Is iCharger really superior?
 

A guy at our local track said iCharger makes a huge difference in power and speed. To me, it doesn't make sense because even if it charges up to 20A whatever, once it's charged it charged, right?
Can somebody explain how it makes the car faster and more powerful if it ever does it?

cycling to lower IR and end voltage accuracy

Can you be more specific? IR being inner resistance? So the way it charges lowers the resistance when it's being discharged?? Do you personally feel it makes such a difference?

that's the secret no one is telling you! you need to experiment! lower IR before you're run the better the lipo discharges.

AGain my friend, I appreciate you even spending time on this advising me.
But I must ask you.. again.. do you see difference? If what you said is true, they guys using iCharger should be always faster than the others if they are at the same level. Am I wrong?

It depends on the lipo. All lipo's are not the same. And yes, there are differences in feel between some of the lipos I own even though they are the same brand.

I see. Difference like a lot faster difference? So I guess you're the iCharger user. Do you see lots of people at your local track use it now, especially the faster ones?

no I do not use an Icharger. Still rocking an TP820. But I do see many I chargers at my local track

Cycling to reduce IR etc etc ... doesn't happen for lipos. What does happen, when you're charging at 20A, is that cell temperature increases! This increase in temperature is what is reducing IR of these lipos.

I believe at some races, they are shooting temp guns at batteries to try limit the advantaged gained by people with fat wallets that can afford to trash their lipos with insane temperatures in order to gain that little bit extra.

See I don't think that's the charger that makes the speed difference I mentioned in the "how to modify motor" thread. Cuz I know some are still too fast for the class with regular charger. But I believe you that iCharger CAN make the car a bit faster. but not by much, right?

Yeah I also heard about it. That's probably why they sell out almost new lipos after the big races, right?

who knows? I don't have an Icharger. Its a combination of driver skill, setup, and equipment that makes a car fast. You have to be fast with the equipment you have. There is too many variables.

Would never buy 2nd hand batteries (I did once back in the day before the advent of NiMHs) because battery care drastically affects performance and durability (short and long term) ... but yeah I would imagine people selling "almost new" lipos after big races that have been thrashed

I did a lot of research on how to charge batteries when I decided to buy a 308Duo. This is what I learned:

Almost everyone (blinky racers) over charges their batteries to hit the ROAR voltage limit of 8.44v. ROAR uses this limit to take into account small variances in measuring devices. However, everyone upped their battery voltage to take advantage. The limit really should be 8.4v, period.

People are over charging at high amps with cycling to time the heat buildup in the battery with their race. Heat in the battery lowers IR providing the motor with higher voltage. This, evidently, has replaced the now illegal LiPo battery warming trays.

The iCharger has a couple features that can help you do the above a little bit safer. Or these features can charge the batteries more efficiently (if you choose the safer, lower voltage charge levels).

One is the iCharger balancing options. You can program this to death to get the best charge time while keeping your cells' IR matched and increasing battery efficiency and service life.

It also has the option to 'trickle' charge the battery after it has completed to maintain the 4.2v per cell as you get ready to race.

With this said, an overcharged battery will give you virtually no advantage if you scrape a board once or twice during a run. So really the best feature of having an iCharger is to protect your batteries. Not to go faster.

I hope this is true. LiPos were supposed to do away with all the crazy battery tricks we lived with during NiMhs, like cycling, heating, overcharging, etc. I don't want to get back into that world again! :cry: