Chargers Voltz 6250 and 350W power supply

[Lee]

I'm editing this first post as its been a year since i bought this charger. I've had two and they both died. they are no longer made by Voltz anyway.

I have had this charger for about 6 months. Its lay out is similar to my Accucell 50W so easy to work with.
The difference is this is 250W. I still wasn't getting the most out of it, as my power supply was a cheap laptop one with a max of 90W. Not much point in having a 250W charger and only able to use 90W. So i bought the Voltz power supply that pumps out 350W.
That has reduced my charging time for my 5x 3000mah 6S batteries from over 3 hrs to less than an hour.
For the price and the power, i think this is a great setup. Charger was £80, Power supply £65.
I do have to say that my first one had to be sent back due to an internal error. So lets see how this one goes.

 

[Tony]

That is a great setup you have there Lee. I really like it. I need something like that for my 3 and 4s batteries so I don't have to keep swapping them all the time. Now that you can charge faster we should see move flight videos, right?

 

[Lee]

I wish a fast charger would speed up my internet, then yes you would see more videos. We have reasonable internet now, but still not fast. Once i get all My FPV gear sorted i will be posting many vids

 

[Tony]

I know how you feel. I have 3 down 1.5 up on my internet now. Usually takes about 2 hours for me to upload a video that is decent quality and length.

 

[Lee]

Dude, thats super fast compared to mine. 0.5 to 1 down 0.02 up

 

[Tony]

Hey I know, move to the USA! hehe. We have it all over here.

 

[flysolo]

100/100 is the only way to go

Adam, nice setup. I've been using a stock e-flite 3-cell balanceplug charger up until now.

Just bought a 250W charger from iCharger yesterday with similiar specs to yours I think. I also got that board that you have. Those batteries look pretty big, can you tell me the specs and what settings you use on your charger?

Does your charger see all individual cells when connected like that?

- Niklas

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Oh I'm really sorry. Don't know why I wrote Adam, of course your name is Lee... Sorry

 

[Lee]

Hi Niklas,
Those are my 6S 3000mah batteries. When plugged into the balance board the charger sees the individual batteries, but not the individual cells. So when you plug one battery in it will see, for example, 3.71 3.72 3.71 3.70 3.71 3.72. If you add another battery you will see the average voltage between the two batteries.
This is why its important that all batteries being charged are close to the same voltage, because once connected the battery with more charge will transfer power to the battery with less charge. This will damage the battery, as the charge rate will be much higher than the rate set by the charger. So a good idea before starting the charge cycle, is to leave the batteries connected for a min or so to allow them to level out the voltage.
As far as setting up the charger. All batteries must be the same cell count. So in my case 6S. As you add more batteries, you just add up the mahs and load that into the charger.
Example: one battery 3000mah would be 3A (1C charge rate), 2 would be 6A etc..
Your charger will output a max of 10A if you have the appropriate power supply. So once i put more than 3 batteries on the charger it will just be set to 10A.
What power supply have you got for the charger?
Hope this helps you out.

 

[flysolo]

Thanks Lee, it helps a lot.

I got the iCharger 1010B+ and a Hobbyking 540W power supply. It's a big improvement over my previous setup - fly 20 min and charge 6 hours

If you don't mind if i ask..
When you plug in 4 6-cell 3000mah packs and charge at 1C you will set the max 10A right? If you add 2 more packs what will happen? They will all just charge slower?

My charger specifies 300W max output. Do you know when this would ever be maxed out, is it the total V of all connected batteries times the A?

From http://www.icharger.co.nz/Products/1010B-.aspx

Utilising the iCharger 1010B+ cell capacity, a user can charge more than one same capacity battery pack in series, for example, charge 1 x 3000mah 2cell and 1 x 3000mah 3 cell lipo at the same time.

If I understand this correct it is possible if the total cell count is <= 10. Not that I have a reason to do this but trying to understand what I can and can't do and how I can [avoid] mess upp the charger

 

[Lee]

When you plug in 4 6-cell 3000mah packs and charge at 1C you will set the max 10A right? If you add 2 more packs what will happen? They will all just charge slower?
If I understand this correct it is possible if the total cell count is <= 10. Not that I have a reason to do this but trying to understand what I can and can't do and how I can [avoid] mess upp the charger

1) yes it will just take longer to charge.
2)WARNING let make sure you know if your charge board is a SERIES board or a PARALLEL board. If you get it wrong you'll destroy your batteries.
Tell me which it is or link me to where you bought it.

 

[flysolo]

It's this one, so it's a parallel board. Parallel charging Board for 6 packs 2~6S (EC3)

I take it from your answer it should NOT be used with different cell counts then

Didn't even realize I could get a serial board but after looking around a little I found some for my smaller 1 cell packs. So, if I connect 6 300mah 1-cell packs parallel the charger will see a single 1-cell 1800mah and I can charge with 1.8A 1C as long as they are pretty much equally charged from the beginning.

It also means that if I connect those 6 1-cells serial instead the charger would see one 6-cell 300mah battery? In this case the individual batteries would be balanced but I can only charge with .3A 1C and it would also take much longer?

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I bought my charger and board locally but now I think I might have been ripped off? Is the iCharger sold by Hobbyking a cheaper low quality copy of the voltz charger that you got, do you know?

 

[Lee]

You are correct on all counts flysolo.
The Icharger is a great brand. Its cheaper in HobbyKing just because its China. Your Local one will have gone through customs and taxes etc. Thats why its more expensive. But at least you can take it back if something goes wrong. It happened to me. My first Voltz charger had an internal problem. I bought it in the UK, so sent it back and got a new one immediately sent out.

 

[flysolo]

Thanks lee.

Yeah, i bought it from a local shop shop just for that reason. And also i didn't want to wait


I was a little bit hesitant to get the hobby king psu but so far it's been perfect, quiet and constant v. I didn't know that the icharger was a hk-brand, thats why i freaked out a bit, thoght maybe i got some crappy basement assembled copy. But it seems like it's a quality brand and that the only real difference from the voltz is the label on it

Think i got all the lipo charging modes under control now, next is to charge my nicad tx battery

 

[Lee]

Just wanted to update this thread.
My second Voltz 6250 charger died a couple of weeks ago. So my thoughts on it have changed. Two i less than a year have died and this one damaged my 4 new 6S packs for my Warp360 by over charging them. Now one cell in each pack is damaged.
Anyway, I sent it back to Midlands Helicopters in the UK. They have been first class with there service. They have credited me with the amount i payed originally, and even though its not there fault, and i didn't buy the batteries from them, they have offered to replace the batteries at a considerable discount.
As for Voltz the company in the US which is represented by Readyheli, thats a different matter. I have sent them numerous emails asking for help with the charger and advice on the batteries, and what did they do..... Nothing!! Haven't heard a thing from them. And apparently they don't make this charger any more.
So if you want a similar one to this, there is the Icharger. I'm trying to decide now between the Powerlab 6 and the Icharger as my next setup.

 

[Tony]

That really sucks. I have always had EXCELLENT service from ReadyHeli. Weird that you would have issues like this. However, I have not ordered from them in a while, so things may have changed.

 

[Lee]

I didn't know anything about Readyheli until the guy at Midlands Helicopter told me they were the Voltz distributor in the US. Just to make it clear, I contacted Voltz on there webpage, not Readyheli directly. I don't know if the are one in the same or not. I just know that my charger was sent back to Readyheli from the UK to have it appraised. And i'm getting my money back so thats all good. So now what next???? Icharger 1000W or Power Lab 6 1000W???

 

[coolgabsi]

I306b man!! You'll never regret it and get the deal from epbuddy he 's the cheapest out there for it .. 1000w goodness!! Match it with the power supply

Fly safe!! have fun!

 

[Lee]

I have to buy my charger from Midlands Helicopter as thats where my credit is.

 

[coolgabsi]

Do they carry i306b? If they do... Don't think twice!

Don't know if your earlier charger did this. But can now check he internal resistance of the packs. It's a cool feature for me!!

Fly safe!! have fun!

 

[Lee]

Another up date.
The Voltz company dissolved in Feb. I just spoke with Bryan at Readyheli. Super fast response from him to my questions. He has been left with 40 defective chargers from customers, and cannot get his money back from Voltz now. So i'm very lucky to have Midlands Helicopters giving me my money back. Shame i had to destroy 4 new 6S batteries to find out the problem