Dusk

Hi! I'm a total newbie. could someone please explains this to me, provide answers, I'm a little confused.

I powered my PL6 with a 15A power supply, and planning to bring the PL6 in the field to charge flight packs, using my car’s lead acid battery. Where can I find the option “choose power source”
Correct me If I’m wrong I need to specify the power source every time I plan to switch from DC to Lead acid and vice versa?

Second thing. Can I charge single pack using MPA board? Is it okay? Or its required to charge 2 packs or more every time I use the MPA board?

Third question. What is the maximum charge rate for my Gens ace 1800mah 6S? do I need to set it to 1.8A? (that’s charging it on 1C charge rate right?, Please help me to understand this) what if I set it to 10A is that charging it on 5C charge rate? Is it safe?

I read the PL6 user guide and to find out I need to set the “Supply current limit” slightly less than the power source’s maximum output current capability. So what’s the best setting for this if I’m using the Efuel 30a Power supply?

And last I need to set Low Sply limit about 50% lower than the power supply’s nominal output voltage. So the Efuel operates within 12-18V so what is the best settings for this? The 50% of 12V which is 6V or 50% of the 18V?

JetPlaneFlyer

I'm not a powerlab user but i can help with most of the point.

• Choose power source - My iCharger does this automatically at startup but i'm not sure about the PL6 so a PL6 owner might be able to confirm.
• Max charge for the Gens Ace 1800mAh - Recommended rate for Gens Ace is 1-3C with a maximum of 5C (dont do 5C very often). 3C would be 5.4A
• Single battery on a parallel board - yes, no problem at all.
• Supply current limit - I'd set it at 28A to give a couple on Amp headroom on the supply rating, set the supply voltage to 18V
• Supply current limit - Not really an issue if using a DC power supply, this is more for where you are powering from a battery in order to avoid flattening the battery

Dusk

[*]Supply current limit - I'd set it at 28A to give a couple on Amp headroom on the supply rating, set the supply voltage to 18V

^I'll set this to the charger? Please correct me if i'm wrong


And Thank you for all the inputs. Big help for me.
I have follow up questions with the PL6 using Efuel 30A as my power supply. How many 1800mah 6S can I parallel?

JetPlaneFlyer

Yes, the current limit is set in the PL6 software, sorry for not making that clear.

You can parallel as many batteries as your board will take, just multiply the charge amps for a single battery by the number of batteries on the board. For example, if you wanted to charge four 1800mAh batteries at 2C that would be:

1.8 x 2 x 4 = 14.4 Amps

Dusk

Its okay no apology needed, in fact you are helping me a lot to understand these things.

1.8 x 2 x 4 = 14.4amps

What is the connection of the 14.4amps with the supply current limit 28A that I'd set?

JetPlaneFlyer

There is no direct correlation between amps input and amps output. It's power (in Watts) you need to consider.

Power = Volts x Amps

So if you have your power supply set to 18V and it's capable of 30A then it's max power is 540 Watts (18V x 30A = 540W)

On the output side if you were charging a 6s battery (25.2V max) at 14.4 Amps then you need 363 Watts (25.2V x 14.4A = 363W)

So that's fine, your power supply has plenty of headroom (allow at least 15% surplus for supply power vs charging power)

Dusk

Please tell me if i'm wrong
Here's what I'm about to do

I'd set the power supply to its highest voltage capacity which is "18V" and set it to 30A (this is safe?)

Then I'll set the PL6's supply current limit to "28A" (according to you to give it a couple on amp headroom) and I'd set its supply voltage limit at "18V" to (to match the power supply's voltage?)

And if i'll parallel four 1800mah 6S gens ace batts. On 1C

It'll be like this 1.8×4 = 7.2A
And i'll be using 181W only

And if i'll parallel six 1800mah 6S gens ace
Batts. Also on 1C

It'll be like this 1.8×6=10.8A
And i'll be using 272W only

So as long as i don't exceed on the power supply's max power (which is 540w) i'll be doing okay?

Can you please tell me disadvantages, what if I parallel charge my 6s packs at higher C rate and that it would require more power (in watts) than the max power on my PSU which will be (540W)

JetPlaneFlyer

That all sounds fine except for setting the voltage limit in the PL8 to 18V.. dont do that, just leave it at default setting.

Providing you set the PL6 current limit to 28A then you cant overload your supply because the PL8 will only ever draw 28A. If you try to charge at a power that would exceed the supplies capability then the PL6 will 'self limit' so that it doesnt exceed 28A.

ron_van_sommeren

About charge, current, voltage, watt, resistance, power, C, energy, capacity
www.rc-cars-planes.com/docs/wu100v2_user_manual.pdf
Chapter 4 Basics of electricity
→ page 7-10


Some well-sructured reading and handy e-tools for rainy/windy days. Will save you, and us , a lot of questions.
Will also prevent you from burning up several controllers and/or motors and/or battery:
E-flight primer and tools

And please, do your RC equipment, wallet, ego, battery, controller, motor, house/garage/car a big favour ... get a watt-meter. It will more than pay for itself, will save you at least one fried motor and one fried controller. Will also help you finding the best setup.