charger/power supply box

[ClodMaxx]

i've got a lot of charging stuff, and it's been sitting at the bottom of my toolbox (padded, of course). it takes me a good 5 minutes to to take everything out, unwrap it, and find a large enough space to spread it all out and hook everything up. i've been searching for a good case to store it all, so i just have to take the case to the nearest power outlet, pop her open, and charge away.

i found this. $35 for an alumium, padded, lockable case. not too shabby. it's by no means the best quality, but it does the trick! i have extra batteries that won't fit, but it shouldn't be too hard to find a place for them in my toolbox now...

[GorillaMaxx360]

cool i might need one for my ice -can you run 2 ice chargers off one ofna power supply at the same time.

[ClodMaxx]

Originally Posted by GorillaMaxx360

cool i might need one for my ice -can you run 2 ice chargers off one ofna power supply at the same time.

not without that little black box between the power supply and the chargers. it's a custom made box with 4 banana inputs. the ofna only has 1 set of inputs. i wish i would've seen this before i bought the ofna... dual inputs plus a digital readout. 20 watts instead of 18, and it's $15 cheaper...

[GorillaMaxx360]

i saw how to make that "black box" in RCA but even with the box the powersupply still can support 2 chargers running at the same time even if it is through the box.

[seth556]

I think I might pick something like that up sometime. Then a make some more padding for the batteries.

[ClodMaxx]

duratrax recommends that it not be done on one power supply. i just found it could.

it depends on what you're charging, and what the rate is. i know nothing of lipo, but for ni-mh it won't ever pull more than what your charge rate is. or shouldn't, at least. i charge my matched IB4200's at 5 amps, so for 2 chargers that's only 10 amps out of a possible 18.

i'm doing research on charging m1 cells, and that may be a different story. some of the 'fast chargers' pull a very high current. but the Ice will still only charge lipo/li-ion at 1C, so i'm safe.

[BP-Revo]

Originally Posted by ClodMaxx

it depends on what you're charging, and what the rate is. i know nothing of lipo, but for ni-mh it won't ever pull more than what your charge rate is. or shouldn't, at least. i charge my matched IB4200's at 5 amps, so for 2 chargers that's only 10 amps out of a possible 18.

Well, actually, it sends up being less than 10 amps. If you are charging a 7 Cell IB at 5 amps (one per charger). Each charger is putting out 42 watts. (Amps X Volts = watts). You have two, so thats 84 watts. Divide that by the ~85% efficiency rating and you get 98.8 watts input. Take that, and divide it by the 13.8v output (what most powersupplies put out), and you find that its pulling about 7.16 amps.

However, when charging NiMH cells, voltages rise well above the 1.2V per cell, so thus the amp rate will increase. However, I was just pointing out that its all based off watts. When I charge 4S lipo at 8 amps, it pulls something like 10amps, because it must do 8 amps and bump up the voltage to 16.8.

[jnev]

Cool case. Should be a lot easier to take when you go places to use your rc's. Can you post pics of your tool box? I'm just curious at how big it is...

[ClodMaxx]

i have 2 toolboxes, lol. they contain nothing but r/c parts 'n stuff. (but no tires or anything all that big)

[jnev]

Cool. And then of course you have to carry all your rc's seperately. lol