bump

Originally Posted by hamburger

With 'cooling fan' set to AUTO, I have seen during a balance charge an internal temp of 42 deg Celsius and the fan did not spin at all.

if 'cooling fan' is set to AUTO, at what internal temp is the fan supposed to start, please?
firmware is 3.14

It's been a while since there was any mention of a dual channel charger.

Any news?

I have had my 206b for about a year now. Love it. Anyway, the start button seems to take some effort now for it to beep and activate a change in selections. Is there something i can do. Must it be sent in? Thanks

Originally Posted by hamburger

bump

Are you saying that your manual doesn't state this? Have you looked?
I have the 3010B and it is stated in its manual.

Originally Posted by MarkEHansen

Are you saying that your manual doesn't state this? Have you looked?
I have the 3010B and it is stated in its manual.

I did look and I did not find it in the manual, yes. What it says is this:

Cooling fan AUTO
There are three cooling fan modes: ON, OFF, AUTO. In AUTO-Mode,
iCharger adjusts the fan automatically to control its internal temperature.
Cooling fan: OFF, ON & AUTO (AUTO, default)

what is the auto off temperature for your 301B, please?

Originally Posted by hamburger

I did look and I did not find it in the manual, yes. What it says is this:


what is the auto off temperature for your 301B, please?

I'm not sure how that will help you, but here is what is in the manual for the 3010B:

The fan will start automatically according to the internal temperature and charge/discharge power, and
protect the charger if overheated. When the internal temperature is over 55℃(131 oF), the output power
is automatically reduced by 25%. If the temperature exceeds 60℃(140 oF) the charge cycle is stopped.

What power source do you guys recommend for field charging with my iCharger 3010B? I'm usually charging 3s, 4s, and 6s batteries at 15 Amps +. I had a deep cycle marine battery that I bought from Wal Mart but I think I killed it when I started trying to charge at 20 Amps. It won't hold a charge any longer.

I'd bet you killed the deep cycle by not giving it proper care and feeding.

I pull more than 20amps from mine on a regular basis.

As Charles has said taking care of wet cells is more difficult than LiPo -- see our postings in other threads on the subject.

Originally Posted by jrb

I'd bet you killed the deep cycle by not giving it proper care and feeding.

I pull more than 20amps from mine on a regular basis.

As Charles has said taking care of wet cells is more difficult than LiPo -- see our postings in other threads on the subject.

Maybe so. Can you point me to the proper threads so I can read up on this?

I got one of these batteries and this charger.

I've kept the battery and charger indoors and always recharge after use. I never let it sit fully charged for more than 2-3 days.

Charger maybe; battery named Starting -- not likely a deep cycle?

A search on me and pb:

Care and Feeding of Pbs; and water too! -- http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1468597

Deep Cycle batteries for charging -- http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1582239

Originally Posted by jrb

Charger maybe; battery named Starting -- not likely a deep cycle?

A search on me and pb:

Care and Feeding of Pbs; and water too! -- http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1468597

Deep Cycle batteries for charging -- http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1582239

Possibly. It was really hard to tell. The naming convention on the actual battery itself was really odd and bizarre. It was cheap so I went with it figuring that if it only lasted me 6 months hit would be worth it. It lasted about 10 months so I got my money's worth.

Thanks for the links - I'll start reading up.

All about Pb batteries

http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

Originally Posted by everydayflyer

All about Pb batteries

http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

Yea - I read that but I'm a beancounter by trade so most of that stuff is greek to me. Granted I could (and should... and likely WILL) read, re-read, and re-read it until it makes sense but at first glance it just raises more questions than answers.

After spending a good part of my day researching this stuff one thing seems clear (and PLEASE tell me I'm wrong) there really is no clear answer for setting up a good field charging solution. All I really want is someone to tell me what battery (or batteries) to buy so that I can charge up to 30 Amps for about 2-3 hours of total charger time without killing my charging power source. And then I want to know what I need to do to properly maintain the battery/power source so that I get good life out of it.

I'm not afraid to spend some money to get it right but like most of us, money IS a limiting factor.

True deep cycle Pb batteries have a reserve minutes rating. This is the length that they can supply 25Amps. for from fully charged down to 10.5V under that load which is considered 100% discharged.

My 125Ah deep cycles have a reserve minutes rating of 210 minutes. That is 3-1/2 hours ,thus 125Ah at 20 hour discharge rate becomes 3.5 X 25 = 87.5 Ah at the 3-1/2 hour discharge rate.

Now one should not use more that 50% so 1/2 of 3-1/2 hr. becomes 1-3/4 hr. at 25A discharge rate.

Also consider that cycle life is to the half life. That means that if said battery can be used down to the 50% level 500 cycles in fact at that point it only is only able to supply 50% total of its' rated capacity.

MAx. life is obtained by limiting depth of discharge and recharging as soon as possible after use.


Flooded cells are the least expensive but AGMs last longer under same demands but cost a great deal more. Five years ago my 125Ah flloded ones were $65 each. A 48 Ah AGM I purchased a year and a half ago was just over $200, Excide Yellow Top..

The very best AGMs are sold under the Life Line name. Expect to pay around $400 for a 100 Ah one.


Note: One good part of Excide Yellow Top is that there is a 36 month free replacement warranty. I guess that means use the you no what out of it and hope it fails after two years but sooner than three.

Charles

Hi I have a 208b charger.

I cannot balance charge my lipo batteries. I get a balance port not connect error. I am able to do a regular charge with no issues.I tested multiple batteries and all have the same issue.

Can I plug an XH balance connector straight into the charger to bypass the balance board. I want to test if it is a faulty balance board.

If it is infact the balance board that is causing an issue can I buy the paraboard from epbuddy and plug that into the icharger completely bypassing the balance board?