[NSRCA-discussion] Li Po charging and balancing

[Rex LESHER]

Colin

It depends on what you want out of your charger/balancer setup, and how much are you willing to spend...   You know how it usually goes...
"Oh, I'll never have anything larger, or more than"....  then, the next thing you know, you need to expand or get something in addition.
If you may get bigger batteries or batteries with more cells, you may be better off spending a little more now, and get a setup that gives you pretty much everything you could possibly want.
One of the best setups you can get, is something that gives you information on individual cells during charging, and automatically shuts down if there is a problem.  The ability to read the data from your balancer per cell can tell you a lot about the condition of your batteries, and perhaps 
detect a potential "real problem" before it happens...
You also want a charger that gives the ability to alter cell count and charge rate.
I have a few different chargers that I have used for charging Lipos, but after getting into the 5 cell batteries, I chose the TP 1010 charger, 210V balancer combo.  This setup gives you all the safety and data acquisition you could ask for.  It retails for around $200 for the combo.  This charger can also be updated with downloads from the TP website with an available USB data cord.
You just have to ask yourself how much it's worth for the peace of mind  of a good charger/balancer combination.
I'm sure others will chime in with different combinations that will suit your purpose...  This is just the combination that I use...

Rex
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: colin chariandy<mailto:cchariandy at yahoo.ca> 
  To: NSRCA Mailing List<mailto:nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> 
  Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 6:01 PM
  Subject: [NSRCA-discussion] Li Po charging and balancing


  All

  I'm getting deeper into the electrics and am looking for a decent charger and balacer for "small" winter projects. I don't plan on getting any bigger than 2100mAh batteries.

  I found some interesting looking stuff at Central ...the Yuntong AC/DC charger and balancer. Very well priced and with enough capability to do the job.

  Is there any experience with these produtcs out there?

  Does the balancer include TP connector?

  Is there anything else that may be a better solution?

  Any help will be greatly appreciated.

  Thanks
  Colin
  __________________________________________________
  Do You Yahoo!?
  Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
  http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________
  NSRCA-discussion mailing list
  NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
  http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.nsrca.org/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20061222/07c9cca6/attachment.html