Are Zippy Lipos safe with a Castle MMM Speedy?

[squeeforever]

Originally Posted by pasan

Brian, I do measure my packs with my multimeter during and after charging. That's how I discovered the variance in voltage. I know it's probably nothing, but the pack in question has been doing this regularly for the past month. My charging setup is rather primitive, being just a Triton Jr with an Astro Blinky. I'm seriously considering investing in a Turnigy Accucel-6.

I think I would get the Icharger 1010B+. I've been reading there MUCH better than the Turnigy. Most of the cheap chargers at places like Hobbycity are VERY inaccurate on the voltage. The new 1010B+ and the 106 are better calibrated from the factory. For $190, you get a hell of a charger. 10S BALANCING charger with all kinds of features and stuff. Can't beat it.

[BrianG]

Ok, what about the balancer tolerance? Does it balance the cell you measured as 0.01v difference? I know my blinky doesn't. The most accurate balancer I have is the LBA10 (it actually seems almost too sensitive).

For your level of "anal" (), I wonder if the FMA charger would be a better choice. Has a high power limit, balance charges, and also measures cell condition/quality. To do that last item, it must be quite accurate.

[pasan]

Originally Posted by BrianG

Ok, what about the balancer tolerance? Does it balance the cell you measured as 0.01v difference? I know my blinky doesn't. The most accurate balancer I have is the LBA10 (it actually seems almost too sensitive).

For your level of "anal" (), I wonder if the FMA charger would be a better choice. Has a high power limit, balance charges, and also measures cell condition/quality. To do that last item, it must be quite accurate.

I think the Blinky somehow can't quite bring the rest of the cells down to that voltage and keep them there. I usually charge while balancing. I too think a balance charger is best but I'd like a charger which actually does something more than a balance, i.e. by pushing extra juice to a weak cell to bring it up to par rather than bringing the others to voltage of the weakest cell, which IMO is very inefficient.

[lincpimp]

Originally Posted by pasan

I think the Blinky somehow can't quite bring the rest of the cells down to that voltage and keep them there. I usually charge while balancing. I too think a balance charger is best but I'd like a charger which actually does something more than a balance, i.e. by pushing extra juice to a weak cell to bring it up to par rather than bringing the others to voltage of the weakest cell, which IMO is very inefficient.

Only way to get what you ask is to use a seperate charger for each cell. Any charger on the market charges the entire pack of cells in series. Only way to equalize them is to put a load on the higher cells and bleed off some juice. If you had a seperate charge curcuit for each cell the balancer would not be needed, as each cell would go thru the cc/cv cycle on its own terms, so to speak.

[vbxt]

Originally Posted by lincpimp

Only way to get what you ask is to use a seperate charger for each cell. Any charger on the market charges the entire pack of cells in series. Only way to equalize them is to put a load on the higher cells and bleed off some juice. If you had a seperate charge curcuit for each cell the balancer would not be needed, as each cell would go thru the cc/cv cycle on its own terms, so to speak.

I think that this charger from Hobby City might do what you are talking about.
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...Charge_Capable

I have one, and it appears to charge each cell (up to 4) independently. There are 4 LEDs that indicate the charge status, and they switch from red to green at the end of the charge cycle at different times as each cell is fully charged.

I have no complaints about this charger other that the slow charge rates.

edit: I just remembered that this charger also does not seem to have any problems with over-discharged packs. I was discharging a SMC 5000 mah 2S Lipo with a light bulb and forgot about it. It was reading 0.0 volts on my multimeter. I hooked it up to this charger, it fully charged it, and it still works perfectly to this day. It may all be in my head, but I think that it works better than before!

[lincpimp]

Originally Posted by vbxt

I think that this charger from Hobby City might do what you are talking about.
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...Charge_Capable

I have one, and it appears to charge each cell (up to 4) independently. There are 4 LEDs that indicate the charge status, and they switch from red to green at the end of the charge cycle at different times as each cell is fully charged.

I have no complaints about this charger other that the slow charge rates.

edit: I just remembered that this charger also does not seem to have any problems with over-discharged packs. I was discharging a SMC 5000 mah 2S Lipo with a light bulb and forgot about it. It was reading 0.0 volts on my multimeter. I hooked it up to this charger, it fully charged it, and it still works perfectly to this day. It may all be in my head, but I think that it works better than before!

Interesting, I would like to get one of these and take it apart... Might be a good product for me as I always seem to be repairing packs and balancing cells individually...

Originally Posted by vbxt

I think that this charger from Hobby City might do what you are talking about.
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...Charge_Capable

I have one, and it appears to charge each cell (up to 4) independently. There are 4 LEDs that indicate the charge status, and they switch from red to green at the end of the charge cycle at different times as each cell is fully charged.

I have no complaints about this charger other that the slow charge rates.

edit: I just remembered that this charger also does not seem to have any problems with over-discharged packs. I was discharging a SMC 5000 mah 2S Lipo with a light bulb and forgot about it. It was reading 0.0 volts on my multimeter. I hooked it up to this charger, it fully charged it, and it still works perfectly to this day. It may all be in my head, but I think that it works better than before!

Cool charger functions but wont work if you have a pair of 3S batteries and its going to take a LONG time to charge at 2amps max.

[pasan]

Originally Posted by vbxt

I think that this charger from Hobby City might do what you are talking about.
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...Charge_Capable

I have one, and it appears to charge each cell (up to 4) independently. There are 4 LEDs that indicate the charge status, and they switch from red to green at the end of the charge cycle at different times as each cell is fully charged.

I have no complaints about this charger other that the slow charge rates.

edit: I just remembered that this charger also does not seem to have any problems with over-discharged packs. I was discharging a SMC 5000 mah 2S Lipo with a light bulb and forgot about it. It was reading 0.0 volts on my multimeter. I hooked it up to this charger, it fully charged it, and it still works perfectly to this day. It may all be in my head, but I think that it works better than before!

That's interesting. I was looking at the Accucel-6 by Turnigy because there's nothing but mad raving 5* reviews for it. But I just read up on the hextronik and quite a few people do claim that it charges individual cells. Which is exactly what I need. And the price seems to be unbeatable too, costing less than a good balancer.

[emaxxnitro]

at that price just get the fma cell pro 10s its a wail of a charger, for 190$ charges up to in our case 2c with a 10amp max output.
http://www.fmadirect.com/new_applica...0s_charger.htm

[squeeforever]

Originally Posted by emaxxnitro

at that price just get the fma cell pro 10s its a wail of a charger, for 190$ charges up to in our case 2c with a 10amp max output.
http://www.fmadirect.com/new_applica...0s_charger.htm

The 1010B+ is also 10A and seems to have more features.

[fastbaja5b]

But if you go by this thread:

http://www.ausrc.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15868

He's being told his esc blew as he ran the 20t pinion (stock gearing) and not the 25t pinion (optional included)

so doesn't that contradict what you are saying?

By your logic he should have gone down to a 12/13 perhaps, by theirs, the smaller pinion is what fried the esc

[fastbaja5b]

even the flux manual says on 6s use a higher pinion than on 4s

WTF?

[lincpimp]

Originally Posted by fastbaja5b

But if you go by this thread:

http://www.ausrc.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15868

He's being told his esc blew as he ran the 20t pinion (stock gearing) and not the 25t pinion (optional included)

so doesn't that contradict what you are saying?

By your logic he should have gone down to a 12/13 perhaps, by theirs, the smaller pinion is what fried the esc

If the smaller pinion caused themotor to be undergeared it would heat up. Not sure if that would affect the esc enough to cause it to pop...

Originally Posted by skellyo

The Flux already does 41mph on 4S with a 20T pinion and a little tire ballooning. Going to 5S, you'll want to drop 2T-3T from the 20T to get back down in the mid 40mph range if you account for ballooning.

Ahh, I though the 25 was stock. Must have misread a previous post. So why do they include the 25t pinion? So you can gear up if you plan to run nimhs? Does not make much sense to me...

Originally Posted by fastbaja5b

even the flux manual says on 6s use a higher pinion than on 4s

WTF?

Can you link me to a pdf or something like that for that portion of the manual...

Even with the 20t pinon the truck is doing 55+ mph on 6s lipo. That is plenty of load on the motor. A 25t would go past 65mph. I see no reason not to run the 20t pinion with 6s, other than 55mph is a bit much for most bashing situations, and some lipos. A 16t pinion on 6s would be much more manageable, or a 19t pinion on 5s...

[hoovhartid]

Originally Posted by lincpimp

So why do they include the 25t pinion? So you can gear up if you plan to run nimhs? Does not make much sense to me...

I wonder if the problem is the tires?

maybe they expect you to use phaltline tires with the 25t and the MT size ones with the 20t?

[fastbaja5b]

Here is a link to where you can download the manual

http://www.hpiracing.com/kitinfo/100646/

Even Traxxas tell you to gear up when going from a 2s to a 3s Lipo

Doesn't this all sort of contradict our conventional logic of gearing down on more cells to pull less amps and therefore less heat?