Chargers

[Bravedan 106]

Chargers are a bit like cars, nobody usually admits to buying a bad one!

 

However, I thought I'd start a thread based on my experiences based on eight years intensive use. Remember, apart from my own frequent use, the School Club I run demands that I spend a considerable amount of time every week using them.

 

So, do I list by battery type, chip type, or manufacturer? Either has its drawbacks, so I'll go with make, though even that has traps like where some are imported and "badged", to look different but not be!

 

Firstly, some reasoning behind what I have. Some of them are with me by chance (I inherited two from a friend), some through choice. I don't like the multi way built in designs, its an all eggs in one basket thing that as an engineer you quickly learn is not a good idea!

 

Graupner

 

Supposed when I bought to be the Rolls Royce of chargers.........the bigger ones retail well over £100, but read on. I have two, an Ultramat 16 and a Ultramat 10.

 

The 16 was at the time bought top end, with the ability to pass data to a PC. This bit was the usual pain to set up, poorly described, unwieldy installation, and though sold as a feature, even uses unsupported "freeware" written by a third party!! Frankly unless your greasy anorak has Thunderpower and Hyperion badges all over it....and you are designing Formula 1 Energy Recovery systems....forget it!

 

There being basically only two chip types, this one has the type where with LiPo you need to enter the capacity of the cell pack. It self senses the number of cells per pack. It's Mains/12v, usually used Mains. The Power lead comes out in an awkward place to keep it out of the way, and it skids around in use, but at least the balancing connections are on a fly lead and sets are provided for the various types.

 

In use, the fan is quite noisy, and cycles in and out. It's a safety feature to have to enter the capacity, but a pain in the derriere when you are charging a lot of differing size cell packs at the same current, and the button sequence is awkward.

 

The worst "feature" however is that it (and the smaller 12v only 10 I inherited) have a tendency to end charge on "Battery Voltage Too High". (I assume this is a failure that it thinks it cannot balance properly, but as this error wipes the on screen and recorded data, I cannot be sure!)

This is commonplace it seems, as forum posts have revealed lots of people get this with cell packs with this charger. Because I have lots of chargers, I know that these same well balanced cell packs charge OK with no complaint on other chargers. I have written to Graupner twice, but they choose to ignore my letters.

 

The 10 has a very small display that like the 16 is unlit and difficult to see well unless up close.

 

My recommendation............AVOID!

 

 

 

XCharger B606

 

A 12v only unit, I power this (and others) from a small near silent 10A Perkins PSU. It is quiet, easy to use, and best of all has a good clear lit display and sensible sized buttons. I could have bought four of these small units and a PSU for the price of the Ultramat 16!! Being 12v only means a small case and this is sensibly laid out so they fit together well on a charging bench. So pleased I bought two more.

 

More on the others later....................

[alan 0]

I still use a pro-peak prodigy. I've used it many times for nickel, lithium and lead batteries, but it doesn't do LiFeP04, and is limited to 5 Li cells.

[arun 0]

CellPro PL6 - highly recommended. I have had mine for the last couple of years and it has been excellent. Can deliver 1000W of power if you give it 24V supply or 500W on 12V. I modified a computer PSU to supply necessary current for less than £20.

 

Very configurable with a big memory for different batteries. Can connect to the computer to graph (and record for later) internal resistance, capacity etc. Not cheap, but if you have large/expensive batteries I think this is a good investment. It also has software for parallel charging and a nicely set of daisy-chain balance leads for use in this process that are individually fused.

 

http://www.revolectrix.com/pl6_description_tab.htm