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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
I would say this charger is the most versatile in it's price range for most of what you will want to know about your battery. A discharge @0.5 - 1.0A should give you a good idea of the capacity of your cells. This charger has the ability to charge and cycle multiple types of batteries as well .
Just remember that you will need a power supply to power it. I my self use a converted computer PSU, but you can buy an AC plug for your wall too as long as it's 11v-18v? I forget.
Get it and some magnets to start then move on and build you own cradles later on. It's a nice charger for the $.
I just purchased one of these chargers from the Hobby King USA warehouse for $30.89 shipped. I'm looking forward to checking it out. They shipped it within 2 days, nice!
I already own this power supply. A bit overkill, but it's what I got.