Looking for a new hobby charger, upgrading the Imax B6

Hey everyone,

Since I may start going into the battery business I am looking for a upgrade to my Imax B6 I would like to keep it in the $50-$80 range but I'm not really sure what available and for what price.

I would like something that can discharge at a minimum of 5A. I would also like to set the cut off voltage lower than 3v. These are the only real problems with the B6.

Thanks

Have a look in the battey database, stickied at the top of the battery forum. They list the charger/discharger used to test the battery (making a really good list of what chargers people actually use .

I am contemplating getting my first hobby charger, and am thinking of going straight to what you are suggesting. I like the look of:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=6792

for $80 is has discharge upto 7A AND is seems to have a USB interface (which I am also very interested in).

It gets lots of positive reviews anyway.

Thats actually the one I went with, But it's limited to 20w discharge so it's actually about 5.5A, not a big deal. You can actually hook up an external resistor so you can do discharges as high as 170w

For $5 more you can buy it off Ebay from a company in FL mine came in about 2 days to Oregon! I see your in Australia, probably better to buy it from hobbyking :)

Very nice.

I am interested in how (if) it logs the discharge tests. Basically, I would like to run a couple of the classic voltage over time at constant (high) current tests on 18650s for my own satisfaction. Let me know if you happen to use the USB feature - that is one the the bells and whistles that has me looking at that one.

Cheers for the ebay tip - I definitely have a look on there before i get around to buying one of these things.

(on a side note - I am still freaking out about how high the Aussie $ is right now - makes buying this kind of stuff soooo much more fun and cheaper).

Since you guys might know something about these chargers, which of these lower end ones is better?

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=18066

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=11060

They end up costing about the same delivered to me, but the hobby king one seems to come with an adapter for airsoft (white tamiya? plug). I can buy the plug separately (xt60 to tamiya?), but they don't stock in the us warehouse (where the turnigy is) so it's kinds of dumb I have to order separately, too.

Also, can any laptop adapter be plugged in? It doesn't really give the plug ID/OD params. I have a spare HP one (19v) but no idea if it would work without cutting wire or something ridiculous.


I have the 6A and the input voltage is 11-17Vdc. I was using a laptop power supply, no cutting or splicing it plugs in on the side, from my IBM Thinkpad 16Vdc 3.3amp until I found out they were $70 to replace so I ordered a 12Vdc 5amp LCD monitor power supply off Amazon for 10 bucks. There is a 2nd 12Vdc input on the side with banana plugs and alligator clips included to power it from a car battery.

The 5A input voltage is 11-18Vdc so I don't think 19Vdc would be safe.

I definitely have a look on goodluckbuy before i get around to buying one of these things.

Jeez, my296 is hammering us with 200+ spam posts his first day here. I hope he dies the death of a thousand razors, and very quickly.

You can set the cutoff to any multiple of 0.1V if you select NiMH discharge instead of LiPo discharge. Other than cutoff voltage, the two function identically.