hey guys, i recently purchased a plane that has fromeco 5400's in it, and i currently have a duralite charger. I just want to know if i can use the duralite charger with these batteries. If not i have a quick charger that can charge li-ions(orbit) how many amps is a good charge for those battieries.


harv

No..you can not. The Duralite charger has no logic built into it...Duralite batteries have all the charge logic built into the balancer. All the Duralite charge does is provide voltage to the balancer in the battery. You will smoke non duralite batteries if you try to charge them with the Duralite charger.

I have a freind that is using a duralite charger with fromeco batts and he hasnt had any problems for the last two years. But if you read fromeco's website I believe it says that it will void the warrenty on the batteries. I would honestly use your other charger. You can charge up to 1C but i always charge at .5C so for your batts you could charge at 5.2 amps but i charge at 2.6amps or lower.

Fromeco says no but they also sell chargers. I used my Duralite charger for over a year with no issues. I later bought a Fromeco charger but the batteries are still in use today. The reason Fromeco gives is that some Duralite chargers would overcharge the cells. You can check the output of your Duralite charger. If you still feel uncomfortable, then by all means, don't use it.

thanks for the input, ill probably jsut sue my orbit charger set to like 3 amps, less if you guys have toher suggestions. another question.

can i use my duralite load tester( has 1 amp loader) with these fromeco batteries. im sure it shouldn't be a problem. but its good to ask.

The main reason the duralite charger is not messing the up the other batteries is because it charges at low MAh. If you notice...the Duralite charge will charge all Duralite batteries regardless of chemistry..the logic is built into the stay balance cirtuitry. Open a Duralite box up...there is not much in there other than a few wires..Save your batteries and use a real charger on them.

ok, ill probbably jsut use the quick charger. but my other question i wasked was:

Can i use a duralite load tester to test the fromeco batteries?

yes, you can use the load tester on any batteries but the A123.

cool, thank you guys for your responses. incase you want to know the plane im getting is a 42% sd extra 260

Reza,

I was told by Duralite that you could use the checker on the yellow output on the DL A123 batteries...whats up with not being able to use them.

You can use it but it doesn't tell you much! See the A123 cells show steady voltage until they almost have no charge. When they are fully charged you may see 7.2 volt but right after one flight, it stabilizes around 6.45-6.6 and it is not possible to find out the state of charge under load! You can be one flight away from your battery being fully discharged and see same thing and voltage as when battery is 70% charge. On A123 it becomes pilot's responsibility to keep track of the number of flights and mah spent to be able to know when to stop flying. Load test doesn't reveal accurate information because these batteries have/show flat curve.

Please don't trust the load tester to predict the state of charge.

Originally Posted by pepatrick

Reza,

I was told by Duralite that you could use the checker on the yellow output on the DL A123 batteries...whats up with not being able to use them.