Help with PL6

[pgrbff]

I recently sold my 10S and bought a PL6 because I have started to use Nihm Rx packs and needed a multi chemistry charger.
Can you charge the number of cycles from the charger or do I need to hook it up to a computer? The PL6 appears to start the cycling with a discharge, does that mean that two cycles will end with a discharge?
Thanks

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by pgrbff

I recently sold my 10S and bought a PL6 because I have started to use Nihm Rx packs and needed a multi chemistry charger.
Can you charge the number of cycles from the charger or do I need to hook it up to a computer? The PL6 appears to start the cycling with a discharge, does that mean that two cycles will end with a discharge?
Thanks

Hi:

Yes, you can change the number of cycles and whether to end cycle on charge or discharge for any preset right at the PL6. Here's how:

1) Power up the PL6 and select input source as usual.
2) At the Preset menu, use INC/DEC to select the preset you wish to alter.
3) Press INC/DEC buttons simultaneously to enter OPTIONS menu.
4) At Choose TASK? >Preset Settings, press ENTER
5) Press ENTER repeatedly until you see "Set Cycles?"
6) Use INC/DEC to set the number of cycles.
7) Press ENTER again.
8) At "End Cycling with?", use INC/DEC to make your selection.

When you're done, press and hold the BACK button to exit OPTIONS menu and return to the Preset menu. Your changes are saved to the selected preset as soon as you make them.

Tim Marks

[pgrbff]

Thank you, it was stage 3 I was missing.
I do seem to be struggling somewat with the Nihm preset. I changed charge current to 200mA and discharge current to 500mA. I have been trying to cycle a pair of Eneloop AA cells but when I try to discharge them, if they are below 3.0V I get an error message that cell voltage is too low. The second line of the display alternates between (approximately), 'press to reset' and 'use regenerative discharge'. How do I get it to do a 'regenerative discharge' or is this reffering to putting the discharge back into the power source(if it is a battery), which it is not, it's a power supply. Hope this makes sense.

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by pgrbff

Thank you, it was stage 3 I was missing.
I do seem to be struggling somewat with the Nihm preset. I changed charge current to 200mA and discharge current to 500mA. I have been trying to cycle a pair of Eneloop AA cells but when I try to discharge them, if they are below 3.0V I get an error message that cell voltage is too low. The second line of the display alternates between (approximately), 'press to reset' and 'use regenerative discharge'. How do I get it to do a 'regenerative discharge' or is this reffering to putting the discharge back into the power source(if it is a battery), which it is not, it's a power supply. Hope this makes sense.

Hi:

Correct. The min. discharge level for internal discharge using the PL6 is 3.0v. This means you have to have at least a 3s pack of NiMH in order to utilize internal discharge. Possibly, you could come up with a way to temporarily put 3 single cells in series for the purpose of discharge, or you can power the PL6 with a 12v Pb battery instead of a power supply, and then enable Regenerative Discharge. Not that you'd want to, but using Regen, you can also increase the discharge current to as high as 40A, or whatever your input battery can safely take as a charge rate; generally you should not exceed 20A max, lower for run-of-the-mill car batteries.

Tim Marks

[pgrbff]

That's a shame, I'd hoped the PL6 would handle all my charging needs, including AA cells used around the home. But thanks for the answer.
Just one more question (for the moment anyway). I noticed whilst viewing one of the videos on the website, a question about using banana plugs, or not? I hoped this meant that you could charge a lipo with balance plug only, not having to use the lipo discharge leads too; just like 10S. Am I hoping for too much?

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by pgrbff

That's a shame, I'd hoped the PL6 would handle all my charging needs, including AA cells used around the home. But thanks for the answer.
Just one more question (for the moment anyway). I noticed whilst viewing one of the videos on the website, a question about using banana plugs, or not? I hoped this meant that you could charge a lipo with balance plug only, not having to use the lipo discharge leads too; just like 10S. Am I hoping for too much?

Hi:

Yeah, we dropped balance-wire-only charging on the PL6. The cost savings to leave off the electronics to support it are substantial. We were able to achieve our target price in the market this way, and no other charger mfr's support it either. On the PL8 we kept the feature because we wanted that model to be our extreme top-of-the line offering. Many customers in the industry have migrated to the XH style connectors. The PL8, PL6 and 10XP all support XH WIRING MODE. It is not possible to support balance-wire-only charging with this popular wiring mode any way. It requires the original Cellpro wiring scheme to do it.

Tim Marks

[pgrbff]

Good thing I kept my 10S then. Thanks for all the replies.