E-flite Celectra 1S Charger question.

[Old 'N Slow]

HI! I recently purchased a Blade 120 SR helicopter, and it came with this 1S LiPo Celectra charger.
This helicopter uses a single-cell 500 mah LiPo battery.

I've flown the heli maybe 10 times, alternating 2 E-fliite 500 mah batteries that this heli uses. So each battery has been used/charged 5 times.

Charger seemed to work OK. Little bit wonky getting the charger to start charging, have to push the button several times sometimes...fine. When the charge was done, the charger indicated this by flashing all of it's LEDs. This *kinda seemed* to match what the manual said...

Until I used it charge a couple of "Thunder Power" 160 mah batteries that I had been using in my mSRx (previously charged with a single-port battery/AC charger unit for smaller E-flite batteries). Set it to charge at .2 amps, takes about 30 minutes. It was then that I noticed that when these batteries were finished charging, the LED indicators did a sort of side-to-side indication - what I call the "Cylon Effect."

I now understand that the indication of all the LEDs blinking together indicates that the batteries are *almost* finished charging, not *fully charged', as I first thought.
No matter how long I leave either of the 500mah packs on the charger - at 0.7 amps rate (the highest possible rate on this charger), as instructed, the indicators never get to that side-to-side indication that the charge is complete.

Just wondering if anyone has had similar experiences with this charger, or has any opinion of it.

Thanks!

[CHELLIE]

Hi, Get this charger, Its a Super nice Inexpensive charger for 1 to 3 cell lipos, this was one of my first chargers, I still have it after 7 years and use it all the time, it will charge up to a 1800mah 3 cell lipo with no problems, I Know, i do it all the time and its great for out in the field charging, Hope that helps, Chellie

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXHNW5&P=FR

[CHELLIE]

Welcome To Wattfliers Old N Slow Chargers that come with Planes and helis are normally not the best Chargers around, they tend to be the Cheapest that they can get away with, the electrifly charger above will serve you well.

[Old 'N Slow]

Thanks for the reply.

I've ordered a Turnigy Accucel 6 charger form Hobby King, after reading some things about it here. Figure it will be of use if/when I convert any of my gas planes to electric, just for fun.

Seems odd to me that this charger is doing this, it may be defective.

[CHELLIE]

Originally Posted by Old 'N Slow

Thanks for the reply.

I've ordered a Turnigy Accucel 6 charger form Hobby King, after reading some things about it here. Figure it will be of use if/when I convert any of my gas planes to electric, just for fun.

Seems odd to me that this charger is doing this, it may be defective.

The turnigy accucel 6 is a very good charger too, the electrifly charger charges through the battery leads, and thats whats needed for a single cell battery.

[Old 'N Slow]

Thanks Again! I'm flyin' blind here, no one local to ask... forgive the noob questions...


What do you mean by "charges through the battery leads"? Is there another way?

[CHELLIE]

Originally Posted by Old 'N Slow

Thanks Again! I'm flyin' blind here, no one local to ask... forgive the noob questions...


What do you mean by "charges through the battery leads"? Is there another way?

Ask all the questions that you want to

newer 2 ,3, 4 cell lipos have a Balance tap on the lipo to charge each cell seperate and monitor the charge of each cell so that the lipo is Balanced charged, the white plug on this 3 cell lipo has 4 wires going to it, one ground and 3 pos wires from each cell, this 3 cell lipo is charged through the white balance charging plug, a single cell lipo does not have this plug, because its only a single cell battery, so its charged through the battery cable, chargers vary a little, some will use the balance plug to monitor the charging, while others charge through the balance plug.



http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...Lipo_Pack.html

[Old 'N Slow]

And now I understand.
Yes, I had read of the balancing plug, but I have no experience with multi-celled LiPos Yet.

We shall see.

I'm a big fan of "advanced" chargers. I own an FMA Direct "Einstien", that I used with my NiCads and NiMh batteries with great success, since I purchased it in 1997. It may be "slightly" out of date now, compared with current technology.

My local club has been in the same field since 1984. It's a 150 acre sod farm. Like many fields, development gets closer every year, and we're starting to get a few nuisance noise complaints. The move by a few fliers to electric power is hoped to make some headway in staving off the inevitable.

Stay tuned for more questions.

[CHELLIE]

Originally Posted by Old 'N Slow

And now I understand.
Yes, I had read of the balancing plug, but I have no experience with multi-celled LiPos Yet.

We shall see.

I'm a big fan of "advanced" chargers. I own an FMA Direct "Einstien", that I used with my NiCads and NiMh batteries with great success, since I purchased it in 1997. It may be "slightly" out of date now, compared with current technology.

My local club has been in the same field since 1984. It's a 150 acre sod farm. Like many fields, development gets closer every year, and we're starting to get a few nuisance noise complaints. The move by a few fliers to electric power is hoped to make some headway in staving off the inevitable.

Stay tuned for more questions.

Since you like FMA Chargers, you will be happy to know that FMA makes the finest and safest lipo charger on the Market

http://www.revolectrix.com/cat.chargers.htm

[Old 'N Slow]

Ya, I looked that those, and should I decide to become more deeply committed to electrics, I will consider a more sophisticated, higher-performance charger in the FMA line.

Always like their stuff, lost our local supplier a few years ago, and the prices went up on both the equipment and the shipping, not to mention the hassle of ordering from the US and having it shipped to Canada.