For four years, I have been using a Dynamite Ultra Duo battery charger to keep my machines flying. The Dynamite charger has been a wonderful piece of equipment, but it recently gave up and needed to be replaced.
Instead of buying another Ultra Duo, I decided to get with the program, and build a real charging case. The project started with a Plano brand handgun case from Walmart, which is very similar to the more expensive pelican cases. They are high quality cases and I use them for everything...battery cases, transmitter cases, charger cases and more.
Next came the power supplies and charger. My husband noticed I was looking at them online, and took it upon himself to order a charger and power supplies for me, for my birthday....how cool was that?
The charger is a Revolectrix Dual powerLab PL8, purchased from Progressive RC. The power supplies are Juice Box (made by Strick Model Products) 1800 watt, 75A, 24volt .
I received the charger and power supply in a few days, and immediately got to work on the case. For the deck lid, I used 1/4" sanded birch plywood. I carefully cut the deck lid out to the shape of the case, test fitting and trimming until I had a perfect fit.
Next, I measured the charger and fans so I could start laying out the holes I would need to cut to mount everything in the deck. Once all the holes were cut, I covered the plywood deck with carbon fiber vinyl wrap which we purchased on Amazon.
Now came the installation and wiring of all of the equipment in the case. That was actually the easy part. Since the charger is flush mounted in the deck, I had to install banana jacks in the deck to be able to plug in my charge leads. I used 60mm 24v fans, which work amazingly well at keeping the air moving through the case,.
The power supply was very easy to secure. I just made a couple of aluminum brackets, padded with loop side self stick velcro to clamp it to the bottom of the case, using 4mm stainless steel countersunk screws and lock nuts. I did not take photos of the brackets, unfortunately. But if anyone wants to see how I made them, just let me know, and I will remove the deck and take some photos.
I have made a few modifications to the case since it was built, which were the addition of parallel boards, balance lead extensions, and on/off switches to control each side of the charger independently.
Here is a list of all the components I used:
Case: Plano Gun Guard
1/4" sanded birch plywood
Carbon fiber vinyl wrap
FMA Dual PowerLab PL8X2
Two Juice Box 1800W, 75A, 24V power supplies
Two 60mm 24V cooling fans
Two sets of banana jacks
Two 2s-8s balance boards with EC5 connectors
Two 120V on/off switches
Instead of buying another Ultra Duo, I decided to get with the program, and build a real charging case. The project started with a Plano brand handgun case from Walmart, which is very similar to the more expensive pelican cases. They are high quality cases and I use them for everything...battery cases, transmitter cases, charger cases and more.
Next came the power supplies and charger. My husband noticed I was looking at them online, and took it upon himself to order a charger and power supplies for me, for my birthday....how cool was that?
The charger is a Revolectrix Dual powerLab PL8, purchased from Progressive RC. The power supplies are Juice Box (made by Strick Model Products) 1800 watt, 75A, 24volt .
I received the charger and power supply in a few days, and immediately got to work on the case. For the deck lid, I used 1/4" sanded birch plywood. I carefully cut the deck lid out to the shape of the case, test fitting and trimming until I had a perfect fit.
Next, I measured the charger and fans so I could start laying out the holes I would need to cut to mount everything in the deck. Once all the holes were cut, I covered the plywood deck with carbon fiber vinyl wrap which we purchased on Amazon.
Now came the installation and wiring of all of the equipment in the case. That was actually the easy part. Since the charger is flush mounted in the deck, I had to install banana jacks in the deck to be able to plug in my charge leads. I used 60mm 24v fans, which work amazingly well at keeping the air moving through the case,.
The power supply was very easy to secure. I just made a couple of aluminum brackets, padded with loop side self stick velcro to clamp it to the bottom of the case, using 4mm stainless steel countersunk screws and lock nuts. I did not take photos of the brackets, unfortunately. But if anyone wants to see how I made them, just let me know, and I will remove the deck and take some photos.
I have made a few modifications to the case since it was built, which were the addition of parallel boards, balance lead extensions, and on/off switches to control each side of the charger independently.
Here is a list of all the components I used:
Case: Plano Gun Guard
1/4" sanded birch plywood
Carbon fiber vinyl wrap
FMA Dual PowerLab PL8X2
Two Juice Box 1800W, 75A, 24V power supplies
Two 60mm 24V cooling fans
Two sets of banana jacks
Two 2s-8s balance boards with EC5 connectors
Two 120V on/off switches
