Yippee! Charging The Lithium Polymer Beast

[dth7]

Daren,
I have one of those AC680 chargers...that was my first purchase of an electric charger...it still works great today and I use it for charging little things like glow plug nicads (what are those! ) as well as ignition and servo life batteries. I purchased an iCharger and 24V power supply and paraboard from a fellow 3D'er (thanks again Ray! [Ohio AV8TOR]). Wow...what a difference. I had a paraboard for my AC680 and it took me quite a while to charge 4s3000 packs...now with the iCharger it only takes 20 mins!
At the field, I got a deep cycle marine battery (for about $70) that has been working well so far. I won't charge from my car battery because I can't imagine that phone call to the wife "hi honey, I'm at the field and my car won't start...would you come out and rescue me?" :O
You can get higher capacity equipment for not too much money from the advertisers on this site!

EPBuddy.com - iCharger 306B - $160 (comes with a free paraboard!) - well worth the money....don't skimp here
SolidHobby.com - 24+ Power Supply - $125
Local WalMart - EverStart 24DC Marine Battery - $70

You could use a new power supply with your AC680 but it won't be worth it...the AC680 can't output enough amps to make use of what the 24+ can provide.

Also, I think money conversations do have a place on this site, and I'm not afraid to have them...exactly for the reason you stated! Also, I have kids in college and soon to be in college, so I'm spread pretty thin!

Hopefully this helps.

What are you using to charge the deep cycle battery?

This really helps, thanks. I'm not an electrical guy and just want to fly nice larger electrics as much as I can without going broke! I have my 4 6s 3300 batts for the 60" Extra. It looks like a $200-400 investment in 24+ power supply, icharger and deep cycle battery is a necessary expense to fly these 4 batteries for a long day if I want to charge at the field ( I suppose one other option would be invest in 3 cell 3300s and put them in series and use the AC680). If I go bigger it just makes sense to me to go gas. If I could get a 30-50cc size I think I could be happy for quite some time. The 3 cell power I use on my 48"Edge appears to be the limit for the AC680 and I understand that. For $50 I think it's a great deal. I should have upgraded with my second rather than just buying another 680. Live and learn (cheap lesson).

It seems like you guys (who started this site) had guys at my level in the hobby in mind. On behalf of myself and all the others who will definitely benefit from your knowledge and experience. I can't believe what I've been able to learn and pass along in less than a year and the knowledge I've picked up here in just a few days.
Thanks a million.

 

[Santi8]

You can slow charge deep cycles if you wanted... Most chargers will charge deep cycles using the PB mode... I use solar panels to do just that... Doesn't work for everyone, but my deep cycles sit outside in a cooler while my solar panels make it happen!

 

[SnowDog]

What are you using to charge the deep cycle battery?

This really helps, thanks. I'm not an electrical guy and just want to fly nice larger electrics as much as I can without going broke! I have my 4 6s 3300 batts for the 60" Extra. It looks like a $200-400 investment in 24+ power supply, icharger and deep cycle battery is a necessary expense to fly these 4 batteries for a long day if I want to charge at the field ( I suppose one other option would be invest in 3 cell 3300s and put them in series and use the AC680). If I go bigger it just makes sense to me to go gas. If I could get a 30-50cc size I think I could be happy for quite some time. The 3 cell power I use on my 48"Edge appears to be the limit for the AC680 and I understand that. For $50 I think it's a great deal. I should have upgraded with my second rather than just buying another 680. Live and learn (cheap lesson).

It seems like you guys (who started this site) had guys at my level in the hobby in mind. On behalf of myself and all the others who will definitely benefit from your knowledge and experience. I can't believe what I've been able to learn and pass along in less than a year and the knowledge I've picked up here in just a few days.
Thanks a million.

Daren,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm really glad to hear that this site is helping you out....that is our stated goal! i so appreciate hearing this kind of feedback...it helps motivate me late at night when I'm working on this site instead of sleeping! Gary and Pontus feel likewise, I know. As long as we all continue to pay it forward, I believe this site will be successful.

As far as what do I use to charge the deep cycle battery?.....wait for it....a little longer....yep...you guessed it...the AC680 can charge Pb batteries as well!

Regarding the size question, for me at least, 30cc and up are in the gas range for me. I know plenty of people who love the 7x class of airplanes on electric, and my 65" Vyper is awesome on electric, but anything bigger than that will be a gasser for me. I guess I'm still undecided in the 7x range; it seems to come down to the cost of batteries vs. gas...and gas seems to win that decision for me. Big batteries are still very expensive, at least for my budget

Peace,
Mike

 

[wedoitall]

being able to charge the marine battery with my ac680 just sold me on your setup, SnowDog. will be getting the same setup you have really soon, as it looks like ill be charging bigger lipos.

 

[SnowDog]

being able to charge the marine battery with my ac680 just sold me on your setup, SnowDog. will be getting the same setup you have really soon, as it looks like ill be charging bigger lipos.

Sweet! whatcha gonna get? opcorn:

 

[wedoitall]

prolly get the icharger 306B, not too much more $$$$ than the 206 and 208 plus figure in the free paraboard. then gonna go with a solidhobby 24+ . if i understand it right ill be able to use the 306B and my current charger the ac680 at the same time, if i choose to do so. and prolly for the meantime gonna copy you and get the deep cell battery. i know its a steep investment at first but i knowill be more happy with this or something similar. will have to buy less lipos, more versatile, be able to help my flying buddys at the field and most important for a noob trying to learn precision and 3d flying as quick as possible GET TO FLY MORE!!! with less down time....... ha!

after the last power outtage we had here, definitely gonna get a generator of some sort. actually had been kickin the idea around to build my own kick arse power invertor to run my entire house. my folks paid almost $30 a day to run their generator during the last power outage. thats why i was thinking of an alternative. but anyways eventually ill have some other power source, other than the deep cell. thats the plan anyways.

just a ruff estimate, how many charge hours can you get out of that deep cell battery? on a single charge of the deep cell.

 

[jocanon]

prolly get the icharger 306B, not too much more $$$$ than the 206 and 208 plus figure in the free paraboard. then gonna go with a solidhobby 24+ . if i understand it right ill be able to use the 306B and my current charger the ac680 at the same time, if i choose to do so...

Yes, you sure can use both of those chargers at the same time on a Power24+. You can always use multiple chargers, even more than two if you wanted to, on the Power24+. The limiting factor is the amount of current you can draw. But even at max, the two chargers you are thinking of using will not even come close to hitting that limit on the Power24+. The ac680 goes up to 6amps and the 306B goes up to 30, so combined you would be drawing 36 amps at max, the Power24+ can go up to 47amps so you will be good to go. If you ever were to exceed the limit on the Power24+ the over current protection would automatically put the power supply into standby mode, cutting the current instantly and you would simply turn it off and then back on again and it would continue to work as normal, so you can't really break it by accidently drawing too much power. Note that the rated power limit is 47 amps, but the over current protections doesn't kick in until about 55 amps.

Just make sure and only hook the ac680 up to the 12v hook ups. You can plug the 306B into either the 12v or 24v bullets, though I would only plug it into the 24v side to get the most power.

 

[wedoitall]

as soon as I get christmas is out of the way, will be ordering one of your psu. dont see me going down in lipo size and eventho i plan on get a gasser 2nd or 3rd plane away. ill still be flying battery planes mostly. after thinking about it, it just make sense to go this route, especially with the 12 and 24v power supply

 

[jocanon]

Awesome! I'll be waiting

 

[dth7]

Daren,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm really glad to hear that this site is helping you out....that is our stated goal! i so appreciate hearing this kind of feedback...it helps motivate me late at night when I'm working on this site instead of sleeping! Gary and Pontus feel likewise, I know. As long as we all continue to pay it forward, I believe this site will be successful.

As far as what do I use to charge the deep cycle battery?.....wait for it....a little longer....yep...you guessed it...the AC680 can charge Pb batteries as well!

Regarding the size question, for me at least, 30cc and up are in the gas range for me. I know plenty of people who love the 7x class of airplanes on electric, and my 65" Vyper is awesome on electric, but anything bigger than that will be a gasser for me. I guess I'm still undecided in the 7x range; it seems to come down to the cost of batteries vs. gas...and gas seems to win that decision for me. Big batteries are still very expensive, at least for my budget

Peace,
Mike

That's the decision for me on gas Mike. I've never had a gas plane before and will likely get one next year (haven't even built my 60" Extra so I don't want to put the plane before the prop!). Seeing these guys do 15-20 minutes of flying on a tank and flying all day on a gallon really makes the electric route at that size an expensive option. I know the setup will be a little more complicated but I have some pretty good local help with Cody. I figure a DA (when the 35 comes out) or OS, DLE will pay for itself in a season or less compared to batteries.

So, I have two AC680s. I can get a marine battery, use the 680 to charge it (at 6 A max I assume that would be a trickle charge on the deep cycle) and run the 306b off the battery at the same time. Is that a good plan? Eliminating the need for a power supply. I don't have 110 at the field so I would be using the deep cycle batt.

Also, I've never had a deep cycle battery before. Is charging that in a basement a good idea? That's where I charge the lipos on a metal shelf in lipo bags.

Thanks

ps. Off topic but do you know of any good deals on Tx mitts, that time of the year here in NH.