lol, I didnt think it was working and then noticed I had it set to Charge and not Balance Charge.

Balance charged an old 2s and 3s pack and both charged perfectly fine with no problems and both had same voltage reading across cells so im happy. Cant go wrong at £34 posted for a quality mains ready charger! its virtually brand new. Might be time to retire the old Apex Sigma + Charger now seen as this does virtually everything...