cgbspender
1 µW
I know the ultimate destination of my question is not related to the primary reason of the site (E-scooters vs large capacity lifepo4), but as there was mention of iChargers in previous posts and the fact I would not have a kweld had I not stumbled upon these forums, I figured I might as well go ahead and ask for help/advice anyway.
I am looking into getting the dx8 iCharger for the purposes of capacity testing, balancing, etc... single, 4S, and 8S large capacity (100Ah+) lifepo4 cells. I was drawn to the iCharger since it would allow me to do these things relatively quickly (compared to my bench top power supply) and with some degree of automation as well as the ability to employ regenerative charging/discharging. Reading through the manual, I found that it could do the latter not merely from one channel to the other, but from the input to the channels. A huge plus for me. The more I have re-read the manual, lurked through various forums, and watched numerous youtube videos, however, I am now having doubts. I so far have only found one or two vague references to people using their car batteries as the input to charge lipo packs in a pinch out in the field and no references at all to things such as any need to fuse the input if you are using a battery, whether or not a precharge resistor switch should be added there as well, should the channels themselves also have fuses, etc... At the least I am confident in assuming there are no class T fuses in these things or any such equivalent that would be able to do anything against any variety of angry lithium chemistry.
Other than the specific limits of I, V and W for the input and outputs in various configurations, the manual is madeningly lacking in answers except to inform me that I cannot charge a 12S with this 8S device (that was the first thing I was going to do if I got it!) as well as not to allow the cats to play with it unsupervised. I even found on this forum that there is, in fact, a correct order in which to hook up the input, balance leads and cells/batteries in the channels as to not cause the sparking from capacitor inrush and eventual magic smoke of capacitors on the channel side (at least I think it was specifically the channels and not about any input side capacitors). There is nothing at all about this is the dx8 manual.
TLDR: The iCharger appears on paper to be the closest thing to a perfect charger/tester for my purposes I have found along with many glowing reviews, however none of them or the manual mention any of the things I am now having concerns about, so if anyone can shed any light about using a battery for the input in a regenerative charge/discharge configuration, as well as the need for and additional safety devices such as fuses on the input, channels or both, a precharge circuit on the input or anything else I have not thought of, I would be very thankful for the knowledge.
I am looking into getting the dx8 iCharger for the purposes of capacity testing, balancing, etc... single, 4S, and 8S large capacity (100Ah+) lifepo4 cells. I was drawn to the iCharger since it would allow me to do these things relatively quickly (compared to my bench top power supply) and with some degree of automation as well as the ability to employ regenerative charging/discharging. Reading through the manual, I found that it could do the latter not merely from one channel to the other, but from the input to the channels. A huge plus for me. The more I have re-read the manual, lurked through various forums, and watched numerous youtube videos, however, I am now having doubts. I so far have only found one or two vague references to people using their car batteries as the input to charge lipo packs in a pinch out in the field and no references at all to things such as any need to fuse the input if you are using a battery, whether or not a precharge resistor switch should be added there as well, should the channels themselves also have fuses, etc... At the least I am confident in assuming there are no class T fuses in these things or any such equivalent that would be able to do anything against any variety of angry lithium chemistry.
Other than the specific limits of I, V and W for the input and outputs in various configurations, the manual is madeningly lacking in answers except to inform me that I cannot charge a 12S with this 8S device (that was the first thing I was going to do if I got it!) as well as not to allow the cats to play with it unsupervised. I even found on this forum that there is, in fact, a correct order in which to hook up the input, balance leads and cells/batteries in the channels as to not cause the sparking from capacitor inrush and eventual magic smoke of capacitors on the channel side (at least I think it was specifically the channels and not about any input side capacitors). There is nothing at all about this is the dx8 manual.
TLDR: The iCharger appears on paper to be the closest thing to a perfect charger/tester for my purposes I have found along with many glowing reviews, however none of them or the manual mention any of the things I am now having concerns about, so if anyone can shed any light about using a battery for the input in a regenerative charge/discharge configuration, as well as the need for and additional safety devices such as fuses on the input, channels or both, a precharge circuit on the input or anything else I have not thought of, I would be very thankful for the knowledge.
