Originally Posted by SteveM732

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.

I use A123's. I would like to charge a 14s2p pack in the airplane.
A lot of large airplanes are using 10 & 12 cell lipo's

dirtybird

A few points if I may.

Due to new shipping regulations large LiPolys will now be split packs, that is they will have a bullet or other similar connection which turns a 10S into two 5 cells.

50 volts is considered by many as the danger point where electrocution becomes a lot more likely and there for many manufactures / vendors do not care to cross that threshold.

As the max. voltage increases it becomes a lot more expensive to deliver amps. and the cost per watt goes up accordingly.

There are few 500 watts plus chargers available period and no others which I am aware of that will do 8 cell at 20 amps. much less 30 amps.

I do know of a high cell count charger but it is limited to 12A max. , required 220V AC and does not include a balancer. The price of that charger,balancer and software is close to $1,000.

Two PL8s will let you charge matched packs up to 8S ea. at up to 30 amps. each and would still be less expensive by a large margin.

It would be nice if everyone read the specs. and asked questions on areas which are unclear to them insteadof asking why not 20 cells ,why not 50 amps. etc.

FYI I posted about 1-1/2 to 2 year ago that a 800watt charger that could do up to 20 S at up to 10amps. or up to 10S at up to 20 amps. would be great. That charger still not not exist to the best of my knowledge.

Charles

Originally Posted by SteveM732

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.

I agree, I fly up to 63V but's that's using 3 x 5S and many 12S configurations using 2 x 6S. Even if they had 12S and 15S packs I wouldn't use them, no option to spread the load and the price would be crazy for somethoug you couldn't break up and use other ways. Stick with modular (smaller packs in series)...

Jack

Originally Posted by everydayflyer

Due to new shipping regulations large LiPolys will now be split packs, that is they will have a bullet or other similar connection which turns a 10S into two 5 cells.

Charles

Careful, this design does exist but it's not the "default". I for one will NOT buy packs with this "interconnect" as I've now seen a few with loose bullets or that start to pull apart, I'll live with ground shipping ;-)

Jack

Will the software cycle a battery with the high discharge feature and record the data?

Even a remote idea of price? $250? $500? $750?

Problem with posting anything is there will always be exceptions.

Thunder Power and Hyperion are both supplying such wired packs. I guess within your country suppliers can be found that will hard wire large packs but I was referring to the masses.

If bullet connectors are failing then I suspect low quality ones are being used. I will leave it at that as this really is not a charger issue.

Charles

Originally Posted by biskit

Even a remote idea of price? $250? $500? $750?

Check out post #36.

"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."

Originally Posted by biskit

Will the software cycle a battery with the high discharge feature and record the data?

Even a remote idea of price? $250? $500? $750?

Yes it will graph charges / discharges / cycles. As per earlier specs. 100 watts internal discharge limit and up to 1,000 watts Regenerative into 24V Pb (deep cycles) depending on the limits of the deep cycles.

Some deep cycles can take a 1C charge and some are limited to 1/8C so it is not exactly cut and dry.

Regenerative discharge is a controlled smart recharge so Pb is not over charged. You set the max. allowable rate and the max. charge to voltage.

Price range $250-$300 .
Charles

Originally Posted by everydayflyer

dirtybird

A few points if I may.

Due to new shipping regulations large LiPolys will now be split packs, that is they will have a bullet or other similar connection which turns a 10S into two 5 cells.

50 volts is considered by many as the danger point where electrocution becomes a lot more likely and there for many manufactures / vendors do not care to cross that threshold.

As the max. voltage increases it becomes a lot more expensive to deliver amps. and the cost per watt goes up accordingly.

There are few 500 watts plus chargers available period and no others which I am aware of that will do 8 cell at 20 amps. much less 30 amps.

I do know of a high cell count charger but it is limited to 12A max. , required 220V AC and does not include a balancer. The price of that charger,balancer and software is close to $1,000.

Two PL8s will let you charge matched packs up to 8S ea. at up to 30 amps. each and would still be less expensive by a large margin.

It would be nice if everyone read the specs. and asked questions on areas which are unclear to them insteadof asking why not 20 cells ,why not 50 amps. etc.

FYI I posted about 1-1/2 to 2 year ago that a 800watt charger that could do up to 20 S at up to 10amps. or up to 10S at up to 20 amps. would be great. That charger still not not exist to the best of my knowledge.

Charles

It just seems strange to me that they would stop at 8 cells. As you point out, the point of danger is 50V - not 33V.
I understand it would be expensive. The unit you have is not cheap.
I understand the specs. I don't need your interpretation. I just hoped they would make a unit I could use.
I am sorry if I disturb you. From now on when I see it is a comment of yours I will just skip over it and ignore it.

Originally Posted by dirtybird

It just seems strange to me that they would stop at 8 cells. As you point out, the point of danger is 50V - not 33V.
I understand it would be expensive. The unit you have is not cheap.
I understand the specs. I don't need your interpretation. I just hoped they would make a unit I could use.
I am sorry if I disturb you. From now on when I see it is a comment of yours I will just skip over it and ignore it.

Sorry if I offended you which it appears I did. Myself and other beta team members are here to answer questions and help others make informed decisions not to antagonize.

I will just say that I have more expensive per watt chargers with far less capabilities. 25 to 30 cents per watt is very inexpensive IMO for a very precession ,high quality charger from a company with a record of excellent CS and this is far from only being a charger.



Charles

Super excited to see this product go online

Originally Posted by dirtybird

I use A123's. I would like to charge a 14s2p pack in the airplane.

Is there a charger out there now that will allow you to do that?

You could split your 14s into two 7s and charge them in parallel. With the PL8 you could charge them at 3C.

Glen

Food for thought ...

iCharger 208B $180
Resistors for discharging 3s @ 10A $20
Resistors for discharging 4s @ 10A $20
Resistors for discharging 6s @ 8A $20
Total: $240

So for about $10 more I can get a lot more charger, a lot more features, a lot less complexity ... sounds good to me.

Can I use the FUIM2 PC interface from my Cellpro 10s with this charger? Or will there be a new interface?

Will the new node adapters accomodate 2 seperate 4s packs at the same time?

Originally Posted by Gregor99

Can I use the FUIM2 PC interface from my Cellpro 10s with this charger? Or will there be a new interface?

Yes, the FUIM2 will work just fine.

Originally Posted by Gregor99

Will the new node adapters accomodate 2 seperate 4s packs at the same time?

FMA hasn't released any adapters yet, but is often the case, be prepared to make adapters to fit your specific needs.