balance charger / discharger

[hghost]

I purchased a battery charger a year ago to charge my NIMH batteries for my off road Extreme RC Buggies. I have never used it, because I can not figure out how. Seems I have a issue with Operating Manuals for everything. Seems they all read like a foreign language. The way I read it , it almost seems to say the charger will recognize the battery and type and charge it accordingly, but I know that can not be true.
Operating voltage range DC 10.0-18.0 Volt
Circuit power max. 50W for charging
max 5W for discharging
Charge / Discharge current range ; 0.1 - 5.0 A/0.1- 1.0 A
Current drain for balancing Li-po ; 300mAh / cell
NiCd / NiMH battery cell count 1-15 Cells
Lithium battery cell count 1 - 6 series
Pb battery voltage 2 to 20V

When charging or discharging , it has an " AUTO " function that sets the feeding current automatically. Especially for Lithium batteries. It can prevent the overcharging which can lead to an explosion by users fault .Every program in the Unit is controlled with mutual links and communication for every possible error so it introduces a maximum safety. These can be set at users option.

Charges 3 kinds of Lithium batteries - Lilon / LiPo / LiFe - Lithium battery " Fast " and "Storage" mode

Data Store / load- can store maximum 5 data of different batteries. you can establish the data contains program setting of the battery to charge or discharge continually. these data can be called out at any time you need and the process can be executed without program setting.

cyclic charging / discharging perform 1 to 5 cycles of charge >discharge or discharge>charge continually for battery refreshing and balancing. also has PC based analysis using USB communication it will show graph of voltage , current , capacity and temperature curves .It also shows the individual voltage of each cell in the Lithium battery pack.

note states understand the info of the battery to be charged or discharged accurately .If the program is set up incorrectly the battery can severely be damaged . Especially Lithium battrey can cause a fire or an explosion by over-charging
( earlier statement read the charger read the battery and corrected user error or fault ----now states can be set incorrectly ??)

LiPo voltage level ; 3.7V / cell , max charge voltage ; 4.2V / cell , allowable fast charge current ; 1 C or less min.discharge voltage cut off level :3.0V / cell or higher. ??

A specific quantity of electrical energy is fed into the battery during charge process . the charge quantity is calculated by multiplying charge current by charge time ?? ( That is how you set it ? ) the maximum permissible charge current varies according to the battery type or its performance , and can be found in the info provided by the battery manufacturer . Refer to the info by the battery manufacturer regarding charging methods , and verify the recommended charge current and charge time . Especially for Lithium batteries,you have to follow the charge instructions provided by the manufacturer strictly .

NOW it can do it "AUTO" but it then says You have to set it according to the manufacturers instructions ? SO it is not Automatic at all....Which if I make an error it can explode or burn....so my fault setting is Not corrected as it seems this was saying at first ?

SO for a novice like myself with no experience and or understanding of what it wants...the so called AUTO is useless.

Am I reading this wrong ??

This is a Multi-Charger....purchased at Nitro RCX it is called a THUNDER AC6 Dual Power Balance charger / discharger .

www.nitrorcx.com/73p-ac680-accharger.html

Any Advice on high to set to be able to charge a battery that makes sense ?

[flydiver]

Go to YouTube and search for [Accucel-6 charging] or [IMAX B6 charging]. Follow some other video options that look promising.
There are about a dozen chargers of that sort. They look a bit different but they all pretty much work the same.

Turnigy Accucel-6
Loong Max E6
iMax B6
GT power A-6
iCharger iC6
Bantam BC6
Sky Charger B6
Battman B6
Venom Pro Charger
Dynam Supermate DC6
The major difference is whether they have the ac-dc converter built in, and if they have a fan.
The so called AC/DC ones simply have a 5A laptop charger stuffed inside.

Lipo charging is NOT like NiMh AT ALL.

ALL you have to set for NiMh, besides putting it in that mode, is the charge rate. There is no cell count, there is no voltage, to set. This is where you can set [AUTO] but it's kind of useless since you have to set a [MAX Amp] rate anyway. Don't worry about AUTO, it's not really AUTO. There's some other NiMh settings but don't bother for now.

There is NO [AUTO] for lipo. You MUST set the Cell count and the charge rate. You must plug in the main battery tap, and you should plug in the balance tap and put it in [Balance] mode.

For now don't worry about the discharge, cycling, or other forms of lithium charging.

If you can't sort that out after watching some video there are other options.

[hghost]

Thanks FD, will take a look.

[hghost]

I finally found a you-tube video for the Thunder AC6 Battery Charger and the guy made it real simple in his explaining how to charge a LiPo battery. It made much more sense then the manual.
Thanks again FD, do not know why I did not think of you tube to start with. ( old age moments)

[flydiver]

With some searching you can find how to do NiXX and how to put it in AUTO.

If you have the patience this thread will likely answer ANY question you have since the same questions are asked over and over again.
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=886698&highlight=477

[hghost]

I been reading the RCgroups site.

I asked many battery. questions. Got many replies and different advice . It would appear depending on the person one can get most every sort of do's and don'ts when it comes to Lipo's

Good to know here on the SC site we have enough intelligent people who have learned about them, that are not weary of telling us newbies how it is.

Still confusing at times and mind boggling, But with every question and answer and article search, it is slowly beginning to sink in.

At times I wonder and I will have more questions I am sure. But for now content until those questions can be worded so they can be understood and answered
with the same knowledge the others have been.