FMA CellPro 10s

[tino_ale]

Originally Posted by MacII

I've read all the buzz on various forums and I ordered one of these for myself. Basically I know it will serve my needs and that FMA will be releasing firmware updates shortly which address any shortcomings of the initial release. Here is a link to a thread I started here looking for a charger:

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10818

I can't see any reference to the point I'm bringind is this particular thread, it doesn't look like anyone is aware that the charger power is specified in input power terms.

[BrianG]

Wow, 170 output power and 300w input power means the charger is only 57% efficient. Most I've seen are in the 75-80% range. What's going on here?

I think I'll stick to me TME Xtrema for now. It's only 180w, but that's what it actually puts out...

[tino_ale]

You can find the detail of this matter at the link I provided.

I'll wait for more feedback and measurements in order to confirm this but I'll hold on my order until this is totally clarified.

This thread:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...806259&page=41

Seems to talk all about the power output issues and it has some very revealing quotes from FMA (who chooses not to post on forums I gather.)

In any case, my $0.02 are simply that right now, today, for $189 it's a great charger even if it doesn't output what it was first reported to output. The FMA web site has been revised and now says the word "Estimate". Regardless, if you read that page I linked to above, you can read the FMA response which sounds pretty good to me.

DM

[tino_ale]

Took me several days to read the whole thread you provided, thanks, lots of very informative posts I found!

I'm unsure about how good of a deal the 10S really is when you take into account it's limitations and true power. You can find it good, and you could be right.

However, like you I've read FMA response to the findings on the real power capabilities of the 10S and the least I can say is that I'm not happy with it. This is false advertisement, period. It's not adding the "estimate" mention that changes anything.

According to actual user feedback, 300W input can be reached for a short time if the charger is kept cool by artificial means. At room temperature, 300W of input can't be sustained, not even mentionning the output power. And that's assuming you're using a 14.5-15V PS otherwise you don't get 300W.

At room temperature, you can realistically count on a 240W of input power, 175W of maximum sustained output power.

So as I see it, FMA is making false advertising because :
1. they rate the input power while any normal individual would assume we are talking output power for a battery charger (all the other limitation like voltage or current are given as output numbers) and all the competition does rate the output power
2. the 300W power is not even sustained at room temperature
3. they claim to be leading the industry in power, which is just plain false

No matter how good or bad the product is, IMO FMA has totally screwed up in the way they are handling this. And I don't see where playing on words is goind to lead them...

Is that so hard be publish honest specs like most of the competition do?

Hello,

Just got my 10s charger (ok, two days ago) and I've finished wiring everything up and charging 6 packs. My feelings are that it was the perfect choice for me. At this time, my charging needs are very minimal. I'm basically only charging TrakPower 4900's, they are 2s packs and I wanted one charger which could charge two at once, the 10s makes it super easy. I wired up the appropriate harness in no time. Plug in the balance taps and the charge taps and let it rip. Two packs at once, 4.9amps. The LCD lets me cycle through the readings including charge rate, charge stage (fast, balance...)pack voltage, individual cell voltages, mAh in, "fuel" gauge, resistance of each cell and charge time.

All 6 packs went fine. I did have one small glitch which FMA support is trying to help me with. When the charger was set to "1C" it charged very slowly. When I manually set it to 4.9amps, it rocked on. I've yet to hook it up to a PeeCee, it still pains me that I can't use it with my Mac (and no, I'm not sullying my Mac with Windows, even with Parallels.) However the PC software really wakes it up with graphs and charts and much more detailed info.

Later this spring I'll be upgrading to 4s packs, charging two of those will start pulling some amps but so far the whole 300w estimate issue has not posed a problem for me. I'm using it with a CE 23 amp power supply.

DM

[captain harlock]

Hey, Mac, will it be able to charge 6s at once? What about the different balancing tabs from one company to another?

I mean if I'm going to charge two FlightPower 3s 3700mah packs, how am I going to connect the balancing tabs?

If it's possible to use this charger for such a task, I'll surely sell the Schulze Chamaeleon and get this one instead.

Two 3s packs simultaneously is no problem. The charger has basically two halfs, each capable of up to 5s or for bigger packs you join them (up to one 10s pack). There are two sets of taps and charge jacks. The charger has a 5s Cellpro jack, it also comes with two 5s to 4s cellpro adapters, I then bought some of the 4s cellpro to bare wire cables ($1.99 each) which I used to wire up my TrakPower Packs (I'll take a photo of it when I can.) FMA sells adapter packs on their site for all the common taps so you can plug right in. Prior to this I had the super simple Scorpion charger so this was a big upgrade for me and it's very simple, much easier than I thought.

DM

[jhautz]

If you are looking for it to do TP or PW style packs they make a 1-5s adapter. that lets you plug any 1-5s PQ or TP pack with no hassle.
Here

I have this same charger and love it also. The software is awesome. I love the graphing capabilities and the internal resistance measuring thing is great for being able to see how strong your cells are and comare pack to pack. I use 2 of the adapters above to charge 2 5s 5000 packs at the same time. Works perfect except my PS cant handle the load. It starts to dip output volts and it causes an error on the charger so when doing 2 packs at the same time I just charge at 4.5A each. Not the chargers fault, my Power supply is not up to the task. I'm using a 30amp compuuter power supply according to the lable on it, but its really only good for 20A reliably IMO. I havent tried it yet, but its suopposed to be able to charge 2 different cell count and capacity packs at the same time too.

2 thumbs up for the CellPro 10s so far. Ive only had it foar a couple weeks, but I havent used another lipo charger since I got it and I havent run into the ceiling on the current that someone mentioned earlier either. I will probably be selling a couple other chargers soon. Anyone interested in a FMA BalanceProHD 6s with a123 capability? Perfect shape.


BTW: MacII. Plug it in to the USB cable and download the latest firmware for the charger. It fixes the low amp thing on the 1C automatic setting. I still prefer setting the output amps myself thouhg. The software also allows you to save 6 charging profiles in the charger so you just have to select the one that preset for the pack you want to charge. The software is very cool.