Does a 12S liPo balance charger exist?

How about you take 5 seconds and answer your own question? "12s rc balance charger" on Google returns several products.
 
I'm sure you were trying to be helpful, but the phrasing sounds just obnoxious, a tone very unfriendly and even discouraging people from posting.

Perhaps you took the title a bit too literally?

I believe he's not asking for a Yes/No answer, but recommendations for a suitable charger from those with more knowledge and experience.

If you don't actually have something constructive to contribute, it might be more helpful to the community if you just ignore such threads.
 
12S or higher turns out to be pretty rare among good quality makers. Graupner Polaron Pro is one, most excellent.

Lesser makes:

SkyRC PC1260
Chargery C4012B
Thunder Power TP1225HVC
Ultra Power UP1200AC DUO 12S or
UP2400-12S
EV-Peak A9

Google for reviews, especially on RCgroups.com

Alternatives (have you already got the pack?):

A. 12S assuming usual LI chemistry, 43-44V nominal, 48-50V charging.

So, not a very high voltage.

25Ah capacity, so should be charged at a current rate of 5-8A, or 400W.

Not a lot of power required either.

Save a lot on the charger,

use dedicated balancing gadgets rather than relying on a charger to do it.

B. Put in a BMS that balances "well", e.g. with adjustable start-balance-voltage and a decent balance current rate, well over 1A anyway.

Most chargers are actually much slower than that.

C. Build the pack with a midpoint tap, and split the balance leads, then many dozens of "duo" chargers available, in effect two 6S pack in series internally.







 
I have had a hyperion 1420 years ago for 10mo then try stopped selling. So two thunder power 1220 one went up sogpt one then those twowent south. They stopped selling them. Now two una9 plus+ then got an una9plus+ and battery nanny . Shit I just bulk charge and monitor and monitor. Only balance charge went needed. Only needed 5 times. Oh charging A123 20ah 24s 1,390 plus charge cycles 6 years.
 
999zip999 said:
Now two una9 plus+
Click to expand...
Are you saying you use the UN-A9 Plus to charge 12S and up?

Do you mean two of them charging at the same time? Are their outputs isolated?

Or do you do half the cells at first, then the rest in a second pass?

In general, are you happy with the UNA9+ ? I'm very interested in such "node chargers".

But you've only needed to use them five times total? Otherwise no balancing needed?

_____
P.S. Hyperion 1420 is discontinued as well.


 
Makes sense if he's using A123 pouches. Unless you're hamming on them (which means 100A+ discharge) they don't go far out of balance.

I have a 16S pack that I put 2x6S and a 4S balance leads on, normally bulk charge at 5A and do a balance a few times a year.

With a 50W iMax B6 charger doing all 3 "packs" in sequence has never taken more than 10 minutes.
 
Hmm, found in UN-A6 description

Twochargers could be combined to compose one 12S charger and even share one input power
Click to expand...
To me that implies outputs are isolated.

And this is a "node charger", so not possible to "bulk charge" at pack voltage, only charges through the balance port / leads.

Each cell gets an independent charge regulator, like having 12 x 1S chargers, each getting to the same resting voltage separately, the result is the same but no actual "balancing" circuitry is involved.

I **really** like this option.
 
Yes gentleman this is a start of a discussion about different Chargers and different chargers at which price point. Plus I'm telling you what's available and the limitations I have found and that most 14s and 12 s charges don't last in our taken off the market charging to the mains and balancing through the sense wire
 
999zip999 said:
Yes gentleman this is a start of a discussion about different Chargers and different chargers at which price point. Plus I'm telling you what's available and the limitations I have found and that most 14s and 12 oz charges don't last in our taken off the market charging to the mains and balancing through the sense wire
Click to expand...
So in general, are you happy with the UNA9+ ?
 
Yes so far as 1.5 years old these thru the sense wire charger only up to 8amp a channel. Only used 6 times and never tried to setup the second one with battery nanny or a 8 ×, 6s at one at a time charger. I guess. I haven't played with it just yet. Come by and learn or teach me. Lol.
 
Yes so far as 1.5 years old these thru the sense wire charger only up to 8amp a channel. Only used 6 times and never tried to setup the second one with battery nanny or a 8 ×, 6s at one at a time charger. I guess. I haven't played with it just yet. Come by and learn or teach me. Lol.
 
999zip999 said:
Some people used volpheaks. Single cell charger and I think fecher used 12 at a time to charge a pack.2 amp
Click to expand...
Please link to it or try to remember how it's spelled
 
http://www.thunderpowerrc.com/NEW-ARR/TP610HVC_3

Their batteries are decent but overpriced so this controller hopefully is decent at the price of a 10s icharger.
 
Thank you for the replies! Right now I am using an R/C 1200 watt charger with 12 xt90 and balancing connections to plug all the lipo packs separately and balance charge. (R/C turnigy packs) I am hoping to find something that is just a straight plug in style like an ebike so the wife and kids can charge it without me.

s-l1600.jpg
 
Sorry, that's not clear to me.

A 12S charger charges one or more 12S batteries: 43V nominal, charge at 48-52V.

Usially the bulk leads, one pair +/-, carry lots of watts at that charge voltage, and the 13 balance leads are only used for monitoring and balancing.

Is that what you are talking about?

To me, "straight plug in style like an ebike" means pack voltage, bulk leads, one pair +/-

no balancing of the 12 cells within the one pack going on.

In any case, unattended charging is not safe with LI / LiPo other than LFP/LTO chemistries, and

certainly only knowledgeable or at least well trained family members should be trusted to supervise the charging process.
e16c93ad4b47e54f51072db677d43cd1.jpg
 
If you want the deaf dumb and blind to safely charge your bike you need a place the bike can catch fire while it charges and not mess up anything else.
 
It's hard to turn over hobby lipo to kids an wifeie. Shed houses down the street a guy had a lipo fire lucky he was able to sit there and yank it out and throw it in the driveway. Three blocks a young kid 12 years old charging lipo caught the whole garage on fire.
Go buy a plug and play shark or dolphin pack with charger and bms.
 
LFP would be a much better chemistry in that context.

Also for power in a mobile living space, camping, boats etc.
 
Quinc said:
Thank you for the replies! Right now I am using an R/C 1200 watt charger with 12 xt90 and balancing connections to plug all the lipo packs separately and balance charge. (R/C turnigy packs) I am hoping to find something that is just a straight plug in style like an ebike so the wife and kids can charge it without me.

s-l1600.jpg
Click to expand...
I've been bulk charging LiPoly for about 6 years now and here are some older posts on how I do it, it's kind of evolved thru the years.
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=92588&p=1355002&hilit=lipoly+mean+well#p1355002
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=91919&p=1340753&hilit=lipoly+mean+well#p1340753
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=91438&p=1333365&hilit=lipoly+mean+well#p1333365
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=91396&p=1332870&hilit=lipoly+mean+well#p1332870
I'm not sure about letting the wife charge LiPoly unless she is a "tech" kind of person, I certainly wouldn't let my Ex do it, unless I wanted to collect on my homeowner's insurance.
Deffinately not for kids!
I would recommend ebikes with a "plug and play" pack for them.
Even bulk charging LiPoly is not plug and play.
 
Not to sound like "that guy" but if you need a dedicated balancer that can do 1A might i recommend finding the source of the inbalance.
 
All LiPoly needs to be at least ck'ed at storage and top charge stages. This is the secret of bulk charging, one ck.s and assumes they will be alright more than half the time, Battery Medics are easy to use, but slow. If one is charging LiPoly with an RC top charger, then balance mode it is.
The nature of the stuff is it will stay in balance for weeks and then one or more cells start to stray. Usually going deep in dis-discharge, say, below 3.70V, will exacerbate the unruliness, but not always. Hard to figure actually, so I don't try.
I do know staying within the 80% depth of discharge rule can extend service life and I try not to go below 3.75V. Conversely, If I don't need the range, I'll stop in the 4.00 to 4.10V range. Cells can again start to stray above 4.10V.
 
motomech said:
If one is charging LiPoly with an RC top charger, then balance mode it is.
Click to expand...

Except if you use good cells with conservative dod and soc you may only need to balance quarterly or less. I rarely balance charge with my RC chargers.
 
In the old days good vendors spent time ensuring customers paying for A grade got carefully matched bare cells.

That is now increasingly rare.

Also those who started out with a "perfect" bank and then aging kicks in, plenty of life left, still high SoH, but imbalances inevitably increase.

Finally, there are poor people using salvaged cells.

Fine and good to advise "don't do that".

But fact is many still will.

Ability to lower the "balance starting" setpoint, especially if you don't ever want to go over say 4.1Vpc

and the ability to get even major imbalances resolved in an hour or even less

is just a question of identifying gear that does so, maybe costs a little more, but it

certainly is not worth disparaging those that desire those features.

 
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