So I currently have an intellicharger I4, and I2, and a cheapy 2 bay charger.
I want a hobby charger, so I can measure capacity, and set chrage rate and voltage.
Is there a current flavor of the week? I really have no idea other than reading abut the turnigy
Another member has provide this info on his website, perhaps it will help, otherwise ask away, I bought mine at RC shops locally in my area, nothing fancy $65
The link is Here
Check with JohnnyMac, he somewhat recently went through the pros/cons and purchased one that I had my eye on (never got one). He had a thread posting for recommendations.
EDIT - here's his thread. Maybe he'll chime in and let us know how he likes it.
-Garry
Icharger would be my recommendation.
I think one big question is do you want to be able to do discharge tests above 1.0A? That will eliminate quite a few options.
-Garry
There are a LOT of variations for the ‘6’ chargers (4 buttons + 2 line screen). The ‘original’ was the Bantam. The iCharger is a superior one with matching price. The low price ‘standard’ is the Accucel AC-6. The ECO-6 is a bottom end unit.
If it’s a 50W unit (most are, some go higher) it will be LIMITED to 1A discharge, a deal breaker for some.
It it’s AC/DC it merely means there is a 5A laptop charger built in. IMO that’s one more thing to go wrong. Get a 5-7A (or better) power supply.
You will have to make something to do the various lithium cell sizes as there is no stock cell ‘holder’. They are really designed for soft lithium packs with balancing.
Do NOT buy a CHEAP IMAX B6 from eBay or ANYWHERE NOT SPECIFICALLY SAYING IT’S A ‘REAL’ ONE. If they don’t say, it’s probably fake. If it’s cheap, it’ probably fake. There are some fakes on the market. They are often inaccurate and unreliable.
I can only recommend this charger. it’s easy to use and has been reliable for me.
Do you want to discharge at more than 1A? Standard B6 clones ususally are limited to 5 watts. Look for something that is rated for 20 watts or more discharge power.
Do you want the ability to balance charge two or more cells? This is what these hobby chargers do best. Look for a low balancing tolerance (the voltage difference between the cells at the end of the charge). My cheap B6 clone (X-Charger) was terrible. An iCharger does very well here, with most specified at 10mV or less.
Do you want to charge several LiPo packs in parallel for helicopters and such? Look for lots of output power. >)
Do you want it to be able to log your charge/discharge data? Better RC chargers do this, with many being supported by Logview.
Do you want it have a built in power supply? Most do not, and will need an external power supply. An old laptop brick can sometimes be made to work here. A used PSU from a desktop can be modified to work well. Lots of examples - just Google. Or you can just go to your local electronics or surplus outlet and get a standard 12V supply for pretty cheap.
If you want something for the long haul, ie, the next 3 years of this hobby, then look at chargers like the Turnigy Accucell 8150 or better. You are going to need the 150 watt discharge/charge sooner than you think.
You are more than just an enthusiast so invest in something that you will have many years of use from as your needs evolve and become more refined.
That’s a nice looking charger, but I doubt the 150 watt rating applies to the discharge function. It’s hard to say for sure because the manual just mentions discharging at 5A - no mention of the voltage. 
Most of the inexpensive chargers (less than $50) only discharge up to 5 watts. Even a $100+ charger like the iCharger 208B only does 30 watts discharge unless you add an external power resistor. If you add one big enough J) then it’s rated to do 600 Watts @ 30V/20A.
I own a accucell 8150. It will discharge a single 4.2v li-ion at 5 amps without a problem. Never tried any thing higher in voltage but will do a single cell.
Its a nice charger but if I had it to do again, I would go with the icharger, may end up getting one anyway. Just simply better with better quality. I ran into a voltage reading error, when checked with a DMM with a accucell 8150 a few days ago. The displayed cell voltage in a discharge test was .40v lower than what the DMM read across the cell with a 3 amp discharge current. Giving me false readings with a logview graph.
The displayed current, voltage and capacity all seem to be correct in charging mode. But in discharging mode the charger displays a slight error in voltage, even though the current is displayed correctly and capacity. I don’t know if accuracy is important to you, but if it is the icharger may give more accurate voltage readings in discharge mode. Its important to me to know the cells voltage sag under different loads. I now have to add .40v to the reading if discharging at 3 amps to be accurate. It also reads different error voltages with different discharge currents. I have to check the cell voltage under each discharge current to know what the voltage error is under that particular current.|(
Go back and read the thread you posted about this - it’s obviously not the charger, it’s your test set up.
Ok i’ll bite, how do you figure. I explained in that thread how all parasitic resistance is the same in any other mode and calibration mode. And reads the correct voltage (against a 87V) when in calibration mode with a cell setting in the same set up as what is run in the discharge test.
How would any hobby charger be reading correctly. There are no leads or setup that doesn’t have some parasitic resistance.
I love it! For the money I don’t think there is a better value. I haven’t played with the data logging yet but here is the meat of the thread Garry quoted:
"I pulled the trigger on an imax b8+ from hobby king. 7A charge, 5A discharge, balancing, usb port for logging data.. the works. $57 shipped."
I explained it in my last post on that thread. To expand on the theme, in calibration mode, you are not pulling much current at all through the charger, so you get almost no drop in the leads. The charger voltage reads correctly you said, so that indicates the charger is accurate. I did a calculation of the resistance of your setup, it’s quite easy to work out. You can minimise this with much thicker leads etc. When dealing with such low voltages, you always need to take voltage drop into account. More expensive equipment (CBA analysers) can calibrate out the error for a particular setup, with simpler equipment it’s a manual task. Hope this helps.
The expensive version of the CBA software can calibrate wire resistance, but it is impossible to get rid of contact resistance with calibration.
With good equipment you use 4 terminal measurement, i.e. they have two sets of wires, one for the current and one for measuring voltage, this way you can also eliminate contant resistance.
Thanks for the info gentlemen. I do understand the voltage drop issue. I am already using 16AWG leads that came with the charger with a length of about 16”. I don’t think I can improve the setup enough to make much of a difference. The wire should only have about .03vd and if changed to 12awg it would still have .011vd. If I go with something even bigger I can get closer to zero vd but becomes not very user friendly. It was my thoughts that when I calibrated the charger that the resistance was accounted for just like you would calibrate any DMM.
I know my setup was not truly accurate but I thought it would be close. Until I actually checked and seen the margin of error.
HI HKJ, I’am pretty sure you own a icharger. Would I be gaining anything in accuracy by using a icharger.
I know the setup you have is the only accurate way. I would just like to get close or at least have graphs that where close without a lot of trouble. Or is your way the only way.
Yes I have two, these days I mostly uses them to discharge batteries for charger tests.
I do not know if you will gain anything by using the iCharger, but how do you connect the batteries to the hobby charger?
I will strongly recommend using a clamp, it is the best way to get low connection resistance and use thick and short wires.
Hey JM, its great to see that this charger is working out well for you. Im thinking about following your lead, but hobbyking doesnt show a link to the imax b8+ in their US warehouse. Did you buy from a different vendor?
Actually two chargers in one box that can be slaved together for more oomph… like you will ever need that…