No luck finding a used charger and I didn't hear back from Buddyrc after two business days, so I went with Hobbypartz. I'll go with progressiverc when I go for a hobby charger.
Good choice on the Thunder AC680, you will like it a lot. You shouldn’t feel like you don’t have a true “hobby” charger, because you do now! I personally have had multiple Thunder AC680, a Thunder T610, and a Thunder 620 charger (hooked up to a 12v server power supply), and they have always charged perfect. Thunder chargers are really nice, and you made a good choice. I have dealt with HobbyPartz for many many years and have always been happy with what I receive. I am a BIG fan of Thunder chargers.
Don’t let people fool you into thinking that iChargers are some mysterious perfect super chargers that have no rivals. If someone was giving away free chargers, and I had a choice between an iCharger 206B, and a Thunder 620 charger, I would choose the Thunder 620.
You should have heard something back within two todays. I cant say as I blame you one bit.
Looks like you have chosen a good charger. I have heard a several good things about them and you will not have to fool with a separate power supply. Let us know how it goes leaftye.
@drdanke
You're right. It's definitely a hobby charger. This is an easy way for me to get started and a stopgap. Eventually I'll get something serious that can handle high current discharge and balance charge more cells. I'll work on getting or building a big power supply, charging cradles, and whatever else I may need. I'm glad to hear you've had good luck with the AC680 and other Thunder chargers. That's a huge relief because I'll be putting a couple hundred cycles on it within the next month.
The Thunder 620 looks like a very capable charger, but I'll be doing lots of logging. Hopefully they'll update it soon because it's a great value.
I'm looking hard at that HP power supply. That's almost certainly the way I'll go.
@moderator007
I like the xbox power supply idea too. There's a guy selling one locally for $10. I'll see if it's still available. Having a backup isn't a bad idea, even if it means charging at a slower rate.
I'll definitely give some feedback. I'll be working it hard, so you'll hear from me soon if mine is unreliable.
This is how I have mine setup. I took it apart and rewired it with some 12 AWG silicone wire and soldered on female banana plugs. There quite compact for the amount of current they produce.
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Can you control the iCharger from the PC?
Or is the PC connection only for logging the incoming data?
:)
Hmm . . . care to share what you're up to? Just curious. Sounds like some big plans.
-Garry
I use logview, and as far as I know its just for data logging.
Thanks 007 that is good to know!
As i understand Logview is not even coded by the iCharger makers.
Given the comments placement in the post I assume you are referring to the PSU, seems likely given kids run the xboxes they power for hours on end, doing whatever it is MS thought needed 16a, they should handle load alright.
Charger hasn't shipped yet. I was hoping it'd arrive quickly because hobbypartz is close, but that's not going to happen now. At least I didn't waste my money on a more expensive shipping service. I can't really complain though since they're website says products ship 1-2 business days after order. This is day two, although I ordered near the end of the business day. UPDATE: just got a shipping notification.
That's a lot bigger than I thought it would be, but totally acceptable given how much power it puts out.
I just ordered a server power supply. I still want a xbox power supply since it'll be far smaller and quieter, probably more reliable, and am keeping an eye on them locally and on ebay.
Soon my friend, soon.
Bad wording on my part. I meant the Thunder charger. I plan to keep a fan on both to keep them cooler and healthier though.
Which server power supply did you decide on?
I have a few busted pc power supplies I may try to repair too. Hopefully their only problem is blown capacitors.
Ahh, perfect. If you have any questions about modding the DPS-600PB, just ask me here, and I will be able to answer your questions, as I already know everything there is to know about these things. I have modded a half dozen of them, and use 3 of them with my current chargers. Below are some pictures of my Thunder T610 setup is what I use for charging my Li-ion batteries and my smaller lipo batteries, as it can charge up to 10 amps, and discharge up to 5 amps. I use my Thunder 620 for charging larger lipo batteries at up to 20 amps, and for discharging up to 20 amps. My Thunder 620 charger is hooked up to a serial pair of DPS-600PB power supplies, which puts out over 1000 watts and 24.9 volts.
Again, don’t be afraid to ask me any questions about these power supplies, as it might save you hours of sifting through the hundreds of pages of threads about these power supplies.
P.S. I built my own charging cradle that houses my 18650 batteries. I have tested it up to 10 amps of discharge with no heating of contacts. My previous charging cradle burned out at 5 amps, when the springs heated until they melted. I will also be building a higher amp cradle that uses copper for contacts, but for now, this one works fine and uses brass for contacts.
Thank you. I'll really appreciate help with modding the server power supply.
I tried looking at one of my pc power supplies earlier today, but its problem isn't with a capacitor. Too bad because that'd be an easy fix for me. I may troubleshoot and fix it anyway to gain the experience even though it'll probably be cheaper to buy a new one. I'll take a look at a second one this weekend. I think I have more power supplies around the house too.
One of our beloved forum vendors hooked me up with a base for building a charging cradle. I hesitate to mention their name without their approval because I don't know that they want to get in the habit of doing this. I only mention it as an example of why we should support vendors that go beyond the initial sale. I'd like to go with copper all the way to the battery contacts, but I'll have to see how badly that affects the sliders.
I'll build a single cell charging cradle like yours too. What about copper nails instead of screws? Put the head towards the battery with a spring behind it for tension.
I'm also thinking about using aluminum on the bottom and side to aid with heat dispersion. Home Depot has aluminum L and U stock in the hardware section that should work well for this. Heat shouldn't be a problem yet, but I could see it being a problem if I get a charger capable of 30A discharge.
I want to use cradles as much as possible. The idea of cables that can come loose and short makes me too uncomfortable.
Don’t ever think about heat dissipation with any lithium batteries. What I mean is, you should only use heat as an indicator. If you are getting any heat either charging or discharging, then you are pushing the batteries too much and should reduce the current. Pushing lithium batteries hard enough to cause heating, is very dangerous. If you get any heat when discharging a Li-ion flashlight battery and are still within the rated discharge current, then it’s most likely the battery contacts that are causing resistance and are heating up and transfering that heat into the battery.
Yea, a charging cradle with all copper contacts would be a great thing. Even more important, is that I noticed is that a flat battery contact really sucks with cylindrical batteries. With a flat battery contact, only one TINY spot will hit the battery contact at one time, as neither surface will be perfectly mated to one another. A round ring contact (with spring pressure) is much better at getting a good contact. I like using the end of a copper ring terminal, soldered to whatever contact I am using.
Good point on heat.
I was going to try wrapping copper braid around the contact points of my charger cradle? Like a spring mod, but for a cradle.
Any mods are going to probably be better than nothing. I don’t know about copper braid itself being the actual contact though. It might be awesome, I am just not sure, as I have no experience. I know slot cars use copper braid as their electrical contact at pretty high current.
I never got the iCharger, but at least I'm learning how to use what I got. The AC680 outputs data to a computer via a tab delimited text file. This can be imported into Excel and graphed. Excel makes getting the format for the time to work correctly, so I wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out, using formulas and macros, but I finally got it.
I'm not balance charging yet. I have a 3x18650 cradle in the mail, which is about all this charger can handle. That should save a LOT of time since right now I can barely handle 2 cells per day if I charge them full, do a discharge test, then charge them back to storage capacity.
I mentioned it in another thread, but I found some open source firmware that's supposed to add internal resistance capabilities to this type of charger, and also allows logging on the pc to be done with Logview instead of their unstable software. I'm not sure the latter is so much better since Logview is in german, and while there's an english option, there's a lot of things that aren't translated.
Then I need to see about getting those power supplies converted.
This graph is a little better, but setting up a third vertical axis in Excel is proving to be too difficult.
I’m struggling to find a good 18650 holder, one with low contact resistance. The home made one from drdanke looks nice!
Also, hobbyking just released the Turnigy reaktor for 70 bucks, which is a copy of the icharger 206B. Has anyone tried it yet?