To All you LiPo users.
FMA has one hell of a product in the Cellpro 4s Charger (received it yesterday). I added banana plugs to the power lead as soon as I got it, as I will probably use it more in the shop where there are a number of 12 volt outlets (banana jacks). Have a cigarette lighter plug to match the banana plugs.
The quote from a popular tv add, "The operation is so simple even a Neanderthal could do it.". There is no way one could screw up this charger or their battery pack. Polarity protection coming and going. No knobs to turn, buttons to push - only one button to manually set the charge rate if you don't use the Auto mode. This same button lets you scroll through the displays - giving you % charged, charge rate, capacity input, source voltage and individual cell voltages during the charging and balancing operation.
I was so impressed with the simplicity of the operation that I set about modifying every lithium pack I have to take advantage of the Cellpro, either adding the appropriate connector or making up adapters. I found that two JWS connectors CAd together to form a 4 pin connector makes a good interface for many of the 3 cell pack balancing connectors I have from other vendors, and the male part (without shell) of a Futaba J connector works fine for 2 cell packs. I made this up using one Cellpro connector Y'd into the 3 and 4 pin connectors. (For the Neanderthals - don't hook up two packs at once.)
Instruction manual (8 pages) apparently written by someone that has actually used the charger - a gold mine of good information, particularly the part on Estimating Performance factors.
While the Charger viewer software is a free download from the FMA web site you really don't need to hook it to your computer to take advantage of its full potential. Having the option is a nice feature for the techies that want to view the charge graph and store the information.
My prediction is that the Cellpro will blow away the Lithium charger market. They should be shipping this month.