Brushless Revo + A123 and ICE

[zeropointbug]

Yeah, you can always do that, it's just nice charging your entire pack in ~30 mins like I am now. :027:

[Purplefade]

Outstanding, thank you guys once again for the information!! Apologizes for the extended response time, I got sucked out of town to VA on work..., what fun...

You know, I've almost decided to run my packs as 3S2P and just get the bloody A123 Charger for $99.00 so that I can charge them "right"... My only problem with it is that it displays nothing, we just blindly trust it to manage the cells, that kind of drives me nuts. Not to mention I'd have to buy two in order to charge the packs at the same time...

I'm probably going to break down and go with the Xtrema and a good PS. Any thoughts on if a couple of new, redundant, hot swappable Enlight PSs would work, I believe they're 500W PSs if I'm not mistaken. What are you guys doing, just clipping the ends off one of the 12v leads and wiring plugs on, can it be that simple??

Thanks!!

[zeropointbug]

Yes you can go for a charger and PSU unit, or you can go with a good quality programmable power supply like I use, which would take up less space, is VERY flexible, and you can see exactly whats going on.

Here is a pic of mine approaching a complete charge at about ~22 mins, it takes a little over 25 for 100%. As you can notice, watts, volts, amps, CC/CV, completely programmable charging sequences... all the good stuff. YOu get that for a very decent buy at $240, a steal if you ask me.

HERE is pic.

[Purplefade]

zpb, that's the BK 1696, correct, you may have already told me that?? :-) So no "charger" per say, your charging your packs right from the psu, amazing, I can't believe I've never really thought of it quite like that.., though I was a nitro guy until I found this website. I guess all a charger is really, is a semi-programmable psu, huum, nice idea and very flexible, as you pointed out!

Now I'm in a pickle, $240\250 + ish (for a bit larger unit to charge the 6S), fully programable and can charge just about, if not, anything, or $190 + $psu for the Xtrema setup... How large a psu we talking to charge either 6S1P or 3S2P, if it makes any difference, I haven't built my packs yet. I think I'm actually leaning towards the Xtrema with psu, seems more "boob" proof for me being "new"er to electric.

I've had some older, simple "C" cell and Nimh, Nicd, RCs and have actually converted a couple of nitro "MAXX" trucks an E-Maxx and a few Savages, with my newest being a Revo 3.3, but the ICE and a couple handfuls of 6000mah 7.4v li-pos is about as crazy as I've gotten, lol...

Thanks!!

[zeropointbug]

Originally Posted by Purplefade

zpb, that's the BK 1696, correct, you may have already told me that?? :-) So no "charger" per say, your charging your packs right from the psu, amazing, I can't believe I've never really thought of it quite like that.., though I was a nitro guy until I found this website. I guess all a charger is really, is a semi-programmable psu, huum, nice idea and very flexible, as you pointed out!

Now I'm in a pickle, $240\250 + ish (for a bit larger unit to charge the 6S), fully programable and can charge just about, if not, anything, or $190 + $psu for the Xtrema setup... How large a psu we talking to charge either 6S1P or 3S2P, if it makes any difference, I haven't built my packs yet. I think I'm actually leaning towards the Xtrema with psu, seems more "boob" proof for me being "new"er to electric.

I've had some older, simple "C" cell and Nimh, Nicd, RCs and have actually converted a couple of nitro "MAXX" trucks an E-Maxx and a few Savages, with my newest being a Revo 3.3, but the ICE and a couple handfuls of 6000mah 7.4v li-pos is about as crazy as I've gotten, lol...

Thanks!!

Correct, it's the 1696 version, it's a solid 200watts 24/7 power rating. You can also control it from your PC through serial connection, quite neat, you can see all real time parameters graph and everything.

You can only charge up to 5s A123 on it, so any higher you have to get the 40v/5A version, there is also a 60v/3A as well, not that it matters.

Like BrianG said, there is no cell count obviously; but if you just have the right voltage set, it's not going to get 'confused' and pick the wrong voltage/cell count... whatever you want basically.

[Purplefade]

OK, another crazy question, I've read that good quality pc power supplies can be used? I have two, very good quality, brand new Enlight Pro Spec dual, 350 Watt power supplies, they are in a single power chassis and both connect to a large positive and negative copper power rails. Easy enough to use, just plug them into the wall, and I don't care how I have to modify it there collecting dust now, so if I can use them??

Thanks!

[Purplefade]

To power the Xtrema of course, not direct charge :005: