I charge with a 10Ah lifepo4 battery which can use 80% capacity. Works great as I arrive with flight packs charged and it gives me almost 2 recharges on all of them (four 1300mah 3 cells)

Yours looks like a SLA battery so you should only use 50% of its capacity.

Thanks for that info. I'm rather unsure how to know how much of the capacity I used of the battery. All I have is a voltmeter connected. how would I tell? On my lipos i have a tool telling me my remaining capacity

Edit: just spoke with the company i got it from and the guy said it should be fine to run until the IMax turned off since the IMax b6 turns off at around 11v.

Here's a few pics of my charging setup. 2 4010 Duos and a Meanwell 2kW power supply, with custom made 2 channels balance boards, up to 7 cell and a 10 cell plug for my parallel boards (that I don't use anymore since I have enough channels).

Originally Posted by Grimmy2

Here's a few pics of my charging setup. 2 4010 Duos and a Meanwell 2kW power supply, with custom made 2 channels balance boards, up to 7 cell and a 10 cell plug for my parallel boards (that I don't use anymore since I have enough channels).

Very nice charging setup..! What case did you use???

Here's the setup I was modifying and testing out this morning. With the larger panel it seems to be capable of around five to six amps charge under the right conditions.

The charger itself is a very dated RC charger from maybe a decade ago. But this setup can supply DC-in to any charger that's okay with ~12V, the voltage can be fine-tuned via a pot inside the metal box.

The fourth photo is an earlier version of the setup using a smaller panel. You can also see the voltage converter outside of the metal enclosure. With the smaller panel, the setup was only capable of charging a battery with around 500mA of current.

Access
I like the solar set up. What are you using for the converter?

Originally Posted by sleb

Access
I like the solar set up. What are you using for the converter?

It's a rather dated design based on a LTC1149, works up to 48V and roughly 90% efficient or so.

http://cds.linear.com/docs/en/datasheet/1149fa.pdf

Some photos from my power stations and chargers

...

Those charging stations look excellent! I wish I had the skill or know-how to pull something like that off lol

The ones that my son and I made (although far from the ones that you mentioned immediately above your post) function in a Home Depot plastic tool box. They are much simpler but put all the charging functions in one box. I typically charge via my laptop running the Hyperion software and just have power and balance cables running out to Progressive RC modular charging boards. We typically charge two LIPOs at at time (well, really 4 as we have duplicated charger bixes). Maybe a DC PSU is in our future sometime.

K

Originally Posted by Falafel Flop

Those charging stations look excellent! I wish I had the skill or know-how to pull something like that off lol

Some more from my pilot case tool box .

Has anyone used one of these computer sockets in their portable station?

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Computer-and-A...-/331318044180

Not my preferred AC inlet, but you can use them if you have an IEC AC line cord available. This one is 5A (600W), but you can buy similar ones with higher current ratings (up to 20A depending on connector style)

FWIW, I use these on my charging stations
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A3RZSTR96PZ344

Allows use of any standard extension cord and seals when not in use.
My power supplies have low voltage enable switches (no need to switch the incoming AC) and I install circuit breakers (no need to carry fuses)

My son and I use a similar one (from Amazon) in our charging boxes, I think this was it:

http://www.amazon.com/Amico-IEC320-M...ds=iec+320+c14

Haven't had any problems.

K

Originally Posted by 556duckvader

Has anyone used one of these computer sockets in their portable station?

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Computer-and-A...-/331318044180