12S Battery charger/balancer

I just borrowed a Thunder 1220 from a buddy to charge balance several sets of 12S Lipo packs. It seems like a nice unit but curious if anyone knows of any other 12S Charger Balancer units out there for LiPo that you have used and like or dislike. I did a search and found only the Thunder and a Hyperion G3 VX. I'm new to Lipo packs (I have a lead sled right now) and looking for what else is out there. Don't really want to use two 6S charger balancers on a single 12S pack.

I assume you meant the Hyperion 1420i. That's the only other one I know of. I've had one going on 3 years now. There may be others out there, but the Thunder 1220 is going to be hard to beat at $90.

Thanks wesnewell, I looked at the Hyperion and the specs are pretty close. The Hyperion can push a little more current and do 14S, but I'm still leaning toward the Thunder 1220.

The hyperion went on sale for a while for like 120$ personally I think for that price it is better to grab one compared to the thunder power one.

But when they go up to 150$ the TP makes more sense.

I changed from an icharger 3010 to the 1420i just to have the capability to charge up to 14S. So far I haven't been disappointed.

If you have two Hyperions they can be networked together to do 28S. I've been happy with them and like the TCS setting at 95%

I do like my 1420net3 but it is fussy and has problems with the sense wire voltages and have to jiggle the wires to get an even reading of voltage and it does shut down and need a restart sometimes. Going to chance my sense wires and boards and recheck later, they all say I need to upgrade the firmware ? Over my head.

The Thunder is easier to use and less sensitive to connection problems than the Hyperion. I have them both and rarely use the Hyperion.
otherDoc

I like easy, sounds like the Thunder is the way to go. Thanks for the advice everyone.

i just bot a D122 12S lipo BMS for about $25 which does even more than just balance. it actually will protect your battery.

my pack is 12S too
smartbms ftw
for charging I use LED driver

Where did you buy the 12s lipo bms?

i bot a 12S lipo in the D122 and the D126 you can click on this page.

http://www.bestekpower.com/444v12spcmbmspcbforli-ionli-polymerbatterypack/

it is for someone who did the shared shipping thing with me.

i also bot some of the D167 BMS they show at the bottom of the list. from 16S to 20S in lipo and lifepo4 and i bot some D131 24S lipo and lifepo4 BMSs too. and some specially modified D126 for 14S lipo.

whereswally606 said:

Where did you buy the 12s lipo bms?

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there http://www.bmsbattery.com/16-smart

dnmun said:

i bot a 12S lipo in the D122 and the D126 you can click on this page.

http://www.bestekpower.com/444v12spcmbmspcbforli-ionli-polymerbatterypack/

it is for someone who did the shared shipping thing with me.

i also bot some of the D167 BMS they show at the bottom of the list. from 16S to 20S in lipo and lifepo4 and i bot some D131 24S lipo and lifepo4 BMSs too. and some specially modified D126 for 14S lipo.

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So dnmun, I see that the upper and lower voltage limits are adjustable. It appears that there is no adjustments on these boards and I assume they communicate to another board which manages the charge / discharge levels. I looked but couldn't find that board, what do you use? These look like a great BMS but if they truly have the UL seal of approval as they note on the web site and information is a little lacking about the products.

no, not adjustible like you would think. if you order them in quantity then they will set the LVC and HVC according to what you specify but i am now getting them at 2.8V to 4.28V in this current order. the last order was 2.5V-4.25V and they would cut out for HVC at 4.225V.

i wanted a higher LVC so i am using these set points now. for me the most critical is the LVC since i expect the biggest risk of damage is from allowing the pack to over discharge while left with the controller on and the pack discharges to zero.

balance voltage is 4.2V which is well under the 4.3V max for lipo.

no, not adjustible like you would think.

if you order them in quantity then they will set the LVC and HVC according to what you specify but i am now getting them at 2.8V to 4.28V in this current order. the last order was 2.5V-4.25V and they would cut out for HVC at 4.225V.

i wanted a higher LVC so i am using these set points now. for me the most critical is the LVC since i expect the biggest risk of damage is from allowing the pack to over discharge while left with the controller on and the pack discharges to zero.

balance voltage is 4.2V which is well under the 4.3V max for lipo.

gotcha, so when they say "adjustable", it's a factory setting only they can do but will customize the voltage settings to your request. For that price they sell them for, I can accept that. So how do you like them so far? Any issues or downsides? How long did it take and is there a minimum quantity?

the selection is for comparators with different ranges. the hysteresis of the comparator sets the high and low cut off points. i went with the 2.5V LVC originally and now i have goosed them to raise it to 2.75-2.8V since the minimum i wanted to see i had to keep above 2.7V. when discharged under load the the 2.5V LVC is ok because the cells bounce back above 2.7V up to about 2.9V.

but like i said i think the big risk is draining the pack to zero like several people have already done to their lipo packs because they used a balancing charger.

a lot of people have ruined their lifepo4 packs too by not using a BMS and the pack drained to zero when they left the controller on.

the HVC is something you never see unless the pack is severely imbalanced such as happens when you have two different lipo packs from hobby king that have very large differences in the state of charge.

i did have one lipo pack i built where there was about 40% difference in the state of charge and it took a long time to balance and i had to help it by using power resistors to drain off the high side.

but in normal operation it will never see the HVC. that is why i consider the 2.8V LVC to be best.

i know nothing about the BMS battery lipo BMS and would not buy a BMS from them either. they only sell stuff so they find the cheapest source they can find and then mark it up. these guys sell direct and avoid selling through 'agents' like BMS battery. i prefer that as a business model myself.

since these guys make BMSs i consider their knowledge to be superior to many of the tourists here who all wanna chime in about how they think it is not adequate.

dnmun said:

but like i said i think the big risk is draining the pack to zero like several people have already done to their lipo packs because they used a balancing charger.

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This just takes the cake. How the heck would using a balancing charger cause someone to drain their pack to 0V. Did you read what you wrote?

a lot of people have ruined their lifepo4 packs too by not using a BMS and the pack drained to zero when they left the controller on.

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And more people have ruined their lipo packs because they left the bms connected to the pack when they weren't using it.

the HVC is something you never see unless the pack is severely imbalanced such as happens when you have two different lipo packs from hobby king that have very large differences in the state of charge.

Click to expand...

WTF does HK have to do with this? Nothing.

i know nothing about the BMS battery lipo BMS and would not buy a BMS from them either. they only sell stuff so they find the cheapest source they can find and then mark it up. these guys sell direct and avoid selling through 'agents' like BMS battery. i prefer that as a business model myself.

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So bestek can't find any resellers to sell their product and that makes it better. You do realize how ridiculous that sounds.

since these guys make BMSs i consider their knowledge to be superior to many of the tourists here who all wanna chime in about how they think it is not adequate.

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Yeah. That's why they can't get resellers. Because they make such a good product.

I have sent several inquires to Bestek and have heard nothing back from them and recently learned a colleague who found the same. So how do you get them dnmun?

i just sent henry an email and ordered them. this is my second order. this order is mainly the D167 but i also am getting a bunch of the D126 and D131 BMSs for lifepo4 and lipo.

did you send me an email to get in on the order with everyone else?

No , I guess I missed the boat on the group order.

lemme know if you are interested in one of the 12S lipo.

Is this available still? Hard to find a 12s charger. Really just looking for a high discharge balancer for 12s. Battery-medic-like device.

I was just reading about making a battery pack with compression connections and when the battery is depleted take the highest cell and swap it with the lowest in their p groupings. Is it ok to throw cells with such a large discrepancy between cell voltages like that? Seems there'd be a large current as the low cell gets thrown in with a pack of higher. How big a discrepancy is ok to throw together.

http://nl.aliexpress.com/item/12S-4...2220991084.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.91.U9obbT

This thing works out for my 12s pack.