Thanks for the feedback, unfortunately my PC only has USB type A ports, I will try with the cable supplied in the package

If I use a 6s battery what capacity should I use for two days racing with a car lipo capacity of 8,500 max, 1s or 2s?

I ran a 6K 6s and it was plenty of capacity for a day of racing 1s. I had to recharge it during the race day when running 2s. This was using regeneration discharge.

Convert everything to watt-hours and calculate...
Example.
8,500mAh 1s = 8.5 amps x 3.7v (nominal voltage) = 31.45Wh
Say you want to charge that five times and each time you charge it, you are starting at 50% capacity or state of charge (ie, you are using 50% of the battery out on the track)
8.5 amps x .5 (50% capacity) = 4.25 amps x 3.7v = 15.725Wh x 5 charge cycles = 78.625Wh
You'll want to add a little bit for inefficiencies in the charger, so let's say 78.625WH x 1.10 = 86.5 Wh You'll need a 6s battery with a minimum of 86.5Wh to charge your 8,500 mAh 1s battery five times from a 50% state of charge.
Therefore you need...
6s battery nominal voltage is 6 x 3.7v = 22.2v
86.5 Wh/22.2V = 3.89 Ah or 3,890mAh
In this scenario, a 4,000 mAh 6s battery is what you'd need.

So I'm in need for a dual channel charger for usgt racing. I'm going through this thread... but I've seen a few posts from frustrated users. High level and getting to the point: Is this charger worth it? Based on the price and features, it's almost too good of a deal not to give it a shot... I don't really have much of a plan to charge/discharge at 40amps as an advantage for my racing program, USGT / 17.5 are the classes I would be running... I have heard that many/most of the fast guys in these classes in my area are doing this. I have a long way to go where any advantages of doing that are the deciding factor in how I would place.

That alone puts me off from getting a cheaper charger with a 15amp charge limit. So... question still stands on should I roll the dice on this with a DIY power supply or is it problematic enough to make it worth spending 3x as much for the same capability.

I would absolutely not recommended the m8d, grab a DX6 if you can afford it or a better budget option grab two M6d's and use synchronous cables and you get two channels at 25 amp rates, without the M8d problems. When you are ready to use a discharger use an external discharger, or just put your packs in a heated sack if its allowed, same results less stress on the packs and charger.

150% THIS!

Seems like a gamble with this charger, when this charger works it works great but if you are having issues with it, no amount of firmware updates can fix it. I dont have any issues what so ever with this charger and I seem to be the ONLY one on this thread that dont. But keep in mind people only post about things being wrong, they rarely post about praises about this charger, so take that with a grain of salt.

Regarding the high amperage charge/discharge, some swears by it, some dont. Not gonna go into it as as there are plenty of threads on here you can read about it but if you want a charger capable of doing so, the M8D CAN but not at 40A. It can charge and discharge at 30A but you need to power the charger with a 6S/car battery so it can regen discharge to get 30amps. You cant discharge at 30 amps from one channel to another with a resister.

correction…….there are two of us that have had success with the charger. I have seen quite a few have issues and the way it was handled or shall I say not handled has turned me into a non believer but I just stopped posting. I still use mine from time to time as it works but if I could get a do over I would have gone with the Skyrc charger to play with.

Hey all, thanks a ton for taking the time to post responses. I ended up going with an icharger s6 and I'm going to DIY a power supply for it. After reading the posts here, I did a quick dive through the manuals of the S6, DX6 and M6D. I should have done that originally before posting... derp. At any rate, I was going back and forth between the DX6 and the S6 and I made the decision that I'd rather have 2 separate chargers for the redundancy advantage instead of a dual charger if/when my racing program picks up enough to warrant 2 simultaneous charging solutions. Right now, I have a rather crummy imars ac/dc that will be the backup and get used for the occasional vintage/basher that I run for fun while at the track. I may eventually roll the dice on an M6D as a backup/secondary charger.

I'm not going to mess with stupid high charge/discharge rates to pre-condition the batteries. I went for the s6 as protection, in case my mind changes on that, but I don't like the idea of battery tomfoolery and initially, I'd rather be battling mid pack then @#$^ing around and finding out. I've got a long, long way to go getting back in the hobby until the last 1-2% of performance is going to be what decides what place I finish.

Again, thanks for taking the time to lead this dumb ass horse to water to watch it drink.

Didn’t break out the icharger today……..

How did you manage to do a 20a discharge?

its set to recycle mode hooked up to my rcdischarger. It will do 30amp as well.

FWIW - I talked to three people using this charger at an 1/8 scale race this weekend and all said they loved it and have not had any issues. All highly recommended.

I've been looking at the M8D to use for ebuggy racing vs. the icharger 456 Duo I currently have for 1/10 racing. This will help keep my kit smaller for travel and wear/tear on the 456 down as the dirt/dust/outdoor conditions are probably not great for the icharger. Better to use something cheaper for the basic charging required for 1/8 racing.

I haven’t had any issues with mine. You have to make sure your fans kick on sooner before it gets hot. Other than that I’d recommend this over a dx6 icharger just becase the screen is easier to see.