Which Lipo Charger? Turnigy or Hobby King

[Ykick]

I am still interested in a BMS or at least HVC/LVC boards, but in the meantime I bought a Thunder 1220 from Hobbypartz and parallel board from ProgressiveRC. Now I just need a good power supply. Looked on eBay but didn't see any great deals for server power supplies.

EP Buddy has offered some modded Meanwells that looked good to me.

BMS and bulk charging is a good solution if you're set on the cell count. However, a good little iCharger always seems to come in handy for all sorts of projects, manitenance and related stuff so I just consider it tuition to battery school.

 

[TheBeastie]

I've only used the BC168 2 times now. I like it! I hope it will last.

My 76.8v nominal pack I built has two 36v taps. I bulk charge at those two points using isolated chargers. But to be extra
safe, I only charge one Tap at a time. Now, after I bulk charge I can use the B168 to balance them out to near perfection.
(as long as it works! lol)

I will be trying the BMS for charging only. I prefer no bms while I ride. Just alarms to let me know if a cell has issues

Tommy L sends.....

I been using my bc168 at charge my 12s3p pack for many months now. Originally I was going to buy a full charger on top but I just don't mind using the bc168 purely.

I have noticed I have been able to over heat the balance wires on the extension leads when charging 3p through at 8amps during summer months, my aircon broke and i went through summer with no cooling. Its always the extension leads that get hurt and never the main battery balance leads. This never happened before it could be the effect of warmer days and balance extension leads getting old. For the most part the balance leads are still usable just have super toasty look, but I chucked them anyway. It seems if my room was a tad bit cooler it would not happen.

I have over discharged my pack and I lost some oomph in my bike rides, I noticed if I charge at around 2amp instead of 8amp it seems to make the batteries charged like a new fresh pack with all the original kick this pack had when I first started using it. So unless I am in a hurry I always charge at low amps now anyway.

I was going to get 2 bc168 chargers and hook them to the same power supply or extra one but I believe some people on the forum have suggested that it "stealth" ruins the bc168, so I haven't bothered.

 

[Tommy L]

I am still interested in a BMS or at least HVC/LVC boards, but in the meantime I bought a Thunder 1220 from Hobbypartz and parallel board from ProgressiveRC. Now I just need a good power supply. Looked on eBay but didn't see any great deals for server power supplies.

GiantEV,

I just ordered 3 server power supplies HP 575Watt 12V.

Could you please update you "Profile" to show where you live. You will get more responses from people in
your part of the world to help you.

Tommy L sends.....

 

[Tommy L]

One of my B168 Chargers went Poof with big could of smoke

Tommy L sends....

 

[ken1645]

OP, if you are only running 12S/2P, the Thunder 1220 is all you need.
They go on sale every now and then, I got mind for $89 shipped.
For a power supply, a sever power supply off the net for about $20 shipped. Since it's only one power supply, the isolation mods aren't necessary. Just wrap it in foam and duct tape(it's housing is hot!).

I just got my batteries in the mail and have my Thunder 1220 charger with a 30V 5A power supply. Learned quite quickly that the 150W power supply is absolute crap and can't charger more than 1 battery pack at a time Make sure to get at least a 500W+ PSU peoples..

I'm going to buy a 650W server power supply to remedy this.. Most on eBay seem to be "hot swap" so it's just a plug in thing with no wires.. seems a bit dangerous so I found an old one that has the wires which I can replace the connections I need. I do like the Thunder charger though, very intuitive.

 

[docnjoj]

+1 on the 1220 Thunder charger. Good stuff.
otherDoc