SLOPING OFF...

...the Newsletter of Christchurch and District Model Flying Club for...June 2022

GT POWER Quad charger by Martin Burr

Recently I decided that I needed to update my charging arrangements, I had been using a parallel balance board to charge multiple batteries of the same type. To fly my 2m Sukhoi 3 times uses 6x 5s 4500mah batteries and a 2200mah Ni-MH Rx battery.

I noticed that the individual cell voltages were starting to wander a bit, so I thought that it would be better if they were individually charged and balanced.

After a bit of research I found a charger that does what I wanted, it is basically 4x100w chargers in one unit. Each of the 4 chargers is fully featured, completely independent of the others, and looks after one “channel”.

For example;

You can charge a Lipo on channel 1, charge a Ni-MH on channel 2, storage charge a Lipo on channel 3 and check cell internal resistance on channel 4 (should you wish !!!)

This means I can individually balance charge 4 of my  batteries in one go. The final balanced voltages seem much closer now (within 0.01v) each channel will charge a 5s battery at about 2.5 amps.

This also means that it’s easier to keep an eye on things as I have a much shorter overall charge time to monitor. My unit was a factory reconditioned unit from 4 Max models at a discounted price of £135, usual price £180. Not cheap, but hopefully a good investment, looking after Lipos is an ongoing challenge !

Best wishes,  Martin