Hobby grade chargers?

[frigusoris]

Ahoy all, Just wondering if anyone else here but myself uses a "hobby" grade charger to charge up cells. I was big into RC cars, trucks, planes, etc and as such have a decent charger. I was researching decent 18650 chargers when the thought struck me; "I've already spent good money on a hobby charger that charges nearly every battery chemistry out there, why not use it for 18650's?"

So far, I charge one cell at a time in a home made battery cradle. I've got some pre made 18650 holders on the slow boat from China and when those arrive I'll be making a series charging cradle for at least two cells with a balance lead (My Alien only needs two at a time, I could charge up to 6 at once, being a 6s charger) Parallel charging is possible as well, and without the need for a balancing lead, but not nearly as safe or accurate.

I much prefer a hobby charger for a couple reasons:

1. Monitored charging! (The charger constantly reads battery resistance, decreasing charge current automatically as the cell gets charged.)

2. It will tell me down to the mAh how much juice the cell has taken so far during the charge cycle.

3. 6 amp charge rate! (Kidding, NEVER charge at that kind of amperage! 2 amp MAX)

So, anyone else do something similar, or am I just a bit of a battery nerd? haha

 

[Ryedan]

I was into RC planes and still have my hobby charger. I decided it wasn't worth it and bought a couple of simple chargers. Just didn't want to deal with the cradles, the wires, etc, in the house.

It was tempting though ... the nerd in me would have enjoyed it . When I was vaping mech mods I used to check cell voltage drop under load occasionally to monitor battery health.

Be safe frigusoris

 

[Reigle1972]

Ahoy all, Just wondering if anyone else here but myself uses a "hobby" grade charger to charge up cells. I was big into RC cars, trucks, planes, etc and as such have a decent charger. I was researching decent 18650 chargers when the thought struck me; "I've already spent good money on a hobby charger that charges nearly every battery chemistry out there, why not use it for 18650's?"

So far, I charge one cell at a time in a home made battery cradle. I've got some pre made 18650 holders on the slow boat from China and when those arrive I'll be making a series charging cradle for at least two cells with a balance lead (My Alien only needs two at a time, I could charge up to 6 at once, being a 6s charger) Parallel charging is possible as well, and without the need for a balancing lead, but not nearly as safe or accurate.

I much prefer a hobby charger for a couple reasons:

1. Monitored charging! (The charger constantly reads battery resistance, decreasing charge current automatically as the cell gets charged.)

2. It will tell me down to the mAh how much juice the cell has taken so far during the charge cycle.

3. 6 amp charge rate! (Kidding, NEVER charge at that kind of amperage! 2 amp MAX)

So, anyone else do something similar, or am I just a bit of a battery nerd? h

Really not worth burning down the house. Charger's aren't that expensive, $30-50.

 

[dr_rox]

Ahoy all, Just wondering if anyone else here but myself uses a "hobby" grade charger to charge up cells. I was big into RC cars, trucks, planes, etc and as such have a decent charger. I was researching decent 18650 chargers when the thought struck me; "I've already spent good money on a hobby charger that charges nearly every battery chemistry out there, why not use it for 18650's?"
So, anyone else do something similar, or am I just a bit of a battery nerd? haha

For 4.75 years I have been using 2 hobby chargers for charging vaping batteries, one has max 5 amps other is 6. I made balanced sleds for single cells if needed and charge my parallel discharged batteries in parallel.... the same way they were discharged.
You can charge the 10XXX to 32xxx size cells, or anything else that comes around, incl lipo packs. Plus, I have all those other chemistry batteries that it can handle, with rapid charging and storage discharging and testing.
Friends have a pile of dud chargers in just a few years. I show them the 2 I have used, and no duds, no smoke.
They can even bring back to life tool battery packs.

And they were only 20 bucks a piece. Can't find a more facile charger for that little.

 

[ShowerHead]

Ahoy all, Just wondering if anyone else here but myself uses a "hobby" grade charger to charge up cells. I was big into RC cars, trucks, planes, etc and as such have a decent charger. I was researching decent 18650 chargers when the thought struck me; "I've already spent good money on a hobby charger that charges nearly every battery chemistry out there, why not use it for 18650's?"

So far, I charge one cell at a time in a home made battery cradle. I've got some pre made 18650 holders on the slow boat from China and when those arrive I'll be making a series charging cradle for at least two cells with a balance lead (My Alien only needs two at a time, I could charge up to 6 at once, being a 6s charger) Parallel charging is possible as well, and without the need for a balancing lead, but not nearly as safe or accurate.

I much prefer a hobby charger for a couple reasons:

1. Monitored charging! (The charger constantly reads battery resistance, decreasing charge current automatically as the cell gets charged.)

2. It will tell me down to the mAh how much juice the cell has taken so far during the charge cycle.

3. 6 amp charge rate! (Kidding, NEVER charge at that kind of amperage! 2 amp MAX)

So, anyone else do something similar, or am I just a bit of a battery nerd? haha

If you just want to build your own, cool, I used to like tinkering with soldering irons and multi-meters.
If you want a hobbyist charger, take a look at this one, does everything you mention and then some.
http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=219
Nice in depth writeup here:
http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review Charger SkyRC MC3000 UK.html

 

[Jon@LiionWholesale]

If you just want to build your own, cool, I used to like tinkering with soldering irons and multi-meters.
If you want a hobbyist charger, take a look at this one, does everything you mention and then some.
http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=219
Nice in depth writeup here:
http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review Charger SkyRC MC3000 UK.html

Just looked through the manual and lygte-info's review. That thing looks pretty cool, definitely going to get a handful of these for the lab. Do you actually use it?

 

[The Cromwell]

If you just want to build your own, cool, I used to like tinkering with soldering irons and multi-meters.
If you want a hobbyist charger, take a look at this one, does everything you mention and then some.
http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=219
Nice in depth writeup here:
http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review Charger SkyRC MC3000 UK.html

USA has no distributors.

 

[Jon@LiionWholesale]

USA has no distributors.

Looks like Illumn carries them, I bought some. If we like them we might go ahead and become a distributor.

 

[frigusoris]

If you just want to build your own, cool, I used to like tinkering with soldering irons and multi-meters.
If you want a hobbyist charger, take a look at this one, does everything you mention and then some.
http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=219
Nice in depth writeup here:
http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review Charger SkyRC MC3000 UK.html

That is a very nice charger, however I already spent around that amount to purchase my Hitec X1-AC Plus. I would rather spend the hundred bucks on some batteries or a new mod, rather than on another charger where the only benefit is four ports and a much more "beginner friendly" interface.

For a newcomer, I would highly recommend that unit, has all the bells and whistles I'd personally look for. That's going on my "unexpected windfall" shopping list haha.

*Edit* Illumn has a great big warning saying that this is NOT a beginners charger... so maybe not for starting out unless you know your batteries haha.

 

[Jon@LiionWholesale]

*Edit* Illumn has a great big warning saying that this is NOT a beginners charger... so maybe not for starting out unless you know your batteries haha.

Wow no kidding. I've been playing with this for the last hour and it is really quite difficult to use. Tons of features though. Very impressive build quality for the price too.

I'm now running some tests to see how it does as a battery analyzer and how it compares to our much more expensive equipment.

 

[UncleRJ]

IMHO, there are two primary things that you don't want to "Cheap Out" on when it comes to vaping.

Batteries and Chargers.

Get yourself a good 4 bay Xtar charger and leave it to your kids when it has outlived you!

 

[Jon@LiionWholesale]

Wow no kidding. I've been playing with this for the last hour and it is really quite difficult to use. Tons of features though. Very impressive build quality for the price too.

I'm now running some tests to see how it does as a battery analyzer and how it compares to our much more expensive equipment.

Well, the good news is the testing seems very accurate in the couple tests I've run so far. Of course it can only discharge up to 2A but it's still very useful for low current testing.

The bad news is one of the bays already broke . Seems like the spring broke or became detached so the battery holder just flops around. Will try to exchange now, hopefully it's a fluke. The other bays seem solid. Not a good sign in a $90 piece of equipment though.