Recommend a power supply.
 

Hey fellas. For years I've been getting by with a couple Duratrax Ice chargers paired with a 18amp Ofna power supply. Decided to upgrade to a nicer/more powerful charger. The charger I'm going to get is the Hitec X2-400
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXCEYW&P=ML
Obviously I'm going to need a manlier power supply and I don't want to leave the charger hanging. I'm by no means highly educated on the particulars, but I'm assuming that I should look into a power supply rated at least as high as the charger (800watts/40amp)? This one caught my eye:
http://www.maxamps.com/Power-Supply-24V.htm
What are y'all's thoughts? Good choice or do you have a better suggestion for me and why? Thanks in advance. I appreciate any pearls of wisdom ;).

What types of batteries(2S? 4S?) and what types of charging rates (10 amps a channel?) are you looking at.

You could buy an 800 watt PSU, but if you are only going to charge 2S batteries at 10 amps, you can get away with 200-250 watts. If you can tell me your scenario we can calculate how much max draw will be. If you want to have a PSU that can handle ANYTHING, you need something in the 850-900w range.

Don't get a 24V supply for that charger.

If youre only doing 2S batteries, you wont need a beefy supply. You can still go to about 9A doing dual 4S. I have the same charger using a 15A radio shack supply, and can hit 14A on each port doing a 2S.

I'll pretty much be charging a couple of 2s batteries at a time 2c max. I thought I had read that the higher wattage a charger/power supply will charge faster at the same amperage than a lower wattage. Maxamps has a 12 volt one and the price is very attractive.
http://www.maxamps.com/Power-Supply-12V.htm
Would that be a more sensible option? I found this as well but for the price the Maxamps seems to make more sense.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXDAKK&P=ML
I'd rather have a little more power supply than I need rather than "enough to get by and not much more". I don't mind spending money to get what's good instead of pinching pennies. Rather buy once and buy right. Again, I totally appreciate everyone's input and suggestions since I have a lot to learn with these things.

That Maxamps supply is just an old server power supply with heatshrink tubing and stickers on it. It will work fine for you. If you want to save some cash you can convert old server power supplies yourself and have one just like the maxamps for around $40 total.

I would say for your application, you need around 300watts total at 12V or greater.

Thanks for the info man! Hope I didn't sound too dumb :weird:. I can actually drive a rc car decent, but I swing hammers for a living and my wife describes me to her "corporate" coworkers as a Neanderthal :cool: so I definitely appreciate learning something.

No problem! Glad to help.

How big of batterys in Mah?

I use (2)3800, (4)5000, (2)5500, (2)6600, and (2)7200 at any given time (obviously not all at the same time) and an occasional 1300 3s for my crawler.

Youll really have about 20% head room with the PS you have. Otherwise Id get one of these. http://www.fantomracing.com/proddeta...?prod=FAN28595

Ok, that is perfect. So worst case scenario would be 2C on both the 7200 at the same time.

14.4 amps X 2 = 28.8amps
28.8amps X 8.4 volts = 241.92 watts

You need to factor in a bit of overhead, so I will stick with my recommendation for a 300 watt or greater power supply. Should do nicely. :tire:

Wouldn't be a total of 28.8A coming from the PS tho. The charger is getting 14v pumped in, and is only pushing out half. Youre really only using half that, so 14.4A total.

Right. But you also need to calculate total WATTAGE. Total wattage with both his big batteries at 2C would be:

Channel 1 - 14.4amps x 8.4v= 120.96 watts
Channel 2 - 14.4amps x 8.4v= 120.96 watts
TOTAL WATTS= 241.92

Then you add in some overhead for the charger, and also for safety. So in total he needs a power supply capable of sustaining a load that is about 15 amps and 260-270 watts at 12V or greater. I don't think his Ofna will put out 260-270 watts. Maybe 200. Maybe.

Thanks for the info guys. I have no intention of using the Ofna ps with this charger. Hoese, what differences do you see between the Fantom ps and the Maxamps? They're both 575watt/47amp, so other than the 2 sets of bullet plugs are there any other significant differences? Price is neither here nor there between the two. I do like Fantom stuff.