balance charging 18650's / 26650's

i brought a 2 x 18650 and a 6 x compact 18650 battery holder from here to make up some better balance charging set ups.

http://www.luminousdiy.com/Light%20Kits%20and%20Parts.htm#holders

looks like they will only be sold to the 1/10/11 ?

here is a link for cheap 18650 battery holders

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?lang=en&site=US&KeyWords=18650+battery+holder&x=26&y=24

it might only be good for usa customers as shipping to australia for one battery holder is $30 usd....

I have got my battery holders from www.luminousdiy.com its a pity Chris is no longer going to be selling them

2 x 18650 and a compact 6 x 18650 (3 top 3 bottom)

I'm going to make these into balance charging box,s

2S balance revision 0

ill neaten it up a bit but so far i like it better then the magnets.

3 different brands, 3 different battery voltages and 3 diffrent mAh ratings

4 different brands and 6 different battery voltages 4 diffrent mAh ratings

the best thread on this topic on the inet, thanks!!

( and i have given up on hobby chargers. i dont feel ready for them hehe. lemme continue to watch my powerex )

What will be best balanced Charger? to charge all types of cells ranging from Lead Acid,Nicd,Nimh,Lion,Lipo etc,& still is cheap reliable & has a good lifetime

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6792 (Is this Genuine ?)


http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__5548__IMAX_B6_Charger_Discharger_1_6_Cells_GENUINE_.html

If u have other suggestion then or experience with these charger then plz share,

Is it safe to purchase from Hobby King ?

I have an IMAX B6AC and find it great!

the only thing I do not like is the low discharge current (1A only)

I bought it from hobbyking, so good .. is genuine!

Icharger certainly is better but costs twice..

ah .. I forgot ..

if the balance function is essential for you .. do not get an IMAX B6.. it is not accurate in balancing

I got the Turnigy Accucell 6. How is balancing function on that?

I honestly do not know the Accucell 6,

at first sight seems very similar to B6 as a type of software and hardware, but it depends on the quality of resistors used,

the problem in my charger is due to the fact that they used 1 percent resistors instead of 0.1 percent resistors :-(

but I can not say if your accucel 6 has the same type of trouble..

It's a B6 clone. Take your own pick on how reliable it is.

Mine seems reliable when voltages checked on a borrowed insanely expensive Fluke meter which was recently calibrated by the NPL - which added a zero or two to its price. On my well battered Fluke which has never been calibrated I got the same results. Since I use the charger at work, it had to get checked by the sparkies (electricians) hired in for the job. It passed just fine which surprised me given the dirt cheap Chinese PSU I use with it.

Others may vary but mine is fine.

I've used both and more, I like the ichargers but they cost a little more, still on the cheap side as far as RC chargers go

PierCC,atbglenn,Don & benckie thankx all of you,by reading the views it's clear that :-

1>The Icharger has good balacing performance.

2>Icharger is better & pricier too.

3>Hobby King is reputed seller

But still there are some questions wandering in my grey matter which are as follows :-

1>I saw in the HobbyKing site,they mentioned IMAX B6 charger as genuine but in case of ICharger 106B they didn't,So is ICharger is a clone ?

2>Can Imax charge a Ups Battery properly ? or 6*18650 ?

3>In case of Icharger they mention as 250watt,so is it input or output ? Can Icharger be plugged from a 12v 5A creative 5.1 Psu(but it will generate 60watt!) or a laptop 12v Psu ?

4>Imax vs ICharger which has the better price to performance ratio (reasons will be very much appreciated)

5>As PierCC said Imax do not have a good balancing so can anybody give the example? so I can figure out the amount of extent to Icharger

6>Should I have to buy a separate PSU with this(http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6478__IMAX_B6_AC_Charger_Discharger_1_6_Cells_GENUINE_.html)

Some of the good things about iCharger is:

  • Its good precision,
  • The ability to cycle batteries a couple of times automatic and save the result from each cycle.
  • The computer connection
  • I have also used the software update a couple of times.

IIRC, iCharger are made by Junsi Electronics http://www.jun-si.com/enindex.asp

I suspect all these iMax chargers are actually OEM by Junsi.

1 = no its not a clone in my opinion, there is may coppies and clones of the i max b6 and the likes i got my icharger form hobby king and im happy with it being geniune.

2 = yes and yes IMO as it has more features is more accurate and will do 7 amp discharges and 10 amp charges, trust me 1 amp maxium discharge is not really good, Ive done 12 volt heavy duty car batteries and sealed lead acid battiers with my icharge no problem.


3 = the minimum i would run a icharger 106b+ from is about 6 amps at 13.5 volt, my icharger 106b+ has a jack on it for a power supply like a laptop power supply but it says 6 amps in. if your charging 22.2 volt 6 cell lipo,s at 10 amps then you would need a 250 watt power supplie, but to charge 6 x 18650,s at 1c or 2c (1 to 2 amps approx) you don't actually need a huge wattage power supply, but the icharge 106b+ recommends 6 amps min and i do a lot of 10 amp charging with mine, so i have the p350 power supply it give me room to upgrade later on, most laptop power supply,s i have seen are 12 to 18 volt. At 5 amps the icharge does not use 5 amps if that makes sense not with Lion cells we use for torches any way.


4 = icharge hands down, the i max has a Maxim charge of 5 amps or 50 watt you cant always get the Maxim charge due to the 50 watt limitation of the charger, plus the i max has a Maxim discharge of 1 amp or 5 watt, very slow to discharge very hard to do any half decent battery testing due to the maxi-um discharge rate being so low, the icharger 106b+ (i mention this one as its the one i have and the cheapest out of the ichargers and more suited for your need,s if your not into remote control cars, choppers and planes) it has 10 amp or 250 watt maxi um charge rate and a 7 amp or 20 watt but you can get the 106b+ to discharge at 170 watt, Basically the icharge 106b+ is 5 times more powerful for charging and discharging.

The icharge is also accurate with in 10 mv or 0.1 volt when balance charging and can be calibrated to get that down to 0.0 if you have a good multi meter but 10 mv is bugger all, the i max b6 if accurate with in 60 mv per cell some lower around 10 to 40 mv, the imax b6 chargers also in my honest opinion do not charge nimh or nicad batteries to well they tent to over charger or under charge them due to poor delta peak sensitivity and accuracy of the charger the icharge does a much better job of this and its is fully adjustable with more programme options and you can adjust the sensitivity of the delta peak for nimh and nicads so you cant over charge and shorted the life of your nimh and nicads.

There is a heap more usable features on the icharge over the i max more then you most likely will use, a good feature i like of the ichargers is testing the intrenal resistance of the batteries and battery packs helps you match batteries to gether for series use and monitor the life of the battery and how your charging habits affect the batteries another one is data logging as you can connect your icharge up to a computer to get data read outs of the battery or batteries, plus you can upgrade the software of the ichargers to keep them up to date plus you can calibrate them over and over and over again if you want to, unlike the i max has a one shot deal get it wrong and to bad.

Ive been in to remote control for 3/4 of my life so Ive gone through a few chargers like the i max and accurcels and so on, i use to have a few of the i max b6 genuine's to charge my RC Helli lipo batteries two would over charger one would under charger, my old man has one for his Helli,s and RC car his tests to over charger all don't seam to do to well with nimh batteries as the batteries would always over heat and mine would pull inconstancy mAh readings and would need to be stopped and started to charge a nimh battery to near full, my mates Sohans would melt 4 x AA battery holders while trying to charge his RC radio batteries, but others are happy with them and they seam to work fine.

I could go one and on about the icharger ill be honest its not the best RC charger out there, as there are some top self ones out there but they are 6 x the price + but it is a good charger and great for the price vs features, i have used mine well over a year none stop and have used it for up to 5 days straight along with the power supply and its still going strong, i use it to charger my camera batteries, xbox controller batteries, my RC cars radio batteries, my daughters toys, my RC cars li-po batters, my torch batteries, 12 volt heavy duty car batteries, seal lead acid batteries and i have made leads so i can take it any where run it from 100 to 240 volt, 12 volt like a car cigarette lighter for low amp chargers like traveling and charging up the camera batteries, you can connect it direct to a car battery when out in the field if needed and i have made my own charge leads to charge just about any thing (you can also do this with any hobby charger) an hobby charger is an investment you will have it for a long time and use it lots i think spend a little extra on a better one, it will pay for its self.


5 = some over charge some under charge and some don't do well with nimh batteries, if you buy a i max and it play,s up its not worth sending back for repair or replacement, if the icharger is faulty or you damage it, send it back, they will repair or give you a new one, upgrade the firmware calibrate it and pay return shipping and send some gifts. Junsi have there own forum and many forum threads they will personal answer questions and take advice of software upgrades and there customer service seams to be great, i have not personally used it, but my friend has after his charger went faulty due to a mistake he made.

6 = no its has one built in but you will need to buy a power cord or new plug to suit your country, if the power supply fails (mine did) i use a laptop power supply to power it through the jack and it still worked also i used a laptop power cord to replace the USA power cord it came with.

If case your intrested i use this power supply with my icharger i also use it for projects and testing stuff in the shed and charging camping gear.

Junsi P350 23 amp 350 watt 100 to 240 volt power supply

or have a look at this combo

"The Starter" 220W Combo (icharger 106b+ and a 220 watt power supply)


Progressive RC is in the USA but Ive found David to be very helpful he has good communication and shipping was good from the USA to Australia.

I hope this post makes sense as Ive had a really hard night and I'm still drunk and my eyes are stinging bad and after taking all morning to type this out i bet you will get the i max b6 any way but if you can solder up some leads it will be more handy then the common 2 channel basic chargers.

If you where thinking how does the charger plug into the two power supply,s ive linked they use 4 mm banana connectors and plug right in, nice and neat.

Then to make charging leads its cheap to buy more 4 mm banana connectors, 4 mm silicone wire and some 5 mm heat shrink, some rare earth magents and some balance leads from hobby king or ebay and i use these with tamiya plugs soldered on the ends to charge my nimh batteries.

4 x AA battery holder

8 x AA battery holder

4 x AAA battery holder

4 x D cell battery holder

4 x C cell battery holder

You can do a form charge with nimh and nicad batteries with the ichargers its good for ballancing out series charged cells, if you look at this thread you will see how i balance charge my 18650,s and if you look at the link below it has some other leads and ideas.

Hobby chargers

I hope this helps.....

Thanks Benckie. Now I'm tempted to get the iCharger 106B. Your saying it's much better than my Turnigy Accucell 6 at balance charging? Is the fan quiet?

benckie, many thanks for the info and photos posted. I'm running a Skycharger 6200 and just set up for two cell balance charging per your photos (magnets). Works great. Awesome thread.

The Accucell 6 is just a i max b6 clone to me Glenn and i do belive the icharger 106b+ is alot better then the Accucell 6 and the i max b6 and other clones due to it being more acurate, better at charging minh's with more good usible features and higher charge and discharge rates.

The fan is quiet but on really hot days if the charger has been on for a fair while or your discharging a decent amount of amps, you can hear the fan hit second gear the fan ramps up with the internal temp of the charger, you can monitor this in the menue of the charger and set your cut off,s, but the fan is needed to pull the heat away from the charger and it is used to help drain a few more watts while discharging, rememeber the icharger 106b+ has a 7 amp discharge rate.

Ive actualy found it funny when ive read on here guys have brought a charger just because it does not have a fan, it helps with discharging and the cooler you can keep electrical items the longer they will last IMO. Check out this thread below as i have added some more info for making nimh battery holders for charging you might find it useful.

Hobby chargers