I am looking for a pair of balance charge leads for my iCharger DX8. I was told that DRC is a good brand but they are on backorder for a month. Are there any other options like DRC with the included balancer in the cables?
Batteries: ProTek 2S

Any charge lead will work, the charge lead will do nothing on the performance so no need to look up "the best"

What other companies make charge leads with the balancer included in the cable. I would prefer not to use a balancer board as thing start to clutter up.

Just visit some shops and look what they have. You can also check Amazon, Ebay, Banggood, Alexpress and Hobbyking. I am pretty sure you will find something.

If you are talking that the balance plug need to be the full width of the balance port and a simple 3 pole 2S balance plug needs a balancer board, it is not realy needed to use a balancer board, you can plug in a simple 3 pole balance connector directly in the charger port.

The quality of the charge lead can make a big difference to the reported IR values.

While this is true for the DX8, it's not true for all chargers.

LRP 2S LiPo Charge/Balance Lead (XT60 to 4mm/5mm Bullet Connector) (60cm) (XH Balance Adapter)

XT60 cable to DX8
XH 3 pin connector directly to the DX8 charger balancer port
4/5mm bullets to 2S ProTek Battery

This look like it should work?

I doubt that. For charging it is no issue, at the end when the battery is almost full the current has become very low that any small resistance does not matter. Reading IR is a discharge current shot where the current is or a constant current or just measured and the IR will be calculated with the measured voltage on the balance port. Any resistance on the cable(s) will not have an influence.

Even then you can plug a 3 pole connector in the 6S/8S balance port, just remove the right notch of the plug on the cable..

It definitely makes a big difference on my 406 Duo. One of my charge cables shows 4mOhm per cell higher than my other 2 cables.

A typical 12awg cable has in the ballpark of 2mOhm resistance per foot. That's not negligible when the battery being measured is at the same order of magnitude. Then add in the resistance of the connectors as well.

+1

This is a main reason why I prefer to solder my own cables... if I were to buy from someone I would only go with a reputable source where Trinity is known for high quality:
https://www.teamtrinity.com/prochargecables

Then they do not know the basics of how to measure low and high impedance's with a volt and ammeter. If the cable has influence then it is a very bad design......

this topic has been debunked by the stereo community a million times. monster cable for example, doesn't even make their own products. they're made by a company in china sold as premium cables. it's all the same stuff. even your Icharger is made in china. you can buy the most expensive stuff you want, but your battery leads are still what they connect to. you can't change that. no reason to waste money.

https://www.buddyrc.com/collections/...31979616600150

Are you seriously comparing this to audiophile cables? That's a completely different conversation. I never said you should buy expensive cables either.

It's generally the connector rather than the cable itself in this situation. Connectors can wear out or have a bad fitment, or in my case it's a banana cage plug vs bullet plug that do make a measurable difference.

Then how are the IR 's per cell measured if the banana plug (serial connection!) is making an influence?
Measuring IR is simple. Over the main lead pulses of discharge is made and over the balance leads the voltage drops per cell are measured. If the cable has an influence then the balancer cable would be the problem.

Are you asking me how they ARE calculated or how they SHOULD be calculated? I don't have the source code to the charger firmware so can't answer the former accurately. But I can assure you that if I swap between my charge cables I do get reliably reproducible differences in the IR. Besides, on one of my charge leads, that balance wire is interfacing with the battery through that same cage connector. A voltage drop at that interface will look like a voltage drop across the pack.
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And it doesn't really matter to me whether it's the balance or the main wire, they're both part of the charge lead harness - or at least they are for the bullet style batteries.