I was wondering, is there any way to use an imax b6 to charger multiple li-ions at a time at higher amperage? Is the reason the other chargers like xtar vc4 and nitecore i4 etc cap out at 1 amp because you can’t charge a li-ion any faster? Has anyone been able to rig up something for the imax b6 to charger 8 18650’s at a time with fast charging rates? Thanks!
Theoretically you could rig a parallel cradle. Batteries are preferably of the same capacity and state of discharge, which complicates things somewhat.
Max charge rate is 5A anyway.
You can do almost as well with a Lii-500 or Zanflare C4 with way less hassle and individual cell control + analyzing information.
You can actually do better with an Opus with a couple ‘improvements’, or a Gyrfalcon All-88 8-bay for a bunch of cells.
I have an Accell-6, almost exactly the same as a B6. I don’t bother with using it on Li-on cells anymore. Too much hassle.
I have a craddle to charge up to 8 on my imax B6. I can get it out for a picture if you like.
parallel charging is fine, I have plenty of hobby chargers that all work great. iMax is probably the easiest to use. Was in a hurry once and charged a 30Q with 4 amps, not a problem at all (but I don’t do it very often at that rate).
Yeah if you could send me a pic of it and let me know how you rigged it up I would be most grateful 
It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I’ve used magnets and steel strips to attach the positive and negative ends together (obviously 1 strip for the negative side and 1 for the positive side) and then the alligator clips from my Accucell 6 to the appropriate strip.
i guess im a little new at this and want to be careful with electricity :-). if you could send me that pic though id appreciate it.
This is the kind of holder I use, soldered copper wire close to the battery and pullet it out underneath. you can also use the tabs (some say they have high resistance, never checked)
Actually mine is a 16 cell now that I look at it.
My new years resolution is to start that YouTube channel I have been planning for years. I decided this is a good excuse to get started. I recorded a short 4K video of the setup and will get it over to youtube later today. Please stand by… 
What I would like to see is a balance cradle for charging 8 x 18650’s like a Lipo pack, I have tried but not been successful
Balance-charging 8 cells would not be a benefit. What balance charging does is charge them all until the first one is charged. Then it applies a load to just that one and keeps charging them all slowly.
When you parallel them the effect is a fast balance charge. The only draw back is you should be using fuses.
Really there are two ways of doing this, you can parallel charge them and run the charger at 1S, which is fine but they should be of similar capacity, type and charge level. The charge level can be very important since when you plug the cells in if one is full and one is dead, the full one will start charging the dead one, possibly too fast. Capacity and type (high vs low discharge and old vs new) could cause them to charge oddly I think, as in one might charge quick at the beginning and slower at the end based on the IR, that’s an off the top of my head guess though.
The other way is to put them all in series and use the balance feature on the charger. This will charge them all in series but monitor and adjust so they all get charged just right. This I think you also want to start with cells of a similar charge level but probably not as important. The charger may just freak out if it’s really unbalanced. In theory you could charge a ton of cells at once in series parallel and max out the charger’s wattage output.
Charging cells at higher currents than 1 A is mainly down to how much you want to abuse your cells and if they are high discharge cells. But 2A or so is still pretty comfortable for a decent capacity high discharge cell. That’s still less than 1C which is a common recommended charge current. Really should just read the cell’s datasheet to get the correct answer.
Charging cells in balance mode in series will take a lot longer than charging in parallel. If their the same kind of cells balance charging is not needed. If one cell has a 3000mah capacity and a .5C charge rate then you can charge one cell at 1.5 amps and 2 cells at 3amps and increase the current by 1.5 amps for each cell you add in series. All the batteries will charge in the same time frame as would one cell. Its much more convenient for me to charge more than one cell with a hobby charger. I have the icharger 208B. It will do 20 amps charge rate. I use a old Xbox power supply to power it. It does 16.5 amps at 12V. Hobby chargers arent really plug and play. There’s quite a bit of a learning curve. Plus you Kind of need to Know what your doing or things could go up in smoke. There’s nothing that limits you with a hobby charger.
Make a balance cradle …
So you can balance charge the batteries .
6 x 18650 would = 6s
B6 should handle 6s …
Unfortunately the B6 is not the strongest charger in town and once you increase the charge current the life expectancy drops . ( depending on those nasty variables )
I did make myself a 2s balance cradle for 18650 . ( all good fun )
Well PowerDirector has let me down again. It has been “generating shadow copy” of a 1 minute video all afternoon. Apparently this is not normal. So here’s a screenshot/picture of how I soldered 4 trays of 4 to two wires.
How many amps are you getting to the 16 batteries? Parallel charging all of them would seem to take a long time unless it’s putting out over 12A or so.
It puts out 6 amp.
The main benefit is charging and balancing 16 batteries with one charger and no user intervention. And only owning/storing one charger for all battery types. Normally I don’t put more than 6 cells max in it because a laptop battery only contains 6 cells. You see that single charger in the background? That charges 26650 and anything that is not 18650. The ports on the side of the charger work for li-po. Heck, the charger would even make a decent car battery charger. Just set it to PB chemistry.
But it’s not perfect for everyone.
If you series connect half your batteries for 2S?P the charger puts out 6 amps but now its at 8.4v. Charging in half the time or there about in balance mode. Charger is rated for 50 watts.