Are you new to LiPo's.

[North West Outpost]

While I had my charger out this afternoon I thought I would take a few pics and explain what I do with charging. Nothing fancy and nothing you probably wouldn't be able to find either on here or other web pages.

What do I use to charge my batteries.

Turnigy Accucell 6 charger.
Fusion 100A power supply.

Why do I use this set up.

There are loads of chargers on the market but the most talked about seem to be either the Accucell 6 and the Imax B5. I don't think there are many differences between the two, but the Accucell has an inbuilt cooling fan. That was the main reason for me buying this model.

You get leads to use the supply from a car battery included and to charge with an XT60, which is good for me as a few years ago I did make a huge push to get people to use them. They do give better conductivity than Deans. Proven when I used the same gun and battery then soldered on first a deans and then an XT60, the XT60 showed a higher rof.

Why use a dedicated power supply.

They are similarly priced to the more usual lap top type costing maybe a fiver more. BUT they control the input power much better and should give a better charging platform. There is loads of info on these if you re search some of the RC sites. You don't need to buy or make any special leads as you can use the crock clip leads you get with the charger. However if you want to you can buy some 4.5mm banana plugs and swap them over, but don't forget the crock clips are made to use if you power the charger from the car battery so they will be fine. Particularly as I do not wander to far away when charging my batteries. I have been charging batteries either NiHM's or LiPo's for about 6 years without incident, but I still make sure I am not to far away from the charger when it is in use. Just in case! This power supply gives 13.8 volts to the charger so is the same as you would expect or close to it from a car lead acid battery.










How do you set the charger up.

The charger is very simple to set up, you just scroll the options using the type and + & - status buttons then set them with the Start/ Enter button.

I only use LiPo's and mainly Turnigy batteries which can be charged at up to 5A, I generally have it set to 3A unless I need them charging quicker. As you can see in the above photo, you can also see by using the status buttons individual cell voltage. Nearly charged as seen below.









Set up in the kitchen on the worktop.










The Accucell 6 will charge 2 - 6 cell batteries, Only shown above is a 2 cell option although I have used these for 7.4, 11.1 and also 14.8 LiPo's and can fully recommend them to anyone who is looking to purchase a new charger.

I bought both the power supply and the charger from UK stock, the charger was around £20. There are some suppliers who charge more than this for the crappy little LiPo chargers that you plug straight into the wall. What a waste they are. The power supply was just ove £20 but bare in mind for the simple plug in power supply you will pay £15 plus postage in the UK it makes sence to spend an extra fiver to get a better and more importantly controlled power delivery to the charger.

I hope this helps some of you thinking to either starting or switching over to LiPo's.