Best damn balance charger I ever had
 

I've used Novak, Competition Electronics, MRC, Hyperion, Thunder Power, Revolektrix. The BC168 balance charger charges 1 to 6S at up to 8 amps through the balance tabs only. It also discharges and is super adjustable. It's like six separate and precise 1S chargers in one package that will charge your packs in a hurry at cell level. So there's no bleeding off of voltage on the cells that charged faster while the others are catching up during a balance mode that can take hours and WILL damage your batteries. This thing charges real quick and does not damage the cells. Find them on ebay at under $80 each and try to find free shipping. Comes with a parallel harness and a temp probe.

http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_124483_1.jpg

looks like a good one. I've always used cheap chinese chargers with good results.

Here is a link to the DealExtreme product, but as said by mistercrash ebay is another very valid option. DX has free shipping, but it's usually pretty slow.

http://dx.com/p/bc168-1-6s-8000ma-20...charger-124483

So you just charge through the balance tab? That is it? You don't have to plug in the actual deans/traxxas/etc. connector in? Is that safe?

It's safer. Keeping the cells balanced ensures individual cells are not damaged and balancing prolongs pack life. This is like a separate smart charger for each cell instead of 1 charger for a whole pack.

It's like 8 mechanics for your cars v-8. 1 for each cylinder instead of 1 guy in charge of everything.

Not sure how many amps i'd want to put via the balance wires though... 8amps seems like alot

I agree with Arct1k; most balance wires/connectors are good for around 1.5-2A max. The wire size and connector type have relatively high resistance due to their size, so when you start pumping higher currents through them, you get more voltage drop across the wires/connectors. This would cause the charger to think the cells are at a lower voltage than they really are and could overcharge them as a result.

However, this type of charger is a really good idea IMO, but only if the wires where changed to something like 18GA and then a use different higher-current connector.

You can all agree with everything that anyone who never used this charger as to say. I have been using two of them on a daily basis for the past 4 weeks to recharge my 20S20P, 74V 30Ah battery in my E-Moped and the balance tabs barely become warm. My battery can be separated into four 5S packs fast so I recharge two 5S and then the other two 5S.
Even doing it that way is faster than using two Hyperion 1420i to recharge all at once or two Cellpro 10S to recharge all at once because they always go into a balance charge mode that tries to equalize 30Ah cells with each other at less than 1 amp :no:

Once the charge is done, I checked the voltage of each cell with my Fluke and they all are below 4.205V so no over charging going on here. I did this for the first 5 charges just to find out if the chargers are consistant and they are. That is with the chargers adjusted to charge at 4.2V per cell. That is adjustable to a lower voltage if needed.

So hypothesize all you want, I know what I got and I know it works well :na: :intello: Just wanted to share.

Can you charge more than one pack at a time with this?

if you made a series or parallel adapter sure.

edit:
after actually looking at the product on DX:

http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_124483_3.jpg

Would you look at that, already set up to charge multiple packs at once. That is pretty nice.

edit2:

mistercrash: Does this have a storage charge/discharge option? (found answer, yes.)

edit3: I see that you can manually set what voltage you want it to charge/discharge to, cool.

Check out the end of this video, made me laugh.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bv0U92W8FMY" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

I think you missed what BrianG was saying. The final voltage will be reasonably accurate but when 3+ amps is charging through the tap that's when the cell could be over done. As the charger eases off at the end of the charge the resistance of the wire and connectors will have nil effect and the cell voltage can be read accurately.

I get it you like this charger and I'm not trying to speak out of turn, just seemed like a bit of misunderstanding:smile:

You could charge multiple packs in series up to 6s (6 total cells) and still reap the benefits of this charger.

Any parallel charging would negate the benefits of individual cell monitoring.

Like panda said, Art1ck and Brian were just pontificating and stating facts about electricity.

They said nothing negative of the charger itself, and we all agree individual cell monitoring/charging is the safest and most beneficial to the battery pack.

You're right, they're right, we're all right, just sharing knowledge.

Lol, watched the video, it looks as if you could do two (or more) packs at the same time. At $80.00 two chargers is still less than one Hyperion duo.

But the whole point of this charger is individual cell monitoring. Yes in the video he paralleled a lot of packs, but again, that negates any advantage of this charger.

If you"re going to parallel charge a $30 hobby king charger will do the job just as well as anything else.

Well that's pretty obvious, my point is if I want to go to the track and charge two 5s packs at the same time, then two of these chargers is still less than one Hyperion Duo and I get the magical cell monitoring which must be better than my current duo has been for last five+ years. So if my Hyperion Duo ever dies I may look at two of these.

Can the terminal voltage be increased as well as lowered? When racing I charge to 4.23v/cell on my current charger and wouldn't want to lose the ability to do so. I had a GT power GT8 which wasn't adjustable and charged to a stated 4.2v/cell but it was inaccurate and that 4.2v was actually 4.185v, when I got a replacement for it I found that there was quite a few extra mAh to be had in the difference between 4.185 and 4.23v/cell, the maximum allowed in the rules I race to.

You mentioned being faster than cellpro 10s chargers, but I thought the cellpro chargers charged the cells individually through the balance leads in the same way, is that not the case? I have 8s packs that I need to charge and was thinking of going with a cellpro 10 so I could charge them quickly whilst other stuff is charging rather than splitting into 4s and taking up both ports of my current charger.

The BC168 is adjustable from 1.5V per cell to 4.2V per cell. It won't go over 4.2V. But it does get the cells up to the voltage you set it at.

From what I understand, on most chargers like the Cellpro 10, the balance leads are plugged in just to monitor the cells and to slowly discharge the high ones while the low ones catch up during a sometimes long balance cycle.

I'm thinking that your GT Power GT8 did actually charge your cells to 4.2V but they simply got down to 4.18V quickly after the charge is done. Cells that are a bit tired because of repeated over charge might do that.

No, it's just a cheap Chinese charger with poor quality control, they hadn't calibrated the internal voltmeter before it left the factory and it was reading slightly high. It's just a cheap Chinese charger with poor quality control, they hadn't calibrated the internal voltmeter before it left the factory and it was reading slightly high. Voltages were measured immediately after charging completed so any self discharge was negligible, and that was the only charger I had charged the packs with, so they had been undercharged repeatedly not overcharged ever, it was only when I put a calibrated voltmeter on it and realised it was undercharging that I bought a replacement charger for it with an adjustable terminal charge voltage.

Because of inaccurate chargers like this, and that for every charger that reads high and charges low like mine did, there is probably one that reads low and charges high. LiPos are speced to 4.2v/cell +/-0.05v

4.23v/cell will reduce cycle life over 4.2v, just as 4.2v over 4.1v does, but also gives more mAh and is within LiPos spec and the rules I race to, I wouldn't do it to my sport packs as I want to last forever, but there are better race packs out every year that pretty much force an upgrade at least every other year so race pack cycle life is not so important. I wouldn't mind betting that if everyone registered on here measured their voltages someone would be charging at least 4.23v/cell due to an inaccurate charger with a nominal 4.2v/cell.

I have used a hobby king 4s charger like this for years. Basically charges each cell by itself just like this one, however it has no screen or any other bells/whistles. Many of the maxamps packs I reconfigured went on this charger to get them balanced, as using a std charger would take hours. Mine only goes up to 2 amps, but can do multiple packs up to 4s total. And it was 20 bucks. I might have to buy one of these bc168...

My first lipo charger was just like that. The brand I had disappeared and it became venom branded. I just don't see them nowa days.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1400074

Brian, unless I'm just tired right now, having the charger recharge the pack through the balance leads would read a HIGHER that actual voltage, then you would have a skewed CV phase than normal, but in the end the voltage of each cell would be spot on the money as current tapers off.

BTW, where did you buy this charger Mister?

ebay, many sell them. The prices vary a bit, watch out for the shipping fees, some are just outrageous. Brainanator linked one BC168 at deal extreme for $80 with free shipping, second post up there.

Best Damn charger! Thanks master crasher.

I bought this charger only on the strength of this thread. I have used it only once (tonight). I used it to charge a 6s A123 pack that's been sitting on the shelf for months. The cells measured about 3.4v each, it's usually about that point when my current charger slows right up to balance the cells (it takes ages). My packs are made up of reclaimed cells from disfunctional dewalt packs so balancing is essential.

I charged them up at 6A (yes I know what was said earlier). I swear it was only a minute or two before the charger stopped. Highly sceptical, I plugged the battery into my battery checker. One cell read 3.61 and one 3.59 and the rest were smack on 3.60 :surprised: If it keeps performing without issue then this will be the best damn balance charger I ever had:great:

Exactly what I though. It's an awesome idea, I was wishing chargers did that a two months ago when i bought a new one. I only hope that the balance leads have thick wire for the batteries that can take it :mdr:

I better get me self one then!

Actually, wouldn't the fact that the battery has the same wire and connection on both sides of the circuit make the resistance the same in front and behind the charger making the voltage read lower and lower when the internal resistance of the charger goes closer to zero (aka a high rate of charge)? In a since it's making a voltage divider circuit.

http://i44.tinypic.com/30wtv6g.jpg

In this case the outer 2 resistances are the connectors/wires and the middle is the charger. But in all honesty, I doubt the wires have enough resistance to really matter enough considering that Lipo batteries can actually go slightly over 4.2v per cell. They just cut it at 4.2 for safety and most chargers are programed to read a just slightly higher voltage than actual so in production, the resistor values put in it don't have to be super extreme tolerances to still be safe.

Just my two cents and theory from what little electrical engineering know how I have.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say. But I mentioned this before... say for instance you charge the cells at maximum 8amp, it's charging, it's charging, then nearing 4.2 volts, the charger would 'see' 4.2 volts, but the potential at the cell would be more like say, 4.17 volts, this is because of the losses in the small balance wire. Now, the current begins to fall, and as it's falling, the 'voltage losses' in the length of wire becomes less and less, so for example once it drops to 4 amps, the charger still 'sees' 4.2 volts, but now the cell is sitting at around 4.185 volts. This will continue until it approaches fully charged and the current drops to such a level where the charger voltage and cell voltage are indistinguishable, as the voltage losses are so minute.

Seems correct to me zero, the higher resistance should make the voltage appear higher at higher current.

I now realize my post didn't make much since, sorry.

BTW, yes, I just now saw your post...I loose thread all the time on here for some reason lol

I just replaced my ICE with a Hitec X4-Eighty. It has 4 separate outputs that charge 1-6S and have balance capability. The charger only comes with 1 balance board of each type, so I bought a couple additional ones that match up to the batteries I have.

There's also a temp sensor port for each output (but the sensors must be purchased separately).

The one drawback is that each output only has 80watts of output capability, so if you're charging a 6S pack you're limited to around 3 amps, so it will take a little longer. All of my packs are 2S and 3S (soon to have a few 4S packs) so this was not an issue for me.

http://hitecrcd.com/products/charger...harger/product

I looked at the X4-eighty for a long time looking to buy it, then for what I have, I bought the iCharger 106B+ since it was $80 and could do 10amps even with a 6S. Works very well, much much much better than my old super brain 989 that i bought when it came out 7 or so years ago...lol

Nice charger.