Some newbie question about hobby charger / Accucel 6

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

Hi,

I just got an Accucel 6, and had a couple of newbie, probably dumb questions:

1) I want to discharge test an “li-ion” battery, but the charger doesn’t have a setting for “li-ion”. It does have settings for “liPO”. Is that what I should be using for a “li-ion” battery?

2) When I select “discharge”, there’s a setting for amps and 3.7V(1S). I noticed that if I press the “inc” button, that voltage changes to “7.4(2S)”, etc. What is that “S” signify?

Also, for doing a discharge test for a “normal” (not IMR) li-ion battery, is 1.0A and 3.7V(1S) the right/recommended setting?

3) The Accucel has a small fan in the front. Is that fan suppose to be running all the time? Or does it just come on as needed?

4) I saw this thread (Review: Turnigy Accucell 6 Hobby Charger) where it mentions about a USB port/cable in post #77. In the picture, it looks like he soldered the two cable leads directly to the pins on the side of the Accucel6. Does anyone know if there’s a cable with a connector available, rather than soldering directly like that?

Thanks, and I appreciate any answers (and patience)!

Jim

2

1. Yes, you use the LiPo setting for li-ion batteries.

2. The S signifies how many Li-ion cells are wired in series, for your uses it should always be at 1S. If you were to try charging a battery with it set to 2S it would be very bad.

3. It will come one as needed.

4. No idea, sorry.

3

scaru,

Thanks for all of those answers!!

I kind of guessed that “lipo” was the right choice, but just checking, so appreciate that.

I should’ve been able to guess the answer to the “S” question, and now that you explained, I’m going “duh!” :)…

Appreciate info about the fan.

Hopefully someone’ll have info about the USB cable/connector. Would rather not have to solder onto those pins are I’m guessing I’d have to open up the unit to do that.

Thanks again,
Jim

P.S. What are advantages/disadvantages of using 1 amp, vs. say, 0.5 amps for discharge test?

P.P.S. Nice to see another Virginian here (I’m in the NoVA area, near DC)!

4

Hi,

I just tried doing a discharge on a “DLG” 18500 that’s suppose to be 1350 mAh. The Accucel started beeping after about 30 minute and showing 634 mAh on the display.

So I was wondering: When doing a discharge test on a battery, does it matter where the battery voltage was at the beginning of the discharge test? In general, when doing a discharge test, should the battery be “fully” charged?

Thanks,
Jim

5

If you want to know what the full capacity of the battery is, yes. If you just want to know what it had left after some discharge, no.

6

didge,

Thanks!

Jim

7

Hi,

I’m still curious about:

P.S. What are advantages/disadvantages of using 1 amp, vs. say, 0.5 amps for discharge test?

Also, BTW, I wanted to mention that although I’ve only just started, I’d been really hesitant about getting/using a hobby charger, but I just happen to be able to get a used on from one of the BLF members recently, and couldn’t help myself :)… That arrived this afternoon, and when I got home, I started at all of the cables, etc. that came with it and went “oh, oh”…

Found and downloaded the manual, and read through that… is it just me, or is the language terrible/convoluted… gave me a real headache.

Then, I started easy, did the 1st discharge, and it was cool (and worked!)…

Now re-charging the same battery, just to get experience, and it is really kind of interesting watching the CC/CV actually kick in. It’s one thing looking at graphs, but a lot different actually seeing it happen…. ok, it’s kind of like “watching paint dry”, but interesting nevertheless.

Luckily, I only intend to use the charger for single cell things, so I don’t have to worry about balance charging, etc…

Hopefully, this’ll encourage others to try this.

Jim

8

In general you will want to use a 1 amp discharge, as that is the closest to the amperage your lights run at. The only real use for say .5 amps would be discharging a really small battery like a 10440.

9

Regarding the serial connection, I didn’t solder directly to the pins. I used a TTL level serial cable and soldered its bare wires to a female header. That header plugs into the Temp port.
This build was quite easy and works well.
I believe there is a cable available that you do not have to build, but I forget where I read about it.

10

scaru,

Thanks for that info. As it turns out, a 10440 is one of the ones that I wanted to try, so that was timely!

Jim

11

relic,

If you do remember where to get the completely assembled cable + connector, please post back. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can scrounge up a header, and maybe order one of those cables.

Jim

12

Hi,

Was it one of these:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/Cables/USBTTLSerial.htm

if so, do you know which of the ones with the connectors is the correct one w/correct pinout?

Thanks,
Jim

13

Hi,

I just found this. Would this work? It has the single header/connectors for each pin/wire:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-To-RS232-TTL-PL2303HX-Cable-Adapter-Module-Converter-Adapter-For-arduino-/221200556434?pt=US_Parallel_Serial_PS_2_Cables_Adapters&hash=item338094a192

Thanks,
Jim

14

I don’t think it was one of those. I think maybe HobbyKing has it. I really cannot remember where I read it. Maybe there’s a link in that review thread somewhere…
The female header I used is like the ones in this eBay item (contains both male and female headers). This is way too many for someone who just wants to make this cable. I have lots of uses for them so it made sense for me. You can find a smaller amount for less.

15

Hi,

Did you see the one for Arduino that I linked after the other link?

Jim

16

Yeah, that should work, and you do not need to solder anything. Good find, in the US too so you’ll get it quick.
I will note that the PL2303 chip has been copied and the drivers do not work well with the clones. If they have a real PL2303 chip in them, they will work great.
I have 12 of the ones I linked (real PL2303 chip), I got them for other jobs too.
Happy logging! :slight_smile:

17

Hi,

Thanks. I’ll post back after I get it in and hook it up…

Jim

18

relic,

Got the cable today. Pic of what I got is here:

There’re 4 wires:

- Red

- White

- Green

  • Black

Can you tell me which of those goes to which pins on the Accucell 6?

Also, I’m assuming that I need to be running LogView on a PC attached to the USB?

Thanks,
Jim

19

Check this out from Relic’s post #77:

20

Thanks!