Another compact charger by ToolkitRC. It's only 150W but the price is very good. I preordered it on BG but I am considering to cancel the order after all the issues I've read on the big brother M8 (calibration and balancing issues).

Link:
https://www.swvv.com/m6

Inviato dal mio SM-G965F utilizzando Tapatalk

I pre-ordered it too... And I'm a bit worried about the issues with M8...
But I'll keep the order and wait to test.
If it's too problematic, I'll ask for a refund.

Originally Posted by Daniel Ribeiro

I pre-ordered it too... And I'm a bit worried about the issues with M8...
But I'll keep the order and wait to test.
If it's too problematic, I'll ask for a refund.

After seeing rcmodelreviews video about this charger I decided to maintain my order. But unfortunately it is already out of stock :-(

Inviato dal mio SM-G965F utilizzando Tapatalk

Mine is on the way. Based on the M8 issues, I'll be doing some thorough testing with an old battery before I commit it to anything decent.

Al

Edit. The Toolkit stuff is junk. Dangerous junk.

Mine has arrived & man it's small.
I'll set up some tests this weekend to see if it has the same issues as the M8.

Al

Dangerous junk.

I juat received the M6, it works great. Its good to see a new approach to processing the charge cycle, most chargers previously used the same controller chip that drifted wildly over time, and had questionable control at end of charge. The M6 (&8) handles end of charge (balance) differently, with cell clamping commencing lower at around 4.1v, progressing up to 4.2v as the lower cells catch up. This prevents the higher voltage cells overcharging in order to bring the lower cells to 4.2v. Older generation chargers would clamp a set load on the cells that reached 4.2v to force the balance, but in order to trigger the clamping, those cells would have to go higher than 4.2v (usually 4.21-4.22v)
In commencing the balance early the M6 does not go above 4.2, in my case, charge voltages only reached 4.196 -4.199 (on a 5 digit logging multi meter) so I'm now just hoping the accuracy holds up.
My only gripe with it is the fold out legs. They fall off with the slightest touch, but other than that it's excellent. I have an m8 also, but prefer the 6, as it is quieter and the buttons are easier for quick navigation.

Junk

Al

Still waiting for mine to arrive from China (Banggood). Lately shipping time to EU are getting overly long.

Originally Posted by _AL_

So.......
Very limited testing so far but I downloaded the latest firmware & updated before plugging in an old 3s battery & doing a few charge/ discharge cycles.
First impressions are.

• Cell voltages match my tester. Assuming the tester is accurate it looks good
• Charge works well. Discharge is slow but seems to work
• IR gave me a result of 24 which seems sort of in the ballpark for this battery. No idea how accurate it is but subsequent tests came out fairly close
• It's tiny
• Menu is a bit clunky & the buttons are a bit funny but once you get used to it, it all works fine.

I'll test some more over the next week or so but at this point it's not terrible.

Al

That's good to know... It does exactly what it's designed to do. Can't wait for the arrival of mine so I can do field charging... My current charger is too bucky to be carried to the flying spots.

Originally Posted by _AL_

So.......
Very limited testing so far but I downloaded the latest firmware & updated before plugging in an old 3s battery & doing a few charge/ discharge cycles.
First impressions are.

• Cell voltages match my tester. Assuming the tester is accurate it looks good
• Charge works well. Discharge is slow but seems to work
• IR gave me a result of 24 which seems sort of in the ballpark for this battery. No idea how accurate it is but subsequent tests came out fairly close
• It's tiny
• Menu is a bit clunky & the buttons are a bit funny but once you get used to it, it all works fine.

I'll test some more over the next week or so but at this point it's not terrible.

Al

Unfortunately mine does not charge or discharge. Immediately after I start charging / discharging is says "Battery Error" and stops.

Mine did that once, then I found I had the batteries balance plug one pin off on the charger connection.

Do the cell voltages show properly on the display before you hit the "OK" to start the charge?

Originally Posted by heyphred

Mine did that once, then I found I had the batteries balance plug one pin off on the charger connection.

Do the cell voltages show properly on the display before you hit the "OK" to start the charge?

BINGO! I had the balance plug inserted wrongly (and I tried two different lipos ).
Testin now, balance charging seems ok, storage charging stops at 3.85v per cells instead of my old Skyrc charger which is set to 3.80v per cell.
Should be fine. Tested with my multimeter after storage and cell voltage differences on my 4s 1550mah lipo were within 0.02v (3.85 max and 3.83 min).
A bit slow at discharging compared to my Skyrc B6 nano.

Update: discharge is painful slow, no matter what I set as discharge current (2A) if you set to storage charge a fully charged lipo discharging current is no more than - 0.5 -0.6. 3 hours to storage a 1550 4s lipo to 3.85V per cell starting from 4.2V.
Is there a workaround?

Originally Posted by invernomuto

Update: discharge is painful slow, no matter what I set as discharge current (2A) if you set to storage charge a fully charged lipo discharging current is no more than - 0.5 -0.6. 3 hours to storage a 1550 4s lipo to 3.85V per cell starting from 4.2V.
Is there a workaround?

Not short of building your own discharger. Even something fairly simple could get you closer to the mark quickly and just finish it off with the M6, but it can be fraught with danger should you forget about it...

Originally Posted by alicecooper

Not short of building your own discharger. Even something fairly simple could get you closer to the mark quickly and just finish it off with the M6, but it can be fraught with danger should you forget about it...

I'd like to understand if this is a shortcoming of this charger or there are specific settings to speed up things that I am not aware of. I also have a Skyrc B6 Nano and storage at 2.0A, from 4.2V per cell to 3.85V is quite fast in comparison.