ProTek R/C iCharger 208B Lilo/LiPo/Life/NiMH/NiCD DC Battery Charger

[Chilly Duncan]

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New from ProTek R/C (http://www.protekrc.com/):

A Main Hobbies today announced a ProTek R/C iCharger 208B Lilo/LiPo/Life/NiMH/NiCD DC Battery Charger (8S/20A/350W). This charger allows you to charge and balance 2S to 8S lithium batteries, or multiple batteries connected together in series. The charger comes with an XH style balance adapter board that fits Align, E-Flite and ProTek R/C battery packs, and adapter boards for other batteries are also available.

This charger is also designed to allow you to balance multiple batteries at once as you can charge and balance up to two 4S batteries, two 3S batteries or three 2S batteries at once. When you connect multiple batteries, the batteries also need to be connected together with a serial charge lead. You should also make sure all the batteries are discharged or used in the same groups that you charge them in (ie: two 4S batteries used in series for a 8S battery pack etc).

The charger will sell with a street price of $189.99. But don’t be fooled by the low price! This charger performs as good as or better than the most popular name brand chargers on the market today.

You can find this product listed here:

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/products_id/142573

Specifications:


Input Voltage Range: 4.5 – 32.0VDC
Charge Current Range: 0.05 – 20.0A
Discharge Current Range: 0.05 – 20.0A
Maximum Charge Power Capacity: 350W @ Input voltage > 18V
Maximum Discharge Power Capacity: 30W Maximum internal
Discharge Power Capacity: 600W @ 30V/20A
Current Drain For Balancing: <350mA
Balance Accuracy: <10mV
Lithium (LiPo/LiIo/LiFe) Battery Cell Count: 1 – 9 Series (In non-balance mode, expand LiFe to 10s)
NiCd/NiMH Battery Cell Count: 1 – 25 series
Pb Battery Cell Count: 1 – 18 series (2 –36V)
Log File Storage: 16Mbit (36 hours)
Battery Setup Memories: 10
Intelligent Temperature Control: Yes
PC Connect: USB port
Weight: 420g
Dimensions (L X W X D): 143x97x26mm 5.63"x3.82"x1.02"


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[fastharry]

that looks nice...

but how would you charge batteries that don't have the orion style holes, and where is the third lead for the middle balancing port on orion style?

[rccardude04]

that looks nice...

but how would you charge batteries that don't have the orion style holes, and where is the third lead for the middle balancing port on orion style?



It's easy enough to make that adapter, and a few companies make them now. No big deal. :)

What I think is interesting... 4.5v to 32v input? 350 watts? WOW!

I wonder if you can charge 8s lipos on a 12v power supply like other chargers? Where the heck do you buy a 32v power supply?

-Eric

[SS Pede]

An evolution of the 106B, 106B+ and/or 1010B+ clearly. For $120 the 106B+ does up to 6s at 10A or 250W, not too shabby either. But the 20A charge rate is pretty impressive here!

I am also wondering about the output leads on the charger. I'd probably end up snipping those banana plugs off and just soldering up whatever connector I'm using, since at the moment I don't have any Orion-style hard case LiPo's in my future. Regarding the middle port for balancing, I guess you would need that only if your pack did not have a separate balance tap on it. You'd be ignoring this charger's balancing feature and just using an external balancer with the middle port...right?