I know the questions have been ask many times but after 2 hours in the charger section of the forum i still don’t know wich charger i need. Please help a newbie
From what i read, Accucel-6 looks to be the most popular charger. Can i do the following with it?
I would like to be able to do the following:
- Charge and test capacity of 18650
- Charge and test capacity of eneloop AA and AAA
- Test capacity of mobile power bank
Charge car battery
Could i use the 12V from a computer power supply to power it?
Also, what accessory do you recommend?
I already have a cheap ebay charger for 18650 i’ll convert to battery holder
“charge car battery” for that you might be better off using a battery tender junior or similar product. It’s a lot less hassle and not as messy as going through a computer power supply and then a charger. You can use it unattended and it’s safe to use outdoors.
Answers to the rest of your questions i’ll leave for a experienced member. I’m sure on would be along shortly :bigsmile:
Yes to everything except the mobile power bank. If you can’t get a probe on the ends of the battery (sealed) you would need to make some kind of lead USB lead.
For all single batteries you need some kind of holder.
A PC PS will need to be modified. I do use one but frankly it’s easier/smaller/quieter to use one of the off the shelf laptop power supplies. Worth the investment IMO. I seldom use the PC PS anymore unless I want to power several things at once.
It’s VERY slow on something as large as a car battery (it’s limited to 50W). It’ll do it but it’s a poor option.
Frankly since I got the Opus BT-C3100 v2.2 I pretty much only use mine for charging RC packs. The Opus is simply easier to use for single cells and it will do 4 at the same time.
I occasionally use it to charge my car battery and it is indeed very slow. Also my AC6 never terminates when charging NiMH batteries so I don’t use it for charging them.
You can use magnets attached to the leads to charge single batteries rather than using a holder. In fact I use magnets attached to metal strips with the leads clipped to the strips when parallel charging multiple 18650’s.
You either have your termination setting incorrect (turn it lower), are using too low a charge rate (below about 1/4-1/3C it simply won’t shut down as it cannot determine termination), or both. Mine works fine. I generally use .5-.6A for AA.
You do have the AC6, not the IMAX B6? They look the similar, work the same (same firmware), but may not function the same. Some B6 are ‘fakes’. Those may have charging issues.
I have the AC6 purchased from HobbyKing. I’ve spent many hours trying to get it to work with NiMH batteries and nothing works consistently, with Eneloop’s, Sony’s, Tenergy’s etc. Believe me, if it’s possible to change a setting with NiMHs I’ve done it.
Edited to mention that it’s not a big deal for me since I have probably 5 other decent multi-cell NiMH chargers including the Opus 3100.
I bought the optional (and out of stock now) temperature probe for my older Accucel 6 (from HobbyKing, the 6-amp version)
Not sure I’ve ever needed it but I’ve wrapped that sensor around NiMH and NiCd Versapak (3.6v) cells when charging them.
The ac6 was great when that’s all I had to run discharge tests on batteries but it was never that accurate I thought and with my Opus I rarely use it now.
Thats’s what i tought, I was thinking about getting a 28/24 usb cable and cut one end and find the + and -
I choose the 80W 10A so it should be a bit faster. I don’t care about the time it may took to charge a car battery… i only use it once in a while and i could let it overnight.
Here's what I do for charging cradles https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/22976
I have charged car and bike batteries with it - and it is as fast as any 4 amp 12 volt charger.
Nimh batteries must be charged in series - 4 or more work fine, otherwise the dv/dt may not trip. I also use a temp probe when charging Nimh so that if dv/dt does miss, the temp will stop charging as Nimh heat up quickly when fully charged.
You can run discharge tests fine on single Nimh batteries and LiIon.
