Originally Posted by jfetter

I do have 2 questions though. First, Charles is right, if you're planning on using a USB-to-serial dongle, please consider a mini USB port instead, USB is a standard on computers today and all the Serial dongles I have are piling up! Second, wouldn't you expect this much power to lend itself to a dual port charger? Why the single?

The PL8 uses the same type of interface as seen on the 10S and Multi4 so you'll still need an FMA dongle. I too am a fan of integrating the USB hardware, but its a trade-off I can live with.

Originally Posted by jfetter

Lastly, I scanned the specs twice but didn't notice if this charger measures IR? For me, this will be a new requirement for all chargers I purchase, it's one of the few tools we have to measure battery performance compared to a point-in-time and frankly the only way to compare cells from vendor-to-vendor and generation-to-generation.

Yes, it measures IR when charging and using both the balance tap and main leads. You can also plot IR for each cell if you have it plugged into your PC while charging. Another interesting graph that you can make is of cell charge (in mAh) versus volts. Of course these are in addition to the normal plots of cell voltage, pack voltage, current, and fuel level.

USB to PL8 interface is same as Cell Pro 10 , Multi charge 4 other than this one is faster and I believe it is the same as the one used with Co Pilot II but stand to be corrected.

Yes it measurs cell IRs and it does it faster than the CP10, some where in the order of 3 minutes into a charge as long as cells are at less than 75% full at start.

As noted above Smart balancer under development for super safe/ easy parallel charging.

I have charged 4ea. 4S 3300 LiPolys configured as 8S2P at 30amps. I habe also charge a single cell 120 mAh LiPoly. 10mA -30A 1-8S covers a lot of battery packs.


Charles

I thought I'd share a picture of the PL8 in action. It is powered from a pair of deep cycle batteries wired in series and is charging a 4S2P and 3S2P A123 pack wired in series using a pair of special cables that come with the PL8.

Note that the appearance of the faceplate on the final product will be different, see post #1 for a look at the final product.

SOLD!

When, how much and will you be offering a matched power supply?

VERY nice work!

Tim (and the beta team)

THIS IS AWESOME!!! I need a higher powered charger for my 6s 5000+mAh packs and this is just the ticket. I'm going to be building a portable/field charging station with a 1000W generator and 15V, 70A switching power supply.

I've been using your 10s charger and have been researching, looking for something more powerful.

Is there an expected release date?

Dave

Originally Posted by RCnGuy

Tim (and the beta team)

THIS IS AWESOME!!! I need a higher powered charger for my 6s 5000+mAh packs and this is just the ticket. I'm going to be building a portable/field charging station with a 1000W generator and 15V, 70A switching power supply.

I've been using your 10s charger and have been researching, looking for something more powerful.

Is there an expected release date?

Dave

Dave,
To get the full power (1008 watts) of the PowlerLab you will need two 12 volt Pb batteries or a 24 volt 50 amp power supply. A 12 volt Pb battery or a 12 volt 50 amp power supply will give you 516 watts. 50 amps is the max current the PowerLab will accept. I am including a screen shot of the power supply page.
Jack Doherty

Yeah, now THAT is a serious charger!

Thanks Jack.

The generator that I'm planning to use is:

<http://honda.northerntool.com/generators/honda-eu1000ian.htm>


and the power supply is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1000W-13-8V-72A-...3D10%26ps%3D63


I "may" opt for a slightly smaller power supply (since I really don't want to go with a larger generator) but I haven't really found any between 40A and 70A I would also prefer to keep it 16v or less so that I can use my CellPro 10s charger if need be.

Any suggestions?

Originally Posted by Jack Doherty

Dave,
To get the full power (1008 watts) of the PowlerLab you will need two 12 volt Pb batteries or a 24 volt 50 amp power supply. A 12 volt Pb battery or a 12 volt 50 amp power supply will give you 516 watts. 50 amps is the max current the PowerLab will accept. I am including a screen shot of the power supply page.
Jack Doherty

Looks promising. Can any of the beta test group put up a pic showing the screen after charging a 6S 5000 at full power?

Originally Posted by Big Fil

Looks promising. Can any of the beta test group put up a pic showing the screen after charging a 6S 5000 at full power?

Will a 7S 4600mAh A123 pack do?

OK, most of us that are serious will certainly buy one, let's drop the formalities now, price please? 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

Thanks for giving us this opportunity to provide comments.

I hope there will be a serious effort toward "charger memory management".

As an example, my current charger (competitor's product) has a "mAh cut-off" value that is a global setting, not pack specific. It is a giant PITA. I hate it when I find my A123 pack charging has terminated early because I forgot to change the value from my earlier 900mAh NiMH pack. Or worse, if my cut-off has inadvertently been over-specified for the current duty.

I want to be able to assign a specific pack and charging method (e.g. pack chemistry, cell count, charging mode, current, mAh cut-off, time cut-off etc) to a specific memory "slot" and have the charger remember everything about that particular pack and my previously decided charging strategy . The applicable memory "slot" name should also be user "name-able".

Perhaps the PC software could also have a library function, so pack details can be uploaded and downloaded by the user into the charger's memory. It would be a shame if you had more unique battery packs than memory positions in the charger.

Please don't make the PC a compulsory part of every charge cycle.

Lastly, please give some serious thought to adaptor boards. I hate the usual juggle that really requires three hands to insert the balance adaptor to the board. Why not fly leads instaed?

Thanks.

I need a higher powered charger for my 6s 5000+mAh packs and this is just the ticket. I'm going to be building a portable/field charging station with a 1000W generator and 15V, 70A switching power supply.

Based on the charger specifications, with a 15V/70A supply you should get about 640W output power which equates to about 27A into a 6S lipo. That is over 5C for a 5000mAh pack which is pretty good

I am also curious to know whether FMA will be offering a 24V/50+A SMPS ? With the rush of 600W and higher chargers coming out this year there is clearly a market for an affordable high power SMPS. There is a good IOTA DLS-27-40 (27V/40A, 1000W) unit but it is $400.

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

Originally Posted by brw0513_2

Thanks for giving us this opportunity to provide comments.

I hope there will be a serious effort toward "charger memory management".

As an example, my current charger (competitor's product) has a "mAh cut-off" value that is a global setting, not pack specific. It is a giant PITA. I hate it when I find my A123 pack charging has terminated early because I forgot to change the value from my earlier 900mAh NiMH pack. Or worse, if my cut-off has inadvertently been over-specified for the current duty.

I want to be able to assign a specific pack and charging method (e.g. pack chemistry, cell count, charging mode, current, mAh cut-off, time cut-off etc) to a specific memory "slot" and have the charger remember everything about that particular pack and my previously decided charging strategy . The applicable memory "slot" name should also be user "name-able".

Perhaps the PC software could also have a library function, so pack details can be uploaded and downloaded by the user into the charger's memory. It would be a shame if you had more unique battery packs than memory positions in the charger.

Please don't make the PC a compulsory part of every charge cycle.

Lastly, please give some serious thought to adaptor boards. I hate the usual juggle that really requires three hands to insert the balance adaptor to the board. Why not fly leads instaed?

Thanks.

Yes you can set up presets for individual packs. This is easily done via the computer interface. Once done you can transfer the preset to the charger and then the charger will be able to access that preset without the computer.

Also when a preset is selected on the charger you can specify whether to Charge, Discharge, Cycle, or Monitor the pack. Also you can override the Charge Amps and Discharge Amps.

New adapter boards are being developed but we haven't seen them yet.

Glen