I have cut my fleet back to two only a few planes. On the small side I run the standard 3s 2200 and on the larger side 6s 3300-4000. My 6s batteries I run as a single pack in a 60" EF plane and run in series for a 12s setup in my 73 AJ Laser. While I love the Laser its biggest down fall is not being able to get enough flights to want to bring it out. I charge my 2 of my 6s (up to 4000mah) on a paraboard using a 206b icharge (250 watt max). This fits in with my power supply. I am only looking to charge at 1c.

I am looking to find a decent small inverter generator that does not break the bank. Honda is not really an option since I really consider them the Apple of the small generator world. Very few guys in my area fly anything bigger then 6s and the ones that do are all about the deep cycle battery, which I don't really consider a good option.

One recently active thread on the subject.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...field-charging.

Scroll through the first few pages of this forum. You will find other discussions on generators.

Thankyou, I will take a look. Hopefully I can find what I was looking for, and if I do I will make sure to spread the wealth.

Its pretty hard to get to the field without that generator that hides under the hood. It even has a nice big battery in circuit to smooth the voltage
Pete

Originally Posted by pilotpete2

Its pretty hard to get to the field without that generator that hides under the hood. It even has a nice big battery in circuit to smooth the voltage
Pete

I agree start that big genny up, plug and play.

I used to use the inverter output on my jeep to run my charger. I always joked it was about the most inefficient generator that you could get. Unfortunately, since moving to server power supplies for my charger the load is too high to do that anymore.

That Amico that people have been talking about lately really looks tempting, I'm just not sure I trust it, probably too good to be true.

If you're only charging at 1C you can run the charger directly from 12V from the car. That's a glacially slow charge rate though, you'd get a lot more flying time charging at a decent rate with a more powerful charger.

Originally Posted by Josef086

I have cut my fleet back to two only a few planes. On the small side I run the standard 3s 2200 and on the larger side 6s 3300-4000. My 6s batteries I run as a single pack in a 60" EF plane and run in series for a 12s setup in my 73 AJ Laser. While I love the Laser its biggest down fall is not being able to get enough flights to want to bring it out. I charge my 2 of my 6s (up to 4000mah) on a paraboard using a 206b icharge (250 watt max). This fits in with my power supply. I am only looking to charge at 1c.

I am looking to find a decent small inverter generator that does not break the bank. Honda is not really an option since I really consider them the Apple of the small generator world. Very few guys in my area fly anything bigger then 6s and the ones that do are all about the deep cycle battery, which I don't really consider a good option.

Here is what I use. It has 250 charge cycles on my charge counter, with 30 minutes per charge. That $99 engine is running at 90% throttle, and is holding up quite well.

Harbor Freight 79 cc Gasoline/Alternator 45 Amp Setup
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2518887

This really impressive

Originally Posted by Josef086

This really impressive

If you think it's impressive now, wait until you hear it....

Originally Posted by Ohmic

If you think it's impressive now, wait until you hear it....

^^^ This! ^^^

Anything louder than a Honda or a Yamaha (or other of similar volume) is one of the best ways to alienate oneself at any of the sanctioned fields where I fly. e.g. - One would be best served to stay well within the noise that is generated by others in order to avoid becoming "that guy"...

Originally Posted by Ohmic

If you think it's impressive now, wait until you hear it....

Yeah

The muffler on that little 79 cc engine is little more than a spark arrester. Adding the second muffler as described in the thread really made a big difference.

Stll a bit louder than a Honda though.

I wanted light, quiet and inexpensive and this little gem from Amazon has been powering my 24v power supplies for my PL8.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GCJY620...iglink20264-20

Originally Posted by vollrathd

Yeah

The muffler on that little 79 cc engine is little more than a spark arrester. Adding the second muffler as described in the thread really made a big difference.

Stll a bit louder than a Honda though.

Sorry Denny, I couldn't resist....

I heard folks have had great luck putting small car mufflers on the later 5k generators.

Originally Posted by Ohio AV8TOR

I wanted light, quiet and inexpensive and this little gem from Amazon has been powering my 24v power supplies for my PL8.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GCJY620...iglink20264-20

Looks like there are lots of little inverter generators on the market these days, it's nice to see that happening. I'm still partial to Honda but I'd take any one of those over any conventional 3600 RPM generator any day. Decoupling output frequency from engine RPM is a huge advantage in terms of noise and fuel consumption.