Hobby charger that can use 12v and 110/220v

Are there any Hobby chargers that can charge most batter chemistries (including a 12v car battery) from a 12v battery and AC outlet with a good range (110-230v or so)?

They are all really 12-24v units. You need a separate power supply.
The ones you see that are supposedly 110v are powered by an internal laptop PS, usually 12v/5A. They are slightly larger to house the PS. Personally I’d rather have a separate one in case it croaks.

I’ve got a friend who just got one similar to this. I think his is an 8A version. Does a lot but that comes with complexity.

http://www.hobbypartz.com/thac6smbachw.html

The Imax B6 has a version with a built in PS with the range you want.

The IMAX is being plagued with copies that are of poor quality. Don’t go there unless you are SURE it’s not a fake.

ALL of those 4-button hobby chargers are clones of the original Bantam. They ALL pretty much work exactly the same. Download manuals-pretty much the same. It’s all a matter of quality of components, construction, and support.
That one simply has the laptop PS I alluded to built in. People think they are getting A/C……they really aren’t.

So far, for 9 months, I have been happy with it. It is limited to a 1 amp discharge, but that is adequate for my uses.

HK claims it’s not a fake in the description. They do have a video describing the difference so they’d look pretty stupid if it was.

Many of the recent ones, esp. if eBay cheapies are the fakes and do have problems. Even Amazon has been having problems (secondary sellers).
Real ones seem to be OK.
Unfortunately the average RC person has neither the information nor the tools to figure that out until it starts screwing batteries up.

Can’t you just plug a laptop PSU into any of those? I’d be ok with one that has an easy setup like that.

I looked at some reviews of it and it seems to be a faulty unit, some of them had racist hobby chargers with error codes that used racial slurs :stuck_out_tongue:

It seems most of the reviews I’ve read talk about that, is hobyking the only reliable seller or do you take a risk with any of them?

How many computer ATX powersupplies can run 110/220?

Simple modification can turn a 350 watt ATX powersupply into a 3.3v/5v/and12vdc (very regulated) power supply

I believe those hobby chargers and most Li Ion chargers take 12vdc input…see above

A throw away ATX 450 Watt power supply I have sitting on my desk

  • 3.3vdc —22A (orange), +5vdc —15A(red), +12V1 —14A (yellow), +12V2 —16A (yellow) [this one has two 12vdc rails…but tie em togehter and combine the output currents for 30A of 12vdc], +5vsb —2.5A(purple), –12v —.8A (blue)

The “hobby charger” is just the intelligent regulator for charging purposes…it get’s its feed from whatever you can supply it with clean regulated voltage

You can’t just plug in ANY laptop PS. Most of the 4-button chargers require 12-18v and at LEAST 5A. More voltage > may fry the charger. Some laptops are 19-20v.
Less amperage > you compromise performance and may burn out the PS. People try to use 500mA wall warts all the time and wonder WTF is wrong.
More amperage > no problem - the charger uses what is needed.
The low end 4-button are 50W needing 5A. Some are more capable (80W+) so they will need appropriately more amperage.
You do have to have a proper connector. A LOT of laptop PS do not.
I use both laptop and a converted desktop PS. Both work fine.

Suppliers:
Yes, I’ve bought from HK. I try hard not to buy there anymore (and have been easily successful). Like eBay they have discovered ‘shipping charges’ to boost the cheap prices.
Like any big overseas outfit the support can be highly variable. IMO you risk having none at all, which is quite common. For cheap items its just not worth the hassle. For dirt cheap you have to give up something, usually customer services or quality, sometimes both.
If ANYTHING in your order is out of stock you may not see the entire order for months, a VERY common problem.

Here’s some suppliers that ship faster, sometimes end up being cheaper with shipping expenses, and actually have customer service.
http://www.headsuphobby.com/main.sc One of the best. Honest guy with excellent customer service.
http://www.hobbypartz.com/ More mainstream but still a decent outfit
http://www.valuehobby.com/ Similar
http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=20 Excellent line of chargers and support. These are also the guys that first go the word out about IMAX fakes [ http://www.skyrc.com/antifake/indexen.php]

It’s sad but it seems like the entire world thinks HK is the only supplier left and the longer they are around the suckier they get.

You do not need 5A to charge a single 18650 with 1A. Hobby chargers have much better efficiency than that.

Agree. But they are relatively cheap so why not at least meet spec? If you have something adequate already and you know what that means, go for it.
As pointed out, it’s not uncommon to try to power them with woefully small PS.
I make an assumption (not always correct :slight_smile: ) that people asking extremely basic questions often do not have the necessary background information.

It’s probably far less of a problem in the BLF arena where people are dinking around with tiny batteries, often 1 at a time. In the RC world people think they are buying the charger to end all chargers for $20-30 and then are disappointed it won’t charge 4 x 4S 3600mA in parallel at a decent rate, or even won’t charge a 4S 5000mA at 1C, let alone a 6S at anything but pathetic.

May be overkill for some but has been rock solid last three years. Icharger. You can charge from .05 amp and do flashlight batteries in simple parallel or series depending on your needs.

There is also a huge user/manufacturer” forum “:iCharger 1010B+, 106B+, 208B, 206B, 306B and 3010B - RC Groups service or questions arise.

Many chargers allow for battery testing and some have two wire IR readings for reference. The iCharger is listed due to support with trouble free service and that I like to do low heating regenerative discharges into supply battery at times.

I was referring more to if most hobby chargers use the same plugs that laptop PSU use or if I have to cut cables or something else. The only ones that show plugs that I’m familiar with are the ones with internal PSU that have 3 prong AC plugs like the ones used in desktops. As for voltage, I think a couple of diodes could solve that.

Ideally I’d just buy a female plug that works with my laptop PSU and install some diodes with whatever plug most hobby chargers use.

My laptops PSU is 19v 3.42 amps

Yeah I’ve seen lots of people doing that and I do have a spare PSU in my old ATX tower that’s gathering dust but it’s a tad heavy/big to carry around with me.

Not sure how much you want to spend, but I have this and I love it, comes with a ton of extras and is equipped for 110 and 12v with included clips for connecting to a car battery.

Btw, you don’t need an external power supply either.