Originally Posted by
mtpocketsracing
that charger will take a long time to charge a 6500 4s battery. it will only do roughly 3.5 - 4amps max on a 4s at 80w.
finding a charger in your price range that can properly charge a large mah 3s and 4s battery will be hard to find unless you buy used. you're really looking at needing a $150-$200 charger(in an AC version) to get the kind of output required to properly charge those large packs. a dc version usually has more output capabilities because an external power supply is usually a lot more powerful. but you're looking at $80-100 typical for one. old server power supplies work well and are around $50 I think.
its not just time of charge to think about. you have to have a proper amp input to the battery. I have an instruction sheet with my new 6500 4s smc racing batteries that say do not charge less than 1c. to do that I would need a charger that would charge at min 6.5 amps. probably looking at 150-200w just to get the 6.5 amps into a 4s.
so this has had me researching new charges. I've come to the conclusion the Icharger 308 duo is probably one of the best all around chargers on the market. if I didn't need to charge up large cap 4s batteries I wouldn't need it. but this dude has tons of power(800w and 30A) and my current power supply should be enough to get mine at 6.5A.
The AC680 was a jumping off point for sure. Excellent job at steering me in a better direction! That 308 is a beast! $200+ is tough for me to swallow while simply testing my interest in the hobby once again.Thanks to you, though, my logic fights me on accepting anything less lol!
I just got this (insert url) to go along with my X200. they will both charge a 4s over 6.5a.
Price seems almost too good to be true! I've been searching diligently for sub $100, high watt, AC charger with good backing for days. Seeing that you now own 2 products from this manufacturer, how do you feel about the items quality and dependability? Any others have opinions on the X180? Satisfying my instant gratification with a sub $100 AC charger for my setup definitely seems more bleak now lol :O/
EDIT:
I decided to check out a few "how-to's" using computer PSU's and it seems very straight forward and not quite the trouble that it initially sounds. At this point is seems I could land a middle of the road DC charger (such as the X180 or other recommendations) and use one of my old PSU's and come out with a few extra bucks in my pocket. If I'm not quite ready to convert my 550w unit to a lipo charger just yet, what wattage should I look to pick up and what should I look out for?
On a side note (as i look more into DC) I see reasonably priced power supply's at HK. I'm assuming these are simply more cumbersome?