Review: Turnigy Accucell 6 Hobby Charger

Thank you brted !

I discharged one eneloop today at 1 amp, came out at 1878mah. Seems accurate.

Voltage went from 1,5v right off the charger to 1,1xV after a few hundred mah had been discharged and stayed there forever. Li cells show the same effect.

Does not seem to have any effect on termination of charge/discharge. Li cells start low current charge at exactly 4,2v on my dmm.

Cell is discharging right now to see if it stops at 0,9v. LiIon discharge on 18650 Trustfire had accurate termination at 3.0v.

Later on I charged the 18650 and noticed the disparity in voltages again from what the Turnigy was saying vs. what I was reading with my DMM. But once the voltage crept up to 4.20V on the Turnigy, my DMM also read 4.20V. So it seems to be charging correctly.

Aloha and welcome to BLF neverfeltbetter!

Today I receive my Accucell 6 charger from Hobbyking and I have to say I am a little bit disappointed about it.

I used to charge mi Li-Ion batteries with an old, out of service, LG cellphone. although it took almost 4 hours to charge an Unprotected Panasonic 1800mAh battery from 3.8 to 4.196 volts it did terminate at 4.196 volts. Starts at 500mA and terminates at ~50mA. The battery sat at 4.18 volts after 30 minutes out of the charging cradle.

Now this accucell 6 took 2 hours to charge the same battery from 3.9 to 4.173 volts. Charge starting at 600mA and terminating at ~100mA after 120 minutes. Terminated due to 2 hours timeout. The battery sat at 4.11 volts after 30 minutes.

When charging at 600m there is a 0.06 volts difference between a Fluke 179 DMM and Accucell 6 (Fluke showed 4.1 and accucell 4.7) and 0.03 volts when charging at 100mA (when the charge was terminating).

When I started the accucell voltage calibration procedure the Fluke 179 and accucell 6 measured the same voltage at the battery (4.11 volts). So when charging there is a 0.06 volts difference but when calibrating the voltage is the same. Really disappointing.

I thought the problem was resistance in the cable so I inserted the cradle cable into the charger connector so the cable length was shorter, but the same thing. There was still a 0.06 volts difference. This difference is measured not only at the cradle contacts but at the alligator connectors coming with the charger.

I have several laptop batteries range from 7.4V (lipo) to 19V (Li-ion) and I'd like to know if this charger can do it.

I heard about the danger of Lipo battery if not handle properly. Your advise is greatly appreciate.

Hello:

A nice thorough review.

I really like your writing style; informal, succinct and easy to read. It's almost like you are speaking directly to the reader.

Regards,

Dave

For discharging just use the NiMh setting and you can set any cut off voltage you like.

Just remember to set it back to LiOn before recharging.

Also bought a Accucel -6 (still on its' way ...), and being reading up about how to connect my 18650 batt's to it.

I want to be able (If I can), to charge 4 x 18650's at a time. What will be the recommended setup?? (Parallel or in Serial). Also how do you connect the cables if you want to do Balance charging.

Thanks guys!!

I use these cheap Ultrafire battery holders about $1 dollar each modified with sheet metal screws and springs. Some alligator clamps and wires and you can pretty much charge anything you want.

Thanks E1320, that what I want to do . Also imported some batt's holders. I need to know how to connect them, If I want to balance charge.

Thanks E1320, that what I want to do . Also imported some batt's holders. I need to know how to connect them, If I want to balance charge.

Turingy sells balancing adapter and get some additional alligator clamps and wires and then hook them up pos to neg with the balancing lead in between the batteries. There is additional info on here how to do it i am leaving now I can find it when i get back for you. Or search for balance charging you will find more info. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful I have to catch a train.

Thanks for your time....

Here's a great page about batteries and hobby chargers:

http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/HobbyChargers%20UK.html

Here's some different ways to connect batteries:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=293505&p=3539368#post3539368

With 4 batteries in series and no balancing, the two interior batteries won't charge as fully (I think; I could be wrong on this, but I know it is true with NiMH batteries) because of the resistance from the outer batteries. In parallel supposedly the batteries will self-balance.

Do you guys know if it is safe to charge LiIo cells using the LiPO program? This charger has a 4.1 peak voltage when using the LiIO program so the new 4.2V cells are not fully charged with this setting.

Are the LiIO and LiPO charging programs similar and the only difference is the final voltage?

Hi Torelu,

I've got my charger now for about 2 weeks. Being playing and testing alot.

I cannot answer your questions, but what I've found charging 18650 batt's, is that if I test the Volts, it's normally 4.14Volts, and not 4.21-22. With the normal double chargers, it will charge up to 4.21 Volts.

After reading this link, I also re calibrated my charger.

I bought this charger a few months ago, I know exactly what it is capable of. I charge my RC toys LiPO batteries with it.

I also charge my LiIO cells with it using the LiIO program but this program stops at 4.1V. I just want to know if anybody knows if there is any problem charging LiIO cells using the LiPO program.

Yes and yes.

If I'll set my house on fire I'll know where to find you ...

Is this the cheapest option if all I want to do is measure capacity of batteries I buy from DX? At say 0.5-1A discharge?

Thanks