# Your favorite "smart" charger?



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

OK to not derail another thread, what is your favorite "smart" charger?

I'm asking because my favorite one is no longer made, working fine but cannot be replaced. My backup (as anyone who actually knows me, I'm Mr. Backup) has been given to a good friend.

Let me "define" the smart charger I'm interested it.

[*]Works on multiple chemistries, preferably NiCad, NiMih, Lithium[*]Works on cell packs and preferably will auto sense the number of cells[*]Either has adjustable charge rates, or automatic charge rates.[*]Has a discharge cycle, one that can either tell the milliamp hour capacity, or time to discharge with a known load (preferable time and capacity)[/list]

What I am NOT interested in is:

[*]15 minute or 1/2 hour or even one hour chargers... leave that to the airplane guys and the power drill people.[*]a charger locked into one output voltage[/list] 
What I have is a Maha 777 Plus II (the successor to the 777 Plus) which does all of this.

Also, anyone who has a 777 Plus II that wants to sell it, contact me! I need my backup









Greg


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## wigginsn (Jan 9, 2008)

Greg, 

My charger current can cover the first 3 - I use an IMax B5. Not top end, but functional. 

For 4/4 I believe the B6 has the discharge cycle. 

Do I wish I'd forked out a bit more and got that one? Yep. : ) 

Cheers 
Neil


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Well I shelled my charger and so I looked around on the forums and found several who like the Tenergy TB6B. It looks like it can handle all the things you ask.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

I have a *Triton2 Electrifly* that I bought several years ago, an earlier model of *this unit*. The main differences are that mine doesn't have a built-in power supply (I have a separate unit), and mine isn't rated for LiPo as they weren't popular yet when I bought it. Mine will do NiCad, NiMh, and LiIon. It will slow charge, fast charge, and discharge/cycle. I don't believe it automatically senses the number of cells... that is determined by the user-selected charge voltage. The thing I do like about it is the temperature probe which shuts the charger off if the batteries start getting too hot. All the spec's are in the linked web page.


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## grsman (Apr 24, 2012)

Greg
I use a Tenergy TB6B. It is quite capable and at a resonable price.
I got it from All-Battery on sale for ~$40 including the 12V power supply.
Tom


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg,

This is the charger I bought in November 2011. Tenergy Vantage B6s+. I know zilch about charging batteries and this works fine for me.









As I said before, I HAD a Maha 777-PLUS II, but Paul Burch has it now.









http://www.all-battery.com/comboten...90252.aspx


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## K27_463 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Maha 777 and 777 plus2 were pretty good units. - for their time. I sold literally hundreds of them. They had 2 weaknesses. The included power supply was given to fail, not a big deal. but the primary problem was that the lithium charge mode was primitive and did not work very well. The smarts in this design were not up to the present state of the art. It did fantastic on nickel based packs, but lithium mode would not reliably detect peak and commence shutdown. The design was set up to be overly safe. For example , it switched into an ultra low charge rate near the end of a charge cycle, so if it took , say 3 hours to achieve 95% charge, it would then take another 3 hours to do the final 5%. The end result of this was that sometimes it just never finished a charge in lithium mode. 
it also had a sort of one size fits all fixed charge rate of 800 mah.Good, safe, and reasonably fast, but modern units can do much better for less cost. Plus, the modern units can be Much faster . 
As a dealer, I talked with Maha tech folks, they stopped production because technology had moved past it, and they had no ready replacement. 
The triton is not a good choice because it has user adjustable charge rates, up to 5 amps. For the un knowledgeable user, they can get them selves in trouble this way. If one is good, 5 must be better , right??? 

Current units such as the tenergy design not only cost less, but work better. 

jonathan/ Electric modelworks 
www.rctrains.com


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## Michael Glavin (Jan 2, 2009)

Greg,

Based on your requirements I can recommend the Hyperion battery charger line, they serve me well. Those Maha’s were grand in their time…… Ever heard of Victor Engineering's HiQ Chargers?

http://www.hyperion-world.com/products/type/15

FWIW I use a program together with a PC coupled to a programmable load and programmable lab power supply for my battery testing regimens. I went there because at the time smart chargers were not ubiquitous! 

To answer to your question below in the “LiFePo4 - Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries” thread. 

“Also, do you know what the "end of charge" "signal" characteristics are for li-metal? same as lithiums?”

Not, at least not of the early Lithium metal cells we used. These were rated at 3.0V and required a CC charge regimen of C/10 to 3.4V and or a MAX under charge time of 14 hours as I recall. If memory serves me, current Lithium metal varieties utilize the aforementioned Li-Ion charge regimens (That said I would not go there without doing some research).

Michael


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

I have tried lots of different chargers mainly for NiMh and NiCd. I cannot really speak for the Li-Ion and Li-Po chargers. 
I too had the Maha charger mentioned above for years with very reliable operation except for the power supply which died in very short order. 
Lately I have tried the Hobby King ECO-6 which worked OK except for the junky label type pushbuttons. I believe they will eventually fail. 
I have had good success with a genuine I-Max B6. Worked well. 
For up to 15 cell packs I use and recommend the Turnigy Accucel-6. Solidly made with through the case clicky buttons and automatic cell count detection. Fan cooled. 
For more than 15 cells, eg 16 cells for 19.2 volts I also use the Turnigy Smart-6 charger. This does not have automatic cell detection but does have a screen showing what is happening in the charge cycle. Also solidly made with clicky sub membrane buttons and fan cooled. 
All of these (so called) smart chargers have unintelligible instructions. So I figured them out and wrote basic instructions for my customers. 
They all use regulated 12 volt supplies. They all charge the LI chemistry.


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