First of all guys, how often do you calibrated your ichargers and the other chargers you own ??? If you've never calibrated your chargers, and it reads a higher cell voltage than it should, then your packs will be undercharged all the time, costing you to lose a lot of punch on top of losing confidence on your charger... Is it really that the icharger is superior, or is it that it might be reading a lower voltage out of your packs compared to other chargers, causing it to charge your packs more than the other chargers... Calibrate your current charger first, before throwing it away to get an icharger !!! If the calibrated icharger still outperforms your other calibrated chargers, then switch.....

Do you own a 4010 duo or Powerlab 8? What do you use? Which ones have you calibrated?

BTW, if anyone wants to know how to calibrate an iCharger:

http://www.icharger.co.nz/articles/A...-iCharger.aspx

I use a thunderpower 1430C charger, and just wanted folks to know about calibration before rating a charger, since nobody ever mentioned it here... It is very important, and it's good to see the icharger calibration video here...

You have to put a lot of hours of use on an iCharger before you have to calibrate it. ;) And even then you have to know what your doing to make sure it is accurate. ;)

*If anyone wants a more advanced reading on iChargers and their capabilities, head over to rcgroups.

The only thing that you would have to do to the Icharger is mess with the final charged voltage. To get a true 4.2v per cell just using a good volt meter to check it.

I can agree with that.

From the link I provided:

It's not like you have to do it often though.

Word to the wise. Calibrate your charger voltage to the track's volt meter. It's their meter that counts for teching, not your charger.

iCharger is bester charger !

If the iCharger truely charges that fast, do you guys feel the need of dual iCharger? I like the option of charging 2 batteries simutaneously but with the power supply, I'm afraid the combo becomes too bulky to carry around.

I tried just about every charger that I thought was the best or told was good.

I can say the Icharger is the only charger that I will use to charge all my lipos.:nod:

The real time IR reading keeps your lipos in tip top shape.
No guessing if your lipos are going to be good on the track.

With the Duo I can charge one pack and store charge the other at the same time.:batman:

I bought the first I charger 4010 duo sold in the US back in Oct 2012. When they first came out. My charger has never been calibrated and has its ending voltage has never changed. Its been dead accurate since I got it and I can promise Ive charged more batteries on it than most people on here combined since I use it for cycling brand new packs when I get shipments in to verify their quality.

I have since bought a 308 and just recently a 406 just because they are smaller to travel with. The 308 is more than enough charger for most people and can be bought for under 250.00 or less. No special power supply needed as if your charging at 30 amps it only pulls about 18 amps off of your power supply on 2S and 12 amps on 1S. I routinely charge at 25 and 25 on both sides on a 40 amp power supply with zero issues.

To me it is the best charger out there as far as accuracy and reliability.

EA

Don't worry about what charger you have. You could charge your battery on a 500.00 charger and the Big Dog at your track could charge his battery on a 20.00 charger and he will still go out and still whip your butt. It's all about driving and practice,practice,practice :nod:

Couple of questions....

1. What is a good IR number for a 2s battery?
2. Do the charging leads play a factor in charge times? Performance?

The Orion advantage pro charger has the IR readout during charging/discharging. It'll charge upto 12A and discharge upto 14A. It's a brilliant charger but I wander how it stacks up to the icharger?

What's this got to do with what the OP was asking about? If you are constantly calibrating your Thunderpower, something is seriously wrong with your charger.

I had a Thunderpower 820CD and it was CONSTANTLY inaccurate with voltage cut-off. Even if I tried to calibrate it to the tracks DVOM it would drift and be over/under by a couple of hundredths.

That does not inspire much confidence in Thunderpower equipment (IMO). I only calibrate my iCharger after a firmware update. Even then, no issues.

I was really wondering why bertrands was making a big deal about it.

I should have said hundredths, but yeah...set it for 4.20 volts and I would get anywhere between 4.17 - 4.23.

This issue drove me to the Elan gears dual charger which is super accurate (so far). The Icharger is no doubt more capable though.

1 I don't know That

2 how long the wire is, size, lead or connection are a factor of performance. Always buy good connectors when racing. Just running around the yard you can use the cheap imitations if you want

Ok, it's a bit confusing but my understanding: 7.4V battery x 30A charge rate= 222W is the required power supply capacity. Wrong?
But you're saying, even with 25A charge rate, only 18A from power supply is needed. I assume your power supply's output voltage is around 20-25V. So the "18A" is because of the 25V output?

I'm asking this because I really want to buy the duo 308 or 4010 charger but the bulkiness of the power supply(1500w) is a concern for travel. But based on what you said, I may be able to get away with smaller capacity?? Please advise,

amps dont matter as much as the watts the power supply has. You can buy converted HP power supplies (i think Schuur Speed sells some). The have more than enough power and are fairly compact.

Only disappointing thing about the iCharger 4010/308/406 line is that they've been prone to failure. Everybody I know with a 308, myself included, has had to get it repaired or replaced.

Also, random fact, but the USB port on the back of the 406 is powerful enough to charge an iPhone/iPad. The same is not true of the 308/4010.

What power supplies were they using? Converted supplies? I've been using meanwell supplies with zero issues.

Watts = Volts X Amps

If I wanted to charge a single cell at 30 amps to 4.22 volts. I'm only using
126.6 Watts.
If I do this on both sides at the same time.
I'm using 253.2 Watts.

If I have a 30 Amp power supply 12 volts.
I have a total of 360 Watts.

I have the 406 for some time now and it ROCKS!

I have bought alot of different chargers from the cheap Hong Kong to the high 20 amp ones.
Nothing beats the ICharger.

If your charger don't charge at 30 amps with real time IR.
How do you know what you lipos are doing??

1. Good number will read 5-7 mil ohm (1.7 per cell)

2.Allways use the Balancing wire (TQ) when charging all lipos.
Gives a more precised end voltage everytime.

You need to charge your cells at 27-30 amps (COLD from 3.85volts/cell)
This causes the cell to heat internally evenly throughout the pack.
The outside of the cell case will feel room temperature to the touch.
No need to cycle your pack to put heat in it.

You have about 10 minutes.
Just run. and the IR will be at the lowest point timing is critical.

Varies between people. Myself and the other person at my table who had two 308's replaced have been using an IOTA 55A that's less than a year old. Not a cheap PS by any means.

Failure scenarios have varied. Mine stopped balance charging on one side. If you read the 4010 thread on RCGROUPS there's no shortage of people complaining about failures. It's the only black eye (and a big one) on an otherwise magnificent charger. Well, aside from the ridiculous color choices for the cases.

My 308 works like a charm

That's sucks to hear man. I hope progressive took care of your issues. I do poke my head over at rc groups, but some of those guys really push the limits when it comes to charging their packs.

The IOTA PS you have seems pretty bulky. Do you have a designated box for the charger and PS? The Mean well PS is longer but flatter but IOTA shape may be more suitable shape for the charger since it's more rectangular like the iCharger. Sorry for this silly question but I'm just trying to decide what to buy for the PS. LOL

These numbers dont add up. If its 5-7 mil ohm, wouldn't it be at least 2.5 per cell? Also, I thought capacity and c rating affected IR. Basically (from what ive read) the higher the mah and c rate, the lower the IR. Also does temp make a difference in IR readings? Meaning if you test it cold bs immedeatly after a charge or run?

IMO anything other than a I-Charger 206 is overkill with cars. Most guys that I see with the duo are using one bank anyway and if you are running the same brand lipo you can easily charge more than one pack if need be. I myself have a over kill setup that I use but I also fly heli's so I need the high power to do so.

Since I use the TQ balance wire I get the read at the battey (end leads) and a over all read at the wire (charger).
Since I use longer leads the IR is read the difference in the wire.


Cold - above - a cold pack that sat and was stored at 3.85 volt/cell.

There is a temperature range where the internal heat of a lipo pack IR is at it lowest.
If you get the pack:
Too hot the IR will start to rise. Too cold and the IR will be higher.

Around 10 minutes seems to be the cooling off time.

What does shape have anything to do with how it works? Or were you referring to putting it into a case?

Yeah the latter. Has nothing to do with performance.

Im still confused it doesnt answer my question of the numbers not adding up. I have gotten brand new packs and tested them at 3.8v per cell at 3ohms per cell on my icharger 206b. Ive heard of others getting into the 1.5 - 2 ohms per cell with the same size pack.

Well, most packs after 10 or so runs will decrease in IR. The first two cycles are generally "throw away" cyclings. Meaning the numbers are the highest they will be. Temperature has a good deal to do with the pack's IR. TO a point the warmer a pack is the lower the IR. Maybe like 100 degrees or something is ideal for the pack. Also with most manufacturers the batteries vary slightly and by slightly i mean too much. Some may be around 1.5 and others are 3 depends on the company and who they are buying from. Hope this answers the questions.

I use ORCA packs that have had roughly the same IR since the day I got them. I have a 6000 pack that I run in mod sedan and its over a year old and has well over 100+ charge/discharges on it and it is still at 1.3 per cell and gets as low as .9 per cell throughout the day depending on how much its ran. My 7500 packs are about 6 months old ran in 17.5/13.5 sedan and they are usually about 1.1 per cell. They have been as low as .7 per cell. This is how they have been since the day I bought them fro EA. I even have a 7200 pack that is well over 1 1/2 yrs old and is puffed( i left it fully charged for over 2 weeks because I forgot about it after racing one day), and this pack is still good at 1.5 per cell and prob 300+ charges on it. All of these have been charged solely on my 308 at 20+ amps every time. I believe the 308/406/4010 keeps the the packs very healthy as long as you keep them storage charged when not used, and the quality of the pack is a huge part of it.

+1 :tire:

What power supply are you using with your 308 for traveling?