mothman, the fma lvc your talking about works great and needs nothing special to install. its only rated for 4s lipo, who knows if it will work with anything bigger? i have only used it with 3s. the other device should work the same and it can handle more cells.
cell balancing can be done very effectively by just checking each cell through the taps with a multimeter. i always check mine before, during, and after a charge. it only takes a few seconds and i have yet to have any problems with my batteries going bad. if you do find a cell thats out of balance with the rest, charging it individually is easy using some small male pins wired on the end of a deans plug. a cell balancer is foolproof and may save you some time. my intentions were to buy a balancer at first, but the plug i made works safely and effectively and cost about nothing.
:D