decent charger/discharger for the money?

romperstomper

hey guys i saw this in DX:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12618

anyone here have any experience with this for use in airsoft? for €35 yo-yos delivered is it worth a punt?

thanks

Stercus Accidit

componentshop.co.uk have a good airsoft charger, has charge/discharge, auto cut off etc.

NakedDex

Best one I've ever used, or even seen, is the Pro-Peak charger series. The standard model is only about €35 too, so it's no more expensive. The only thing it doesn't cover is charging Li-Po batteries.
If you're willing to spend a bit extra (a good bit extra), the Duratrax ICE charger is bloody excellent, covering batteries up to about 15v in all chemistry types. It even has a feature to run in new motors and auto-cycle new batteries. It's a bit more pricey at around €100.

romperstomper

ND, do you know where I can get one of those 35 Pro-peak units? i don't have li-po batteries so that would suit fine and i'm sick of having 5 X 220V transformers plugged in all over the house!

thanks

NakedDex

Airsoftwarehouse.co.uk do them. They're a cracking charger and will charge most packs in 20-60mins, depending on capacity. Airsoft Warehouse have been a bit poor with shipping lately, they tend to forget to post small orders at times, if you don't have it within a few days, give them a call and tell them.

romperstomper

it can charge say a 8.4v 2000mah in an hour or so? thats fab. the transformers can take a good few hours (and half of them don't auto switch off so you are never sure)

thanks again

edit, €60 inc shipping was a bit dearer than i expected. does it need any cables with it too? or does everything i need come in that box? cheers

RC car fanatic

I have a question about charging. I ordered a gun and a battery and they will be arriving tomorrow. The battery is a Sanyo 8.4v 2000mAh. I have a BOL Basic-01 charger and I was wondering what amp I should charge it at? I can select from 0.5,1.0,1.5 etc.It also has fast or slow charge.The fast one you select the amp number and when finished it goes to trickle charge but the slow one has constant current. How do I know how long to leave it charging on slow charge? and if I pick fast charge is that ok?

NakedDex

romperstomper wrote: »

it can charge say a 8.4v 2000mah in an hour or so? thats fab. the transformers can take a good few hours (and half of them don't auto switch off so you are never sure)

thanks again

edit, €60 inc shipping was a bit dearer than i expected. does it need any cables with it too? or does everything i need come in that box? cheers

Give them a call about that. That does seem abnormally high. I payed €40 or so all in for mine, this was a few years ago now but I doubt shipping prices have gone up that much since then.
Everything comes in the box, even a large-to-mini converter. It'll do an 8.4V 2000mAh battery in about 30-40 minutes.

NakedDex

RC car fanatic wrote: »

I have a question about charging. I ordered a gun and a battery and they will be arriving tomorrow. The battery is a Sanyo 8.4v 2000mAh. I have a BOL Basic-01 charger and I was wondering what amp I should charge it at? I can select from 0.5,1.0,1.5 etc.It also has fast or slow charge.The fast one you select the amp number and when finished it goes to trickle charge but the slow one has constant current. How do I know how long to leave it charging on slow charge? and if I pick fast charge is that ok?

I did a post on this a while ago that I think was moved into the Newbie thread.

If your battery is NiCd, use slow charge.
If your battery is NiMH, use fast charge.

To select the correct current for charging, it will depend on how quickly you want your battery to charge. 2000mAh is the same as 2Ah. the .5,1.0,1.5 selection that you mentioned is the charge equivalent in amperes. So it actually means .5A, 1A, 1.5A etc.
To figure out your charge time, simply divide the supply current from your charger (the current you select) into the current capacity of the battery (whatever is written on it, in your case 2Ah). The result is your charge time.

If you charge a 2Ah battery at 1A, it'll take two hours, 2A will take one hour etc.

Rule of thumb, don't go above twice the current rate of the battery when charging. It'll heat the battery too much and you may end up subjecting the cells to thermal runaway, resulting in dead cells, leaking cells or even explosion. So if your battery is 2Ah, don't go above 4Ah. Ideally, stay around one-and-a-half times the current if you're in a hurry, so in your case, 3Ah for that battery.

Don't fast charge NiCd batteries, even if you're in a hurry. They don't like it and tend to commit Hari Kiri shortly afterwards. Usually innocuously enough by simply not supplying a charge, but they can also sometimes leak or explode if left fast charging when hot. If they leak, do not under any circumstances touch the chemicals with your hands. Both nickel and cadmium are extremely toxic, ingestion by any means leads to heavy metal poisoning and that isn't pretty.

RC car fanatic

Thanks a mil,but just to be sure,if i charge my 2000mAh battery at 1a on a fast charge it should be good?

NakedDex

If it's a Ni-MH (very important that you check it is Ni-MH and not Ni-Cd), then 2000mAh battery on a 1A charge current is fine, it'll take about 2 hours depending on the charge state of the battery. I usually charge 2000mAh packs on 2A currents without any issue.

RC car fanatic

Ill check what it is now and just one more thing,If I select slow charge on say 1a how long will it take? Im just confused about working it out

I cant seem to find out

NakedDex

Slow charge wouldn't be 1A, slow charge would be .5A or below. If .5A is the lowest it'll go, stick it on that. But again, slow charge is for Ni-Cd batteries only.

RC car fanatic

NakedDex wrote: »

Slow charge wouldn't be 1A, slow charge would be .5A or below. If .5A is the lowest it'll go, stick it on that. But again, slow charge is for Ni-Cd batteries only.

Ok cheers dex and I also figured out how to calculate it now.Thanks for the help.

RC car fanatic

Just a quick question because I didn't want to start a new thread.Is it true that a battery over 2000mAh is bad for a stock TM aeg?

NakedDex

Nah, don't know where you heard that. The current is only an indicator of how long the pack will last. The voltage is where they get picky. That said, anything under 9.6v is fine in a stock aeg, 8.4v is recommended.

fasterkayote_

NakedDex wrote: »

If it's a Ni-MH (very important that you check it is Ni-MH and not Ni-Cd), then 2000mAh battery on a 1A charge current is fine, it'll take about 2 hours depending on the charge state of the battery. I usually charge 2000mAh packs on 2A currents without any issue.

Naked Dex. Good Day Sir,

i usually slow charge my batts, i got this advice from a mate.for a nimh 1400mah batt i set to charge it at 110mah x 14-17hrs. so far it hasnt done me bad and the batt tends to last longer than fast charging. im quite confuse could you enlighten us why the nimh needs regular charging and nicd's on slow charge.my battery brand name ranges from cheap china 1's to intellect,asg,firefox nimh 8.4-9-6v and been doing that for 6 months now charging 8-10 batts per game for my team mates.
Thank you so much Sir.