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Autovino

AC/DC Charger Recommendations

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Hi all

Long story short, I was about to order one of the "Radio Deals" that come with the Carson transmitter, battery, charger, servo etc, though after seeing some videos showing play in the sticks, I've changed my mind.

Going to go with the Futaba T2HR now, but means I need servo, battery and charger.

Wondered if there were any recommendations for a fast charger that can be powered by mains or in the car?  Will be using NIMH only if that helps narrow it down, duo would be a bonus but if that's not an option I'll buy two (so I can charge two cars at once).

The charger in the pack was the Ansmann Delta 3, that ticks the AC/DC box, is it a good charger?

Appreciate any advice you can give.

Kind regards

David

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I would never buy a charger without a display so I wouldn't touch the Ansmann.

There are lots of decent AC/DC chargers out there for less than £50, they will do LiPo and NiMH, it's not worth buying a NiMH only charger. All come out of Chinese factories and are similar quality.

Duo chargers are basically double the cost, double the circuitry in the same box generally so no economies of scale.

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I have found the SkyRC range to be good. The D100 is the duo, although i think it only ru s off AC power. I have 2 which are AC or DC and have never used mine on DC power. @sosidge is right in that the D100 costs abput twice as much as the S60, but the duo is much easier when charging multiple batteries. I have 2 single chargers and a duo and the duo is the go to for me.

A cheaper option is the HTRC C240. I've had one a year now and it works well. Got it from Banggood, cheap and cheerful

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Thanks both, that's really helpful.

With the SkyRC range, do you know if they come with the Tamiya connectors?  I looked at some earlier but none of them seemed to come with the Tamiya connector.

I'll take a look at the HTRC C240 as well, good to know that Banggood are reliable.

So sounds like for a Duo I may need AC power, which is fine at home, I had assumed they might need charging from the car while out and about.

Another option is to buy two AC/DC if there are good options out there.

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I bought a SkyRC e680. That came with Tamiya connectors… though they could have been added by the shop :unsure:

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4 hours ago, Autovino said:

I looked at some earlier but none of them seemed to come with the Tamiya connector.

I wouldn't worry too much about a supplied connector, chargers are fairly universal now, with 4mm bullet outputs, so something like this would work.

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/etronix-tamiya-charging-cable-375996 

Whatever charger you buy, get it from a reputable outlet, same with the batteries. Auction sites etc are notorius for knock off fakes.

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4 hours ago, Autovino said:

Thanks both, that's really helpful.

With the SkyRC range, do you know if they come with the Tamiya connectors?  I looked at some earlier but none of them seemed to come with the Tamiya connector.

I'll take a look at the HTRC C240 as well, good to know that Banggood are reliable.

So sounds like for a Duo I may need AC power, which is fine at home, I had assumed they might need charging from the car while out and about.

Another option is to buy two AC/DC if there are good options out there.

The HTRC is AC and DC too.  It actually needs DC power to give the full 240w, its 150w I think on AC power but thats plenty for me as I only use 2S batteries

 

I haven't seen any come with Tamiya connectors but I don't use them.  I use XT60 on mine, or bullets directly into the battery depending on the car.  If you order from Banggood add some leads.  The HTRC comes with XT60 and Deans, but the SkyRC S60 didn't come with any leads.  Banggood sell the banana plug to whatever connectors pretty cheap.

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Thanks for all your help.

I've been thinking about something Jonathon said about never using DC power, made me think about what I was trying to solve for. 

In my mind I was thinking if we head out for the day, we may well use the cars, run the batteries down, them want to use them again later in the day.  Was thinking that if I got a couple of DC chargers, they could charge in the car ready for later.  Though looking into it, the DC chargers are not as powerful, so would take longer to charge than they would on AC.

So I thought about going AC only, get a cheaper dual charger and but a couple more batteries instead.  So head out for the day with 2 batteries per car and not worry about charging on the go.

With that in mind, any downsides about running multiple batteries?

I've found these chargers, which seem to fit the bill....

SKYRC T100:

https://wheelspinmodels.co.uk/i/323522/

Fuzion NX87

https://www.makeitbuildit.co.uk/fusion-fusion-nx87-twin-ac-nimh-charger-fs-nx87-31918

Would welcome any thoughts on those (or others).

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13 hours ago, Autovino said:

Though looking into it, the DC chargers are not as powerful, so would take longer to charge than they would on AC.

That depends on the Mah of the batteries. 

We generally charge batteries at "1C", or 1 x Capacity 

So, if the capacity of the battery is, 3300mah , then you'd charge at 3.3 Amps, if it was 4000mah - 4 amps etc.

The 80w chargers, charge upto 8amp, which is plenty more than you'll need, so 'Only ' 150w isn't a worry (my only worry, would be starting the 1:1 car at the end of the day). I know people who charge off a 12v leisure battery at the race track (I use a mates generator..) and don't have any issues.

Even if you're not using Lipo yet, I'd still recommend an LCD screened charger, mainly as you can see what's going on with the battery and charger, set correct charge rates etc.

Modelsports offerings -

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/electric/chargers/12v-mains/full-feature-display?&sort=PriceLow

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On 5/21/2021 at 4:55 PM, Autovino said:

I recently bought this and I've been very impressed with it - especially useful for me as all my batteries and cars are already on XT60 connectors, but that's nothing an adapter can't fix. 

Compared to my old charger it's deadly silent, but also peak charges and detects voltages far more accurately. 

Highly recommend it myself B)

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Been using the SkyRC Imax B6 since 2014 and it's been great. It comes with a AC-DC power supply. 

I'll be buying another one soon but it'll be the B6 Evo. It's an upgraded version.

B6EVO Charger

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