The title says it. I have a 12V 100Ah LFP inbound from Seikon, for the princely sum of $139 (flash sale price). Will Prowse tested them and was impressed, and for the price I couldn’t pass it up. Does anyone here have experience with any of SkyRC’s “neo” series chargers? I’m wondering if one of them would be good for this battery.
Or, if someone has a recommendation for a charger, preferably one with some ability to control how the charger’s termination voltage, I’d appreciate it. TIA.
What recharging time is OK for you ?
SkyRC B6 neo is an overkill in terms of functionality and at the same time it is underpowered for the 100 Ah battery.
If you’ll be able to find additional applications for this charger (like balancing battery packs, testing capacity of small cells) then it’s a nice device to buy. But if you need just to charge a 12V 100 Ah battery and you need it to be done fast then consider buying chargers like this
That battery has a built in BMS so you can simply feed it 14.0-14.6V at an appropriate current to charge. It will terminate the charge and balance the cells independently of the power supply.
With that in mind, I’d recommend using an adjustable power supply for charging. These are versatile tools and nice to have if you do any kind of electronics hobby stuff. The nicer ones from RD Tech (RD series such as RD6030) have a battery charging function with a configurable termination current. I use this to charge various lithium cells.
Worth noting, some hobby chargers have a power supply function. The SkyRC D200 Neo does have this function, as described on page 19 of the manual. This means you will be able to set it to 14.6V output, and it will provide up to 35A current, assuming it allows paralleled outputs in PSU mode. The D200 also has analytical functions but an external discharger may be needed to take full advantage of this. SkyRC provides their own analytics software but DataExplorer can probably be used with the D200 as well. Another nice feature of the D200 is the built in AC power supply. Most hobby chargers require an external AC-DC PSU.
RC hobby chargers with a PSU function and analytics are a good value relative to high amperage adjustable PSUs and battery testing equipment like the devices from west mountain radio.
Does every BMS have an integrated charging circuit, that has CC/CV charging protocol? By BMS I mean something like these:
I have 2 LiFePO4 12,8v batteries with such BMSes, I use dedicated CC/CV charger for charging them, but would be nice to know if I can just feed them with CV input and that would be “healthy” charging.
BMS doesn’t have any charging circuit and it doesn’t limit the current flow. It can only halt any flow to protect the battery in case of overcurrent.
You need a CC/CV power source.
BMS might have a balancing circuit.
Got it, thanks!