Anyone looked at these charger/wattmeter combos?

[RLT]

I did a search, but couldn't find this discussed here at E-S previously.

Charges 1-10 LiIon or LiPo including a123s, at up to 8A, plus works as a Watt's Up with a couple of extra little bits of info.
http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-53/Xtrema-Lithium-Charger-and/Detail

I'm pretty tempted to order one, but would like opinions from you guys first.

 

[safe]

I downloaded the pdf's and it looks like in "Watt Meter" mode it can handle the full voltage and amps that a typical electric bike could produce, but in "Charge" mode it's limited to up to 10 cells. There's no balancing or individual cell attention, so that's a problem you would have to solve on your own like maybe with a Bob Mcree LVC or something. Also, there's no power source... so you pay $169 for this hybrid "Watt Meter" and still need to buy a power supply on top of it. (however in this case a regular car battery or maybe even a cheap computer power supply might work)

I like where they are going with this and think that it's "progress", but it's not the "Holy Grail" either.

It's nice...

I had created a thread a while ago where I proposed that there should be a "storage" setting on the charger so that the cells would get longer shelf life and these guys seem to have done this. (so I guess that idea does have merit after all) All Lithium chemistries benefit from having a charge that is in the middle more than either extreme of high or low voltage, so that's the concept with a "storage" charge... charge it up just enough to put the cell in it's "good zone".

 

[RLT]

.....There's no balancing or individual cell attention......

That is one reason that I didn't order it right then... But after I made the top post, I discovered:

Lo and behold: A matching balancer:
http://www.tmenet.com/Xtrema_balancer.htm

Unfortunately you do need to buy two balancers to do ten cells, because each one will only handle 6 cells maximum, but you can apparently daisy chain them as many as you want with the extension harness. More expense, but within (borderline) reasonable cost; if it works as advertised.

Yeah, the 10 cell charging limit is disappointing, especially for you guys that are running LiFe batteries on anything more than 32V system, or any kind of LiIon or old school LiPo's over 36V.... But It would work for my current 36V LiCo packs.

 

[safe]

The balancer is $34.95 which is not that bad, but you would need a few of them. Plus there are all these cables and attachments that you need to get. By the time you add up all the nickel and dimes you are probably over $300.