I thought the "cheaper" generators produced dirty AC power that wouldn't properly power with our sensitive chargers? At least that's what I was told and that only the $1K Yamaha type generators produced usable power for charging duty. :confused:

In one of my other hobbies I like to off road, four wheel & camp. We normally go out to places where there are more bears than people, so we are a bit remote. What lots of people do is have a dual battery set up. This way they isolate the main battery and can run all the extra stuff off of the secondary battery. Or they run everything from the main battery and isolate the secondary battery ( for starting when the main battery goes dead) They then have solar panels set up for charging if we are stopping for a couple of days. Some are the fold up kind and other are the normal rectangle ones that do not fold.

Of course it would be good to figure out how much power will be used by the chargers & to get a solar panel that would put out enough power. Even if you killed it you could just fire up the truck with the main battery and then have Alt charge the secondary battery. This could put a strain on the Alt if you have to do this a bunch.

Advantages to this type of system is once its installed you will always carry it with you to the track. It would be quiet and clean (No gas or fumes to deal with).

Disadvantages would be cost and time to install it and wire the entire thing together. Also if the sun is not out you will not get as much power from the solar panels.

I have never used anything like this to charge RC batteries but after reading the thread the idea just popped in my head and I thought I would post it to show another direction..

Solar panel kits are several hundred bucks and are inly about 45-50 watts. And require an automotive battery to work.


no one said dont bring a generator. We said please consider buying one that isnt producing 150 decibels of noise. Its highly obnoxious and we cant hear the announcements.

The honda yamaha and ryobi are about 80 decibels.

Sorry - Loudness is part of our outdoor hobby, especially for tracks that dont have or have very limited power. There have been plenty of times that I was happy for someone to pull up with a Genny.

Lets all race EP buggys, no more nitro, because when on the drivers stand or in pit row, I cant hear? How about all the air compressors? Heck Campers use Gennys too. Im not going to spend a thousand bucks on a genny to play with my toy cars.. And you dont have too.

We play with toy cars. Ive been using my genny for a few years now and have not had an issue charging batteries. Gennys are a part of Out Door off road racing. There has not been a race Ive been to that there was not several gennys going all day.

I would quit this hobby if I had to buy a thousand dollar genny to use a $300 charger to charge a battery.

Bring a friend, make him drive and use their battery:lol:

i dont race but when i go and bash up at big bear moutnain or camping else where i just use my moms truck battery just run the truck or car once every 45 mins and it is fine plus we have an electric jump starter just in case well she had it before i was in the hobby so its good to have one anyway

The Honda generators are the best, couple guys bring them to the track because they park so far away

Will a 6v 7ahm Depp cycle battery (the $20 ones from ebay) be enough to power say an Lipo charger for at least 2 chargers at a Fast charge (i.e. 1/2 hr to fully charge 5100mah saddles)?

Short answer, I don't think so.

Depends on how many of them are used, that's not a very big battery. At the very least it would take a couple in series to get enough voltage to run any RC charger I'm aware of, most need at least 11 volts or so. While lead acid batteries are capable of quite high amps, the voltage can drop quite a bit, I suspect even with a pair in series the usable amps might well be less than desired.

Then there is the limited capacity. Fun with maths, a pair in series would be rated for around 84 watt-hours (12V x 7Ah). A single 2S 5100mAh saddle pack is in the 37 Wh range (if not a little higher as charge voltage is mostly above the nominal rating of 7.4V). And some energy is lost/used powering the chargers themselves (charge efficiency). At best around a couple full charges. Perhaps less due to more voltage drop, this time as the batteries discharge.

Don't use your car hit a junkyard you can grab a used battery with some life in it and charge it at home pretty cheap too

I use a optima blue top. deep cycle last for a ton of charges and it is good smooth power. A generator is not.

After reading this thread i have some questions but here is what is the situation at the track i am dealing with:

1- obviously no power at the track so I need a power source
2- generator is not in the plans right now

my set up:
electric 5th scale racing

2x 6s 7600 mah packs (so 15,200 mah) per run
capaciity needed if i run in practice, quals and mains (assume 6 runs max) so i would need a total of 91,200 mah
charging @7.6A per pack, 15.2A total

this is my charger both AC/DC
https://www.rcjuice.com/chargers-acc...e-charger.html

i understand that that total capacity might not reflect what i actually need as we do not run our lipos to zero capacity

can a car battery supply that much power for a full day? is there a power bank that can handle that much charging?

any help would be appreciated
thank you

Why asking that same question here?

Do you expect a wonder solution in this topic?
Just keep it in one topic Power station instead of Generator for RC racing - Page 5 - R/C Tech Forums (rctech.net)

thank you