Has anyone else got one of the new venom pro chargers? If you do, have you been able to get the PC interface to work? Other than that it's a great little charger for the price and I can't complain about the operation, but I've tried several times to get it to work with my computer and no joy.
Any help would be appreciated.

I have not purchased this unit yet, but am seriously considering it. I like the fact that it has AC/DC for charging as well as the capability to charge numerous types of batteries as well as balancing LiPo's. Do you have any other issues with it besides the PC connection?

Thanks

I just got the new 'venom' pro charger too. I
love that it comes with a 12v power supply as
well as leads to use on a 12v battery at the
flying field.

It's a great charger...what I really like is that
it tells you how many mah's you put back into
the lipo or other batts.

It also shows you the voltage of each cell as
its charging and balancing.

And, its faster. It has a quick charge feature.

I can't get it to work with my computer though.
I tried every trick I know and it won't do it.

The instruction manual does not even mention that
feature.

Also, the manual is a little vague in a lot of areas.
You kinda have to figure things out.... Like you
have to hook the balance leads to the balance
block AND hook the charge wires to the main (deans)
connector. I never had to do that before..

But, I'm VERY happy with it.

Just my .02

Bob

I like the fact that it's cheaper than some of the other chargers on the market. Thanks for all the information, let me know if you figure out how to connect it to the computer.

Sounds like the typical user's manual

...

I recently purchased the Venom charger, and I was able to get the PC connectivity to function. I found that I have to go to the section for the temp probe in User settings, and switch to USB Enabled for it to work. However, when I do this the temperature gauge ceases to function. I'm waiting to hear back from Venom if this is intended. It really doesn't seem like this is the way its suppose to work, since the PC software has a graph that's suppose to show Volts and Temp.

Also, has anyone else tested the accuracy of their temp gauge? I have a hand held device I recently had calibrated, and my Venom gauge was reading 37 degrees Celsius when the pack was actually over 50 degrees.

I've also had problems getting the charger to stop charging. I'm using the default mV setting of 4, with some 1400 NiMH 7.2V packs and they're exceeding 50 degrees Celsius by the time I finally chicken out and stop charging.

And finally, since the manual is so vague, does anyone know of any special way I should charge a 12V 7 amp hour lead acid battery?

Thanks,
-melon

Yep...angrymelon is correct...

You have to go into the 'user set program' and find the
setting that lets you switch between USB and TEMP ports.
Then enable the USB port and the thing starts working okay.

Angrymelon... It looks to me like you are charging your NiMH
batterys at too high of a rate.

A 1400 mah pack charged at 1C would be 1.4 amps.

You say you are charging at 4mv...whatever that is...
Are you making sure your decimal point is in the right place?

If you are not sure just set the NiMH charge function to AUTO.
It's simpler and much safer and the charger will figure it all out
for you and charge it faster than any other charger...safely.

Just my .02
Happy charging...
AB

Originally Posted by AirmanBob

You say you are charging at 4mv...whatever that is...
Are you making sure your decimal point is in the right place?

He is talking about the stop drop/delta peak/whatever you want to call it. When a peak charger sees the pack's voltage drop a specific amount while charging it knows it has reached it's "peak" and stops the charge. You set the delta peak per cell (i.e. 4mv x the number of cells in the pack).

Concerning this Venom charger, is it just one of the Chinese Bantam knockoffs? How accurate are the voltages? The charger seems expensive (~$110) considering all the other Chinese ones with the same specs go for around $50.

Yeah you never know where stuff is made any more.

I'll bet the Batam is made overseas too.

I've tested my lipo voltages with my digital VOM and
they are being charged properly.

But you might want to play it safe and buy a Cell Pro.

I just like the Venom Pro...It comes with so much stuff
for only about $139.00 including the power supply. The
power supply is made by Tosiba.

You can watch the battery's charge on your computer
but after watching it once or twice it is boring. I just
watch the charger display.

AB

Well the battle continues...

I got a new temp sensor from Venom and I'll report if that fixes my temp inaccuracies.

The next issue I'm having. I'm trying to verify if the charger is in fact a "linear" charger. Venom's support hasn't been able to answer this for me yet. During a charge session while connected to the PC, I noticed that the charger seems to stop charging for a few seconds, then resumes. It does this on what appears to be a consistent basis. While using my dad's Team Checkpoint TC-1030, I noticed that it does NOT do this. The TC-1030 being listed as a linear charger. This is also obvious as his charger will charge the same mAH into the same pack faster as a result (insert sad face).

The charger continues to charge my batteries extremely hot. No idea why. In comparison the TC-1030 peaks at the same mAH with pack temperatures of almost 10-20F degrees cooler.

I spoke with Venom's support about the USB versus temp gauge, and they "believe" that it's suppose to work. However, upon testing no ones been able to reproduce a working scenario.

Lastly, when charging 12V 7AH field batteries it seems to peak randomly. I hope I'm not doing something incorrect, but the Pb settings are fairly brief.

-melon

P.S. Sorry for the giant post.

Oh it's not over...

The new temp sensor made no difference in accuracy.

Venom wrote me back, stating the charger is a "Linear" "Peak" detection charger. However, they have not yet responded with why it likes to take little breaks while charging.

Hot batteries continues to be a concern.

Still no word on USB with temp detection.


Now with some new findings...

I'm not sure why these issues happen when using the discharge function, but I'll do my best to explain.

First, if I set the discharge rate to 1A, it rarely even gets that high. Normally it will hang out at .7A's during the process. This isn't really a big issue, but 1A discharge is already terrible enough...

The next and greater issue, is the accuracy of the discharge voltage set point function. If I set the discharge voltage to lets say 5.4V for a 7.2V 6cell pack. It will discharge the pack .2 to .3 volts below what I set it at. This probably isn't that huge of an issue for NiMH or NiCD packs, but call me paranoid when using this on my brand new LiPO packs.

All of these concerns have been brought to Venom's attention. I have yet to hear back. My patience is wearing thin.

-melon

P.S. I will admit that I think the Pb charging problems were my mistake. The default max charge time setting is 120 minutes. I wasn't really paying attention the first couple times it stopped. The last time I used it I noticed that it stopped because of 120 minutes fail safe.

I also recently bought this charger, and I also cannot get the PC connectivity to work. When I put the disk in my machine, a folder comes up that is labeled with 4 squares, so I assume its using characters of another language that my PC doesn't recognize. Anybody know if there is a place to download the software? Its not a big deal, I will probably not use this feature often, but I'd like to try it. Other than that, I am very happy with this charger.

Hi All,

I am using this to charge my 6S batteries for my 600E. Even when I set it to 5 amps at 22 Volts it will only charge at 2.2 amps. This charger is supposed to be capable of charging at 5 amps. It does the same on all three 6S batteries. Any thoughts ? No help at Venom site.

Tom

Originally Posted by Wiztom

I am using this to charge my 6S batteries for my 600E. Even when I set it to 5 amps at 22 Volts it will only charge at 2.2 amps. This charger is supposed to be capable of charging at 5 amps. It does the same on all three 6S batteries. Any thoughts ? No help at Venom site.

The Venom Pro charger (copy of the Bantam BC6) has a maximum output of 50W. It can provide a maximum of 22.2 Volts or 5 Amps, but not both at the same time.

To charge the 6S 5000mAh packs at 1C, you will need at least 111W of power. That is over twice what this charger is capable of producing. The most you can expect from this charger on your packs is 2.25 Amps, or a charge rate of 0.45C. If you drain this pack to 20 percent, it will take almost two hours to recharge it with this Venom. That is a long time to have to sit and watch a battery charge.

If you want faster charging times for the larger packs, you will have to use a different charger.

So anyone else had any luck with this charger?? My total .02 cents is dont get this thing.. I have read mostly bad things about this charger and issues that most of the time Venom cant really answer.. If you want a good reliable charger thats tried and true just save yourself the headache and get a Duratrax ICE!!!!!