Lipo Cell Checker

[Bushwacker]

Hi Fella's,

So Im in the market for a new cell checker and came across this one by Tenergy. Say's on the site... Tenergy 5-in-1 Intelligent Cell Meter (Capacity Checker, Battery Balancer, Battery Discharger, Internal Resistance Tester, ESC/Servo PPM Tester) Does anyone own one of these or know someone that does, if so can you give me the low down on it please.


Thanks much.

Bush

 

[Bipenut53]

Hey Bush... I have a buddy who has one of those and he says that it works good, for the money you cant really go wrong. He hasnt used it as a servo checker as he has one he likes but the rest of it he likes. I have often thought about getting one of those checkers but have not yet.... Sorry I cant give you first hand experience with it...

 

[Bloosee]

Those are just some sort of chinese product that is rebranded by a bunch of different companies. I have one, works okay. The Hitec unit works better and I like that I can see all my cells on one screen. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCVEU

 

[Bushwacker]

[MENTION=2902]Bloosee[/MENTION] One of my Heli buds has that same one and it works good. I like the $10 price tag on the Tenergy vs $38.54 for the Hitec. For ten bucks I gota try it out. Atleast it's not as bad as the Futaba BR3000 at $50.

 

[CoryGrady]

Hi..i am new to this forum. I havn't used the tester you are discussing here. But one of my friend used it. On the basis of his review i want to say this a bad device. It is not so much efficient and accurate. Also does not give the proper reading for each cell. So try the other testers recommended by the members. They all have the good reviews.

printed circuit assembly

 

[Jetpainter]

I have one of the cheap ones. I'm not sure what brand but it looks like the cheap one here. I only use it to check the battery I'm putting in to make sure it's a freshly charged one. If I want to know any more than that I use my PowerLab 8 charger.

 

[pawnshopmike]

Hi..i am new to this forum. I havn't used the tester you are discussing here. But one of my friend used it. On the basis of his review i want to say this a bad device. It is not so much efficient and accurate. Also does not give the proper reading for each cell. So try the other testers recommended by the members. They all have the good reviews.

Welcome to GSN!

 

[Krzy4RC]

Those are just some sort of chinese product that is rebranded by a bunch of different companies. I have one, works okay. The Hitec unit works better and I like that I can see all my cells on one screen. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCVEU

I have one of these and the leads don't line up well with the balance leads on my batteries. So I got one of these http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXBHZW&P=ML. It is not cheap and it works that way. It is dependable and does what I need. I always use it to check before I fly, even when I pull the battery off my iCharger.

 

[Jetpainter]

I always use it to check before I fly, even when I pull the battery off my iCharger

The guy that helped me when I started flying helicopters hammered it into my brain to always check the battery after you put it in the heli to make sure you didn't put the dead one back in. Sage advice!

How well does the Futaba work on LiFe batteries? My cheap one does LiFe, but after one flight it reads 56%. I'm not sure any of them can accurately do LiFe because of the discharge curve, or flat line followed by a steep cliff to be more accurate.

 

[Krzy4RC]

It works fine with Life, just push the cell type button.

You are right about the curves. Just look at the individual cell voltage and see how close you are to 3.3v/cell. It should stay there most of the usage time. That is one negative with Life. You just have to balance all the negatives and positives in your battery selection.

I am pretty meticulous in my battery logging and charging techniques. i also try not discharge below 30%. So, I tend to gravitate towards Lipo. But, I use Life (A123) also.