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.