Best buy for battery charger?

Anymore I use NiMH AA-cells in all of my bots. They come at 2500 mA-hr
now. I get the batteries at Target for about $2.50/ea, and bought the
Energizer 15-minute charger there too. This is for charging up to 4/ea
cells individually, not wired in series.

: > My ancient and reliable Tekin BC112 finally gave up the ghost and now my
: > robots have no way to be recharged.  I need another charger in the $100
: > range that will charge from 1 to 8 (at least) NiCd/NiMh cells from 100mah
: > to 4000mah with a peak charge detection.  I already have a decent LiPo
: > unit so it need not do that and I don't care about discharging.
: >
: > Does anyone have any personal experience with any good charger that will
: > fit the bill for the robot mad scientist's lab? :)


: Anymore I use NiMH AA-cells in all of my bots. They come at 2500 mA-hr
: now. I get the batteries at Target for about $2.50/ea, and bought the
: Energizer 15-minute charger there too. This is for charging up to 4/ea
: cells individually, not wired in series.

I tend to agree, but I have a variety of cells for specific applications
that run from very small to quite large.  I trust "big box" store generic
chargers about as much as I could eat one.  Call me predudiced, but I
feel more comfortable with a higher tech unit...

DLC

--
============================================================================
* Dennis Clark         dlc@frii.com                www.techtoystoday.com   *
* I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"...         *    
============================================================================

I'm trusting the fact it says "Energizer", rather than Target and "made
in china". The batteries, I notice, are made in Japan. I use the same
batteries on my hexapod to drive 12 leg servos, probably 3-4 Amp peak
currents, and they last quite a while.

BTW, this charger will NOT charge my older lower capacity NiMH cells,
for whatever reason. I have a coupe of overnite slow chargers for that.

Dennis,

I've been using a Great Planes Triton charger for a couple of years now
and
am very pleased:

<http://towerhobby.com/products/greatplanes/gpmm3150.html>

You'll need to add a 13.8 volt (or whatever) power supply.

dpa


Dennis Clark wrote

: Dennis,

: I've been using a Great Planes Triton charger for a couple of years now
: and
: am very pleased:

: <http://towerhobby.com/products/greatplanes/gpmm3150.html>

: You'll need to add a 13.8 volt (or whatever) power supply.

: dpa

  I looked at that one.  It seems good, 1-24 cells and even lead-acid.  I
have the 10Amp supply from my old Tekin BC112 for power :)  It does more
than I need, but I'm beginning to think there is a bit of a breakover
point between "not enough" and "too much".

thanks,
DLC

: Dennis Clark wrote
: > My ancient and reliable Tekin BC112 finally gave up the ghost and now my
: > robots have no way to be recharged.  I need another charger in the $100
: > range that will charge from 1 to 8 (at least) NiCd/NiMh cells from 100mah
: > to 4000mah with a peak charge detection.  I already have a decent LiPo
: > unit so it need not do that and I don't care about discharging.
: >
: > Does anyone have any personal experience with any good charger that will
: > fit the bill for the robot mad scientist's lab? :)
: > thanks,
: > DLC
: >
: > --
: > ============================================================================
: > * Dennis Clark         dlc@frii.com                www.techtoystoday.com   *
: > * I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"...         *
: > ============================================================================


--
============================================================================
* Dennis Clark         dlc@frii.com                www.techtoystoday.com   *
* I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"...         *    
============================================================================

Try Robot Market Place
http://www.robotmarketplace.com/marketplace_chargers.html , they have all
sorts of charges ranging in price from US$47 to US$147, they also have the
Triton charger for $100 although it is backordered atm. I know people who
use the Triton and they reckon it is a great charger.
I'm in Australia and have bought stuff from them before and they were pretty
quick.

HTH

Andrew W

: Try Robot Market Place
: http://www.robotmarketplace.com/marketplace_chargers.html , they have all
: sorts of charges ranging in price from US$47 to US$147, they also have the
: Triton charger for $100 although it is backordered atm. I know people who
: use the Triton and they reckon it is a great charger.
: I'm in Australia and have bought stuff from them before and they were pretty
: quick.

  Well, I decided upon the Duratrax Intellipeak ICE.  It had all that I
wanted, at a reasonable price and had lots of really good reviews.

thanks all,
DLC

: HTH

: Andrew W

: > : Dennis,
: >
: > : I've been using a Great Planes Triton charger for a couple of years now
: > : and
: > : am very pleased:
: > : <http://towerhobby.com/products/greatplanes/gpmm3150.html>
: >
: > : You'll need to add a 13.8 volt (or whatever) power supply.
: > : dpa
: >
: >  I looked at that one.  It seems good, 1-24 cells and even lead-acid.  I
: > have the 10Amp supply from my old Tekin BC112 for power :)  It does more
: > than I need, but I'm beginning to think there is a bit of a breakover
: > point between "not enough" and "too much".
: > thanks,
: > DLC
: >
: > : Dennis Clark wrote
: > : > My ancient and reliable Tekin BC112 finally gave up the ghost and now
: > my
: > : > robots have no way to be recharged.  I need another charger in the
: > $100
: > : > range that will charge from 1 to 8 (at least) NiCd/NiMh cells from
: > 100mah
: > : > to 4000mah with a peak charge detection.  I already have a decent LiPo
: > : > unit so it need not do that and I don't care about discharging.
: > : > Does anyone have any personal experience with any good charger that
: > will
: > : > fit the bill for the robot mad scientist's lab? :)
: > : >
: > : > thanks,
: > : > DLC
: > : > --
: > : >
: > ============================================================================
: > : > * Dennis Clark         dlc@frii.com
: > www.techtoystoday.com   *
: > : > * I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"...
: > *
: > : >
: > ============================================================================
: >
: > --
: > ============================================================================
: > * Dennis Clark         dlc@frii.com                www.techtoystoday.com
: > *
: > * I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"...
: > *
: > ============================================================================



--
============================================================================
* Dennis Clark         dlc@frii.com                www.techtoystoday.com   *
* I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"...         *    
============================================================================

Do you know whether such chargers are smart enough to determine whether
one of the cells wired in the series chain is charging poorly? It
happens that such cells will be overpowered by the others in normal
operation and can actually reverse its voltage.

: >
: >   Well, I decided upon the Duratrax Intellipeak ICE.  It had all that I
: > wanted, at a reasonable price and had lots of really good reviews.
: > thanks all,
: > DLC
: Do you know whether such chargers are smart enough to determine whether
: one of the cells wired in the series chain is charging poorly? It
: happens that such cells will be overpowered by the others in normal
: operation and can actually reverse its voltage.

  It depends upon how it is acting.  You can set a max capacity that will
stop the charger if a cell is just venting and the pack never peaks, looking
at the charge data will tell you that a cell is bad.  It also has a temp.
prove that you can use - a bad cell usually overheats during charging.  My
first use of it aborted the charge when it became clear that one of the
cells in the pack was shorted, so the pack never reached a realistic voltage.

DLC
--
============================================================================
* Dennis Clark         dlc@frii.com                www.techtoystoday.com   *
* I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"...         *    
============================================================================

This is what I was wondering about. If you have 12 cells wired in
series, the charger cannot tell what is going on in each cell
"individually", so it has to somehow deduct that one [or more] of the
cells isn't charging properly. It cannot do this by temperature, unless
you have a thermistor/etc on each and every cell, which is I assume it
doesn't use.

Therefore it can only use total voltage across the pack and current
through the series chain to tell what is going on. I guess it has
standard charging curves for packs of good cells, and if the measured
data deveates from the std by too much, it infers 1 or more cells is
bad.