iCHARGERS?
 

What is the deal with I Chargers? So for a couple of months now ive been fascinated by 1/12 scale on road cars and wanna get into racing them. I come from off road dirt so this is totally new to me. been going to my local track and getting to know the racers there and watching how they do stuff. im understanding everything ecept all having this $600 to $700 hundred dollar investment into a charger, power supply, cables and stand, and your only charging 1s lipo's? I ask them and they all say the same "its the best" Ok I get wanting all the best stuff, but for a guy that is starting from scratch I can't see spending all that on a charger setup? Am I wrong? I could be putting that money into the car, battery's, controller, setup tools for the car, tool boxes to carry all this stuff. Just try to help me understand? Thanks in advance, hope this is the right spot to ask this question.

There are so many "what is the best charger" topics on this forum, you should look them up and read them. As also the many iCharger topics. Basically iChargers are popular for their high charge and discharge (through resistor bank). The gain of such an abusing of the pack can not be noticed by a non top racer so it has no use to get such equipment if you are not competitive enough.

There are plenty of good chargers that will do the job. But what most racers like, even if they don't use it all the time, is the ability to charge and discharge at very high amperage (usually at 30a). If you're just starting out and you have to decide where you want to invest your limited budget, don't buy an iCharger Duo. You'll get a lot more bang for your buck buying quality entry level electronics and using left over money to go practice.

You can get into an iCharger setup for a heck of lot less than $600 - $700. If you are only running one car, a single X6 will be sufficient. They sell for $110 or Progressive RC sells refurbished units for $85. If you are handy with electronics, you can put together a very powerful power supply for around $25 using a retired server power supply. If you'd rather purchase one pre-made, you are looking at spending $80-ish. A quality pre-made 1s charge cable is going to run you about $30. I recently purchased some 2s charge leads off AliExpress and converted them to 1s. They ran me about $6 per cable and work just fine. If you want to do high-amp discharging, then you'll need a resistor bank as well, which you can build yourself for about $25 in parts or buy one pre-made for around $60.

Thank you that does help! Sometimes I get caught up in all this fancy stuff I don't need. Just need to keep it simple. Is there a site for making the cables and power supply like youtube or something.

I know asking questions is easy, using some search tools could be more satisfying and you will be amazed what you can find or what other options are offered. On the rcgroups forum there is a huge topic of all kind available server power supplies and how to make them work.
How to convert Server Power Supplies - RC Groups

Regarding the resistor bank for high current discharging is well explained in the manual of the iCharger but also many times explained in the many iCharger topics on this (and other) forum(s).

Corsatec
 

Seems a few heavy hitter 1s racers have also started using this charger.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...6102145dba.jpg
it does not discharge heavy. But seems not many do that anymore.
https://youtu.be/lsUzzIOIz9M?si=6kTKuijVEGYGYMG1

And I can see no reason why, except certain players in the industry pushing product they are the distributor for. Once you synchronize the two 2-channels of the Corsatec together, this charger does nothing more than my AC powered, 200-watt, $75 Hota H6 Pro.

They only charge max 15a. Use other port for battery heater sleave included in some options. Think you can get two. Small footprint. Boost function? These guys have all the other chargers and haven chosen this 1 now. I use 2 x6s with old school big power supply. Less confusing for me. Icharger have reverse polarity. Many other chargers do not. Lol. I am a budget racer. If i got another charger it would probably be a hota.
Maybe two of them.

Looks like an overpriced clone of a SkyRC (Neo range)

As has been said above; very hard to go wrong with a Hota.

You do not NEED a 4010 :)
 

I actually purchased the 4010 when Junsi first brought it to the market. It's an amazing charger and I often charge two 5S-7S batteries at the field for model airplanes. It's a work horse and even after a decade or so still feels current. But for 1S you absolutely do not need one. If I am just running 1/12 I'll often bring a pair ISDT X6s and if I'm racing 2S, I'll bring another Junsi DX6 with a resistor bank. 40XX series chargers are all overkill but I always find the main reason (other than discharging) guys like Junsi is the algorithm has a shorter finishing time than other brands. This is mainly due to the balance current which for an older design, was the highest in class. Also the Junsi interface saves charging profiles so if you are switching between different classes and or discharging, makes setup much more simple and consistent.

Thing is with high current charging and discharging is it’s not allowed at sanctioned races, it’s really only beneficial in spec classes and then there’s the poor batteries.

The screen on the DX6 and 8 are pretty small.

Depends on where you're racing, it's legal in some places

If it's not allowed, you can still regenerative discharge, and nobody is the wiser.

Because of this, it's allowed at all the tracks I've been to recently.

Might make a minor difference in 21.5JS classes, and single cell onroad. Not a big deal in any other class.

Its mostly great for racers that have to have, every advantage, but couldnt run a clean marshal free race to save their lives.