The FMA Multi4 charger Manual covers the CCS interface and Presets fairly well. The PL8 having 4 Control switches makes moving around to /in the different menus much easier.


Many here know me and I am very hard to please. This charger can be as simple to use as a CellPro 4 or Cell Pro 10 but with power / range that is unreal. Charge rates from 10 mA to 30amps. ,1S to 8S LiPoly along with all the other battery chemistries . The out of the box User's presets cover more options than most will ever need. The class I refer to as Power users can tweak to their heat's content.This charger gives the user almost unlimited excess to all options ,the only choices which are not available are ones which would knowingly create Safety Issues.

An outline of the Mulit 4 Presets and CCS is located here:

http://www.fmadirect.com/faqs.htm?category=45

FYI I do not own a Multi 4 so had no prior experience with the computer interface other than with the Cell Pro 10 which is extremly limited in comparison. I found the CCS very intutive and was up to speed in a very short time. Once again the PL8 out of the box will serve most users just fine but the ability to fine tune is there for those who desire their own custom settings.

Charles

Originally Posted by Himalaya

OMG That is a MONSTER charger, Finaly a KW charger available! gotta order one.

It is even more of a monster charger when you consider that you can bank them. Yes, you can operate more than one of these things at once. They dock together and are controlled by the first in line or by computer.

This is one reason for the use of the Opto Isolated USB interface. They can be connected for control purposes with simple servo extensions.

Guys, we have an answer from an FMA engineer on the PL8 project regarding the use of the Opto Isolated interface as it is rather than a direct USB connecter. Here it is:

If for some reason the user were
to remove ground from the power supply while the competitors charger were
running, up to 50 amps could go directly to the mother board of their
computer thru the USB cable. Somehow, I don't think 28 gauge wire will
handle 50 amps. The ground circuit is made thru the earth ground of the
power supply and computer supply.

This is why all our chargers use opto isolated USB interfaces. It can't
smoke the computer.

If you guys participating in the beta program can't speculate, how about contacting someone from FMA to get on and post the MSRP?

Jack[/QUOTE]

I know the guys at FMA want to get this information to you as soon as they can, so please be patient. Things are going very well with this project, but they need a bit more time before making commitments regarding price and schedule.

Good Day Fellow RCers

I thought some of you might like seeing some screen shots of a 5 cycle charge/discharge I did last night. These cycle were on an old, old ElectriFly 640mAh 2s battery. So nice to have a battery management system that will do both charge and discharge as many times as you want. Just set it up, click start and watch it do its thing.

Jack Doherty

Hello:

Price range for the Cellpro PowerLab 8 will start between $250 and $300.

Delivery of first production run is estimated for Spring, 2010. Initial quantities will likely be limited.

That's all we can say for now. We will of course update you as time goes by.

Another FMA breaktrhough! Can't wait to get our hands on one here at the Battery Clinic as we will be getting lots of questions on it.

Originally Posted by Red Scholefield

Another FMA breaktrhough! Can't wait to get our hands on one here at the Battery Clinic as we will be getting lots of questions on it.

Yea, Red,

I thought of you as soon as I got my hands on this unit.
You are going to love it.

heyward

A few more pictures and screen shots.

It is so nice to parallel charge 3 3000mAh @ 2C 15A (max current for these batteries) for my Trex 500 at the same time in less than 25 min. If I had them, I could charge 6 of these batteries with the PowerLab in the same time.

Jack Doherty

Cool, Jack

The first thing I did was make a series parallel harness / adapters so I could charge 4 ea. 4S as 8S2P.

I have charged 4ea/ 4S 3300 LiPolys using these at 30 amps. or 4.5C rate.

Added a 840 watts plus graph.

Update

Now that V1 has been replaced with V2 available max. Amps is 40 above could be charged at 6C.
charles

A step in the right direction but I think it should go up to at least 50V

Originally Posted by dirtybird

A step in the right direction but I think it should go up to at least 50V

Why not use a pair of 6S packs wired in series for flying and in parallel for charging? My highest voltage plane is about 37V so I'm not very familiar with the needs of the high voltage people.

Originally Posted by Jack Doherty

Good Day Fellow RCers

I thought some of you might like seeing some screen shots of a 5 cycle charge/discharge I did last night. These cycle were on an old, old ElectriFly 640mAh 2s battery. So nice to have a battery management system that will do both charge and discharge as many times as you want. Just set it up, click start and watch it do its thing.

Jack Doherty

Jack

Why does the Ahr in and Ahr out differ and gradually decrease?

Originally Posted by wingster

Jack

Why does the Ahr in and Ahr out differ and gradually decrease?

Ah good observation. Notice that I said the battery pack is an old, old pack. As you can see from the graphs it is only accepting 42mAh to 47mAh in and it was a 640mAh battery when new. As packs get old and resistance increase the temperature during multiple charges increase which affects the capacity of the battery, hence the gradual decrease. This is a great instance to show the power of the PowerLab in diagnosing the quality of a battery pack. In this case very bad battery.

Jack