Lithium-Ion chargers (Somewhat off subject) and MORE

[Adam Glatt]

Richard Strickland wrote:

> I've been doing a little research and I'm sure liking Tanic's 
> individual cell tap approach for balancing and EASILY checking 
> condition--I think my next charger will be one that does multiple 
> individual cells--anyone make one?  I've gone WAY past thinking this 
> is going to be economical to start--but there are certainly ways to 
> minimize the problems and maximize the usage of the equipment.  
> Someone was talking about the bearings in the motors shooting craps 
> after 100 flights or so--How about seals?  When you think about a 
> brushless motor--it's basically solid state EXCEPT for the 
> bearings--not really a helluvalot to go wrong with it.  The battery 
> guys are saying 'hundreds' of charges if treated properly; so if you 
> could get 'hundreds' of flights from the motors with virtually 
> absolute reliability--what does that do to the recently mentioned cost 
> analysis?  How about the cost of vibration? Lost time when things just 
> don't run right?  I'm getting more turned on to this stuff the further 
> I get into it.
>  
> Richard S.

Tanic has contracted an EE to design a charger that charges individual 
cells in a tapped battery pack independently, all at once.  Currently 
balancing requires work on the part of the user, and is only done when 
he gets around to it.  This new charger would balance the battery with 
every charge.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269638

It sounds like Thunder Power agrees that taps are neccessary: 
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=285184 .  They are 
working on taps and a balancing device.

Poly-quest offers taps with an external balancing circuit that goes 
between the charger and the battery: 
http://www.aircraft-world.com/shopexd.asp?id=2515

As for electric cost, even the most expensive electric motor (Hacker 
C50) is relatively cheap.  It is the batteries, which are both expensive 
and short-lived (from the reports I've read over the last year), that 
keeps electric power on top (bottom?) of the price list..
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