Has anyone got or bought one of these chargers ? - any good ?

[KEV THE REV]

I bought one of these Imax chargers and it reads up well , but in truth , not so sure .I bought it to use with my Nimh batteries a well as reviving some old NiCads . I've got a GWS charger which is peak detection and variable ampage / number of cells etc and it's been ok , no discharge or cycle facility , so I thought I would 'up the game' as it were . Has anyone got one of these and what are your thoughts / experiences ? . 

cheers

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dual-Power-iMAX-B6-AC-LCD-Screen-Digital-RC-Li-Po-NiMh-Batteries-Balance-Charger/352932403892?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

[Mark_C]

Its a clone of a charger called the imax B6. Sounds like its a cut down version as its a bit limited if it doesn't have discharge. For nmih its probably okay, just don't go leaving it unattended when in use...

The genuine imax has those features I believe and certainly there are similar chargers that do have discharge and cycling.

[KEV THE REV]

18 minutes ago, Mark_C said:

Its a clone of a charger called the imax B6. Sounds like its a cut down version as its a bit limited if it doesn't have discharge. For nmih its probably okay, just don't go leaving it unattended when in use...

The genuine imax has those features I believe and certainly there are similar chargers that do have discharge and cycling.

I bought the imax B6 in the advert which does have discharge , the GWS I have doesn't have discharge . Are you saying the eBay one could be a clone ? . When I'm using the imax charger set to NiMh cut off of the battery MAH and amps set to match the pack it seems to take a long time to charge - I'm talking over 2 hours

[Mark_C]

Yes the black charger is a clone. Real B6 looks like:

although be aware there are clones that look just like this too!

 

[Ridge]

My B6AC gave up about a year ago, didn’t want to mess around trying to fix it. It was supposedly a genuine one but it’s really difficult to tell, either way it lasted a good while for the cost. 
 

I’ve replaced it with a Sky RC E680 which is a nice little step up, very happy with it for the money. 

[KEV THE REV]

I'm looking to send this one back as I'm not happy with it.  I'll look into the Sky one , thanks. 

[Ridge]

I bought it from modelsport as I do with most of the important bits like batteries and chargers, have a bit more confidence that I’m getting the real deal and have someone to go to if problems arise. Can’t fault them so far. 

[Mark_C]

I've got an Overlander RC6-VSR, very similar to the Sky one, I think it was about £40 from modelsport

[KEV THE REV]

So when you guys charge a NiMh 7.2v pack say a 3300mah @ 3amps with your charger how long would it take to charge  ?

[Ridge]

There’s stacks out there to read which I’d definitely recommend you do. I’ve just got my first lipo and have been doing exactly that. 
 

From what I researched I charge my NIMH packs at 1C. So a 3300mah battery is charged at 3.3a, 2000mah at 2.0a and the 1800mah at 1.8a. At those rates they take around an hour. I have seen plenty saying they can be charged at 2c so for example a 3300mah battery would be charged at 6.6a and take half an hour. I don’t see any reason to do that for my usage and would rather not take the risk. Many decent batteries come with charge rates on them so that takes out the guess work. 

[Mark_C]

1 hour ago, KEV THE REV said:

So when you guys charge a NiMh 7.2v pack say a 3300mah @ 3amps with your charger how long would it take to charge  ?

Depends what you set the charge rate to if it was set to 3 amps it'd take just over an hour, I think I have mine set to 5 amps so it'd take about 40 minutes or so ? less if the battery has some charge in it.

[KEV THE REV]

Thanks. I charge at those rates , so ie , 3000mah at 3 amps is my go to setting ..I'm trying to gauge whether this Imax charger is working right as it is not like my other chargers , so I'm trying to get comparisons. 

[KEV THE REV]

2 minutes ago, Mark_C said:

Depends what you set the charge rate to if it was set to 3 amps it'd take just over an hour, I think I have mine set to 5 amps so it'd take about 40 minutes or so ? less if the battery has some charge in it.

So , you can set the amp rate higher to speed up charge without overcooking ?,  I also set the imax charger cut-off mah to match the the pack mah, but it was still charging after 2 hours on a 3300mah pack @ 3amps

[Mark_C]

Sounds wrong to me, is the battery warm at all ? does it actually say its charging at 3 amps ? does it show what mah the battery has currently ? on my charger this slowly counts up as the battery becomes charged.

Note that chargers will step down, so it might only be charging at 2 amps even though its set to 3 max.

My suspicion would be it isn't outputting 3amps. put an ammeter in series and measure the current draw of the battery. To do this you need to have one lead (say the black) of the charger connected to the battery, then the other terminal on the battery (e.g. the red) going to the meter and the other lead of the meter going to the charger.

[KEV THE REV]

The battery is very warm , the digital readout says 3amps, there is a counter in the bottom right hand corner of the readout panel which I took to read out mah as it is charging but the counter shows a low reading , and the manual isn't comprehensive enough to actually state what this counter is for . I'll try the ammeter approach. I did check the voltage of these packs after charging and the voltage read a lot higher than the actual pack so sort of 8+ volts on a 7.2 volt pack.

[KEV THE REV]

Well - shame on me . I programmed the charger wrongly and fed in .3amp charge instead of 3.0amp charge into the programme , so running at 10% - Rodney you dipstick !! . It now cuts off at 'full' in not much time compared to before . Thanks for your help with guys

 

[Ridge]

That’ll do it!