Which of these would be the best power supply solution?
 

So I'm new to R/C but the bug has bitten bad. So far spent way too much in such a short time span.... Anyway I'm at a crossroads. I am looking at getting one of the new HPI Savage XS trucks to go with my current two. So of course I want to go LiPo. This of course means a better charger than my cruddy Traxxas one. I've settled on the Duratrax ICE (found on clearance for a good price) but now I need a power supply setup and could use some help. I'm stuck between

Protek Super Pro 40 $150 and

Maxamps 24V $160

The price difference is minor but 520w vs 1150w is a major difference. The only bad things I can see about the Maxamps is the fact that it only has one output and no power switch. The power switch I can live with and maybe even modify to wire one it but I definitely need more outputs. I found a 6 output power strip at tower that seems to be what I need but I don't really want clamps running all over the place. Will this be sufficient (with a lot of draw) for use with the PSU? What other options do I have?

I'm also open to other power supply options (but I don't want to mod a PC power supply), just this is what I found so far. I really want something heavy duty that will power several high demand chargers. Can anyone make any recommendations?

The wattage is higher on the MaxAmps PS because it's 24V.

You need to watch out for that sort of thing, because only a REAL high output charger will be able to use that input voltage, like the TP 820CD I have.

The Duratrax ICE, for example, can only handle an input voltage of 11-18VDC.

It's a good charger, you could get a separate balancer down the road to keep your lipos healthy. Like this one.

For your purposes right now, I kinda doubt you'll outgrow the ProTek 40A PS, it took me 4 years to outgrow my old 10A PS to warrant the current setup I have with that TP 820CD and ProTek Super 1000. :lol:

I understand that the maxamps uses 2 plugs, not really a problem. I guess what I really want to know is there either a solution out there that would be better than both (in the same price range). Maybe something not directly RC advertised but maybe for electronics enthusiasts or something. Or a easy way to break out the Maxamps supply to get more devices plugged into it.

You could buy your the PSU yourself on Ebay for less than 40 bucks shipped. You can find info on rcgroups how to connect them together to run in series or parallel. You can solder on as many plugs as you like. Look at FMA Powerlab 8 chargers. More then enough for most folks.

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...u/DSC06247.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...8/DSC07384.jpg

See the below site for how to convert server power supplies for RC use. You can use one for 12v output or two for 24v output. The same two PS setup can supply both 12v and 24v. These are the exact same PS units that MaxAmps is selling. If you do it yourself you can pick up two of the PS for $30 - $40 on ebay.

http://sites.google.com/site/tjinguytech/my-projects

Also, checkout the battery forum at rcgroups.com. There are a couple huge threads on converting server power supplies.

Well I'm looking for something a bit more plug and play really snellemin. I also would prefer not having a bare psu laying around. I barely know the first thing about soldering (although I do have an iron somewhere). I am kinda hoping that power strip device will do what I want with the Maxamps (sorry can't post a link yet being new but if you go to Tower Hobbies and enter power strip in the search box you will see what I'm talking about. Plus I don't use eBay anymore because Paypal has basically stolen about $1200 from me over the years and I just refuse to support them any more.

The reason the maxamps uses 2 plugs is because they're selling modded computer power supplies, and rather than do the work to make it only require a single AC input, they run the outputs in series to give 24VDC.

The ProTek Super 40 runs nice and cool, quiet, and it's lighter weight than most converted computer PS's I've seen. It'll definitely handle several chargers running on it at one time.

From the OP guys :rolleyes:

Trying to make it simple as possible without a lot of soldering and what not. Maybe in the future when I know a bit more. The server power idea intrigues me. I'm leaning towards the Protek but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a similar option. Most of the RC psu's I've found are not even close and rarely have more than one output.

I appreciate all the input though.

Does anyone know for sure if the Protek is 40amps total (meaning total draw for the whole system) or if you can actually draw 40a off the main while simultaneously 16a off the other 4? (obviously you wouldn't draw quite that much since you wouldn't want to max out psu completely). I can't seem to find a straight answer on this.

Here is the PS I use to power my quad charger ( http://www.hobbypartz.com/75p-t6-multi-charger.html ), It is 25amps. You can't beat it for $39 bucks.
http://www.hobbypartz.com/77p-g350-powersupply.html . I can charge 4 lipos up to 6amps at the same time if I want to.

I use hobbypartz.com for all my lipos, chargers, PS's, lipos bags ect. you get the BEST bag for the buck with them!!! Check them out, you won't be sorry.

Bench/testing power supplies are going to be more expensive than most RC marketed PS's, and for sure more expensive than home brew Server PS conversions.

On the ProTek Super 40, the total output has to stay below 40A.

The main binding posts can supply a full 40A, where the auxiliary ports are limited to 16A each.

This is still enough to easily run 4-6 chargers at 5A output to charge multiple 2s batteries.

I got my setup from Progressive rc, as a plus they are very knowledgeable and helpful.

I got a 350w charger, and running an Icharger 208b. So far I have been very happy with this setup.

You might also look at something like this: http://www.speedtechrc.com/store/ebp...id=59&id=10879 . Puts out 18 amps, which should be good for some time....:cool: