dogman dan
1 PW
Here is an example of a decent, but simple and fairly inexpensive charging setup for a newbie considering lipo. Not the best way, or the cheapest way at all, but an affordable setup that charges 3x faster than an Imax b6.
I'm not saying get this particular charger, just trying to show how easy charging a 12s pack can be.
The Pack. 10s or 12s lipo. So either at least two 5s 5000 mha lipo packs for 36v, or 6s packs for 8 volts more. In this case, two 6 s packs connected in serial fashion gives a 5 ah pack that puts out 50v when fully charged. For a larger pack, additional lipo bricks are connected paralell for 10 ah, 15 ah, or whatever. Then the two paralelled packs are connected in series to get the final pack. View attachment 3
To charge, you seperate the series connection, and connect each pack to a charger. Or if only one charger, charge one, then the other.
The chargers. In this case, I chose two 150 watt turnigy chargers for the low price for this wattage. View attachment CIMG0203.JPG
The power supply. Supposedly a meanwell, but I suspect not, this ebay bought power supply is a 12v 30 amp power supply. Adjustable in voltage some, I turned it up to 14v. A 24v supply could be used, but not with this particular charger, that requires a voltage below 18v. When running both chargers at max output of 150w, the 300 watt draw did not drop the voltage one bit. So this supply is perfectly sized to run these two chargers full blast at the same time.View attachment CIMG0201.JPG
All set up and charging, it will charge a 5 ah pack in 45 min, or a 10 ah pack in 90 min approx. I just ran a fully discharged 72v 10 ah zippy 20c (20s) pack from 3.75v to 21 v in 2.5 hours. That was a non balancing charge, and the last 20 min could have been skipped if you wanted to undercharge a bit.
Running on 6s packs, you get about 6 amps of charging, the whole thing is using just under 400 watts measured on the AC plug. For those for whom this matters, it runs fine on a gas generator.
I'm not saying get this particular charger, just trying to show how easy charging a 12s pack can be.
The Pack. 10s or 12s lipo. So either at least two 5s 5000 mha lipo packs for 36v, or 6s packs for 8 volts more. In this case, two 6 s packs connected in serial fashion gives a 5 ah pack that puts out 50v when fully charged. For a larger pack, additional lipo bricks are connected paralell for 10 ah, 15 ah, or whatever. Then the two paralelled packs are connected in series to get the final pack. View attachment 3
To charge, you seperate the series connection, and connect each pack to a charger. Or if only one charger, charge one, then the other.
The chargers. In this case, I chose two 150 watt turnigy chargers for the low price for this wattage. View attachment CIMG0203.JPG
The power supply. Supposedly a meanwell, but I suspect not, this ebay bought power supply is a 12v 30 amp power supply. Adjustable in voltage some, I turned it up to 14v. A 24v supply could be used, but not with this particular charger, that requires a voltage below 18v. When running both chargers at max output of 150w, the 300 watt draw did not drop the voltage one bit. So this supply is perfectly sized to run these two chargers full blast at the same time.View attachment CIMG0201.JPG
All set up and charging, it will charge a 5 ah pack in 45 min, or a 10 ah pack in 90 min approx. I just ran a fully discharged 72v 10 ah zippy 20c (20s) pack from 3.75v to 21 v in 2.5 hours. That was a non balancing charge, and the last 20 min could have been skipped if you wanted to undercharge a bit.
Running on 6s packs, you get about 6 amps of charging, the whole thing is using just under 400 watts measured on the AC plug. For those for whom this matters, it runs fine on a gas generator.