Super Brain 989 Thoughts and Opinions
 

I see mike is stocking the new super brain. I was wondering what peoples thoughts was on it. Here is link.
http://www.rc-monster.com/proddetail...MRC_989&cat=19

Has any one tried it out yet? If so what is thoughts and opinions?

I would love to know considering my charger don't work well
i get a message either voltage too high, or voltage too low, can it just charge or what!

i am going to get one soon (how much do you think i could sell a ICE charger and power supply for?) maybe in the next 2 weeks i could tell you then............

What I'm curious about is if it can charge 8s Lipo at 10amps. It doesn't state a maximum current for Lipos, but I would assume 10amps is the max.

i noticed that too. thought it was weird considering you need to know that to charge at certain rates right?

And even if it does state a lipo charge current rating, most chargers have a power limit...

Neweuser: I wouldn't discount the charger. Something may be up with the batts. I would talk to the place where you got the batteries and charger and see what they say. They might want to check them out personally. You'd almost have to put a known good set of batteries on the charger and see what it does, or put your batts on a known good charger.

Well, the charger won't charget he Nimh's from my girls truck that well either. But will see what i can do. Most of buddies here run Nitro! :( But we will see! It just seems weird that both packs i have do the same thing. What are the chances both packs are not well put together? They are from maxamps and should be good!

@metal, that was the first thing i was thinking about too. it would take about 320 watts to get it done on 8S.

Mine can charge 10S at 3.75-4A

It would be impressive if it can do 10A at 10S

I have had the 989 for a bout 2 weeks now. Got it at my LHS. I have actually been waiting for this to come out.

So far so good. I can charge my 3s+2s(5s) 8000mah packs no problem at 8A using a series Y adapter. Its simple to use and pretty dummy proof. You dont even need the instructions (but I recomend reading and understanding anyway). Basically you select battery type(lipo,NiCD,NiMH,LeadAcid), battery capacity(mah), Cell count, Charge Rate(A) and hit start. Super simple. I tryed setting it for the wrong cell count just to see if it was smart enough and it gave me an out of voltage error and told me to check the cell count.

I gotta say, so far I really like it. Huge improvement from the 977 I was using.

It comes with a nice compact 10A powers supply that seems to work great, but I have been useing it on my bench power supply or a car battery in the field.

So far the most user friendlt charger I have tryed that can charge just about any battery.

What does the manual say about the maximum amount of power it can charge with? (the watts?)

Also, it comes with the power supply????????????? I'm sold! No interruptions in charging? I'm sold! What about a balancer, which one do you use if any?

I use a Graupner, which is great, because it's an inline balancer, which charges the pack thru the main leads, unlike most other balancers.

I use the LBA6 right now. I am looking to get a LBA10. I think the LBA 10 charges throught the main leads while balancing through the taps as well.

I'll have to look at the manual when I get home tonight. Im at work now.

i think i can mod my lba6 to do that. i wonder if i should do the mod and try the charger that way? Got a pic on how to hook it up that way to the charger? Does one end plug into the charger, then the other end hook to the series adaptor or batts, then plug the taps into the balancer? This way, the charge won't go thru the balancer taps and melt them?

too funny, i'm at work as well!

I want to go to the LBA 10 so I can charge at a higher rate than 6A also. The LBA10 can handle 10 amps and 6s packs.

BTW: here is a link to the 989 manual. http://www.modelrectifier.com/resour...989_manual.pdf

That sounds good. I'm sending the Hyperion back. :( the good news is, i'll be gettign the 989. i hope this helps my issues!

Too bad the lipo has got a 1.25C charge/discharge maxximum.

I hear you on the discharge limit for lipo, but I don't really use that feature. (Thats what my truck is for.:005: )

On the 1.25c lipo charge limit, I don't really plan on pushing my packs harder than that in the charger anyway. Lipos are expensive. No reason to shorten the life by charging at a higher than recomended rate. Under an hour for a fully charged 8000mah 5s pack is good for me. I am used to a 3A (MRC977) limit and 2.5 hour charge times.

I use mostly 8000mah packs, so the 10A becomes the limit for me anyway.

Like any product, there are thing that you wish you could change. But, all in all.... This is pretty decent for the $$$. I paid $169 and it comes with a power supply. The big wish that I have is that it MRC had a balancer that could communicate with the 989 like the TP1010 does.

Oh yea... One more cool thing I didn't know when I bought it. It comes with a temp probe and you can program a battery temp cut off as well. Most others that have temp sensing capability have it as an additional cost.

Yeah, the discharging isn't a concern indeed.

Indeed, the 8000's are already taking the maxx of the charger.

I,ve reserved a Schulze charger with 6s Evo20 and two V-Balance systems( claimed to be the most advanced balancer in the market).

The Hyperion EOS 7i comes with that feature and the probe. But it's only for Nimh packs.

Well, couldn't you cheat and just "say" the lipo pack you are hooking up is a higher capacity? Then, 1.25C would be a higher value...

Captain: That balancer looks an awful lot like the LBA6/10. The color and case is different, but the LEDs and switch look like they are in the same spot. The LBA10 can do 6s, 10A, and can network to another LBA10 for up to 12s balancing.

that was what i thinking later too Brian.

My charger can also be set to the capacity of the cells.

I wish i would have gotten the LBA10, but at the time, i didn't see it on the site :(, my lba6 does the job though.

can't have it all, you know..

Actually, I ordered the LBA6 (not from Maxamps), but they turned out to be out of stock so I got the LBA10 instead. I thought that was pretty sweet. Kinda makes me think Hyperion will be coming out with a 6s charger soon if not already. There's nothing wrong with the LBA6 - they're basically the same thing except for the current, the networking ability for up to 12s packs, and a feedback cable to tell the charger what each cells' voltage is. Well, I won't ever be going beyong 5s that I can see so the networking thing is useless to me, and the 7i doesn't have that feedback input so it's not doing any good for me either. So, really, the only advantage is the 10A capability, but I can only use that on discharge (using a load, not the charger) since the charger is limited to 7A. That said, the LBA6 is prefectly fine, especially once you do that high current mod.

Well you can rene. It just takes alot of money. :D
I may see about getting me one of these. It seems to be pretty good.

Well, there is alot in common between the V-Balance and the Hyperion LBA6.
I've just noticed that lately.

They have the same ratings?

I'm thinking that using that networking feature might be a really handy feature for us dual pack monster truck guys. Could you network 2 LBA10s and just plug one into the 3s pack and the other into the 2 s pack. That would allow you to be able to safely charge in series without having to make a hokey looking adapter for the series to the deans plugs and the adapter to the balancing taps. Now you could easily charge/balance any 2s+2s or 2s+3s or 3s+3s pack configuration and not worry that you didn't hook it up right.

Hmmm. Now you guys got me thinking.

I'm sure that would work. They are just trying to make it as safe as they can. There is always a way to get around the system.

I'm not really sure.
FlightPower did not show all the specs about the V-Balance.

jhautz-how does your balancing adpator working for you with two packs? Are you balancing in disconnect mode? Does it get warm or take awhile to balance?

I've read elsewhere that Hyperion is working on some new chargers that will work with the LBA10's communication port and will charge at higher cells counts. I couldn't tell you anything else, as to my knowledge those details haven't been disclosed.

that would be nice. Man, that would be a lot of juice! LOL ;)

Yes, I'm either balanceing in disconnect mode or charging through the taps at a lower amperage using the 2s+3s adapter that that I made with Some help from the good folks on this forum. There is a picture of my wiring setup in this thread. Just imagine the balancing tap plugged into the LBA6 and the deans splitter plugged into the 989.:018:
http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3971

I did my adaptor just like yours. I was curious how long it takes to balance your packs in series. I just bought the 989 from mike last week and awaiting for it to come!

I thought you could hook charger up and start charging then hook the balancer
up and it would balance as it charges. You would have to hook it up and charge
thru the taps. I think this is how metal man does it. I could be wrong.

I charge with the battery connected directly to the charger, and the balancer hooked up to the taps. I can plug the battery in and start charging, and plug in the balancer whenever I want to.

I do mine like metal man does. I got my 989 yesterday, will run the maxx tonight if the rain stops, then try to charge in series with the adaptor and let you guys know how it goes.....

It just balances the pack out from the time it is hooked up to the end of the charge correct.