CellPro 10 revisited

[dick hanson]

I picked up a Radio Shack 15 power supply - fixed voltage at 13.8 and15 amp rating

I hooked up my Cellpro 10 and ran some tests to see if this setup makes in shop charging faster easier - and - it does
The 10 is rated up to 15+volts and it DOES operate faster at the 13.8 than it it does at 12.5 .
noticably faster..
I made up 4 new A123 packs , two were 2300 two were 1100 VPX cells
The VPX cells ser date 07, both came up on first charge to full in 5 minutes at 4 amps (max on balance leads both packs at once -power remained steady at 13.8, read at the Cellpro during full 4 amps input to the charger.
they VPXbatts shifted .010 numbers around 100% charge BUT- doing one pack at a time immediately each pack jumped to perfect balance ( 3.666 per cell on one pack for example)
The 2300's were out of an electric power model and both packs again at 4 amps quickly ran up to .xxx perfect voltage matches.
The higher voltage really helped
Previously I had been using an old Hobby shop liner reg type 7 amp voltage supply which is relatively worthless above 2 amps. and bogged to low 12v quickly
The new reg is apparantly a switching type reg device -is very light and has a fan -but no big heatsink
The CellPro 10 now performs much better .
Big surprise to me.

[JoeAirPort]

Yep it's rated at 13.8V up to 15 amps. As long as you're at or below 15 amps it's gonna stay at a rock solid 13.8V. Reg power supplies are awesome. Especially switchers. How much was it?

[MattyMatt]

Yeah.. it is a pretty slick charger. It will slow down the charge based on the input stablity of the power source.

I've been using mine for my pattern plane (10S 5000's), A123's and 3S foamy packs for close to a year now. Fantastic setup.

[dick hanson]

It was part of a swap
BUT the 25 amp is now on for 58 bucks!
That old linear setup was as bad as regs some guys still use in their models
baaaaad

[Zeeb]

Careful Dick, you're gonna 'git spoilt.....

I went to a 20 amp 13.8 volt power supply after my little 5 amp I'd been using with the 4S proved inadequate for the 10S and some bigger Li-Po's in my little electric heli's. I too was amazed at the difference. Now it's not much of an issue with my A123 flight packs since I only charge 'em when I get to the field and don't have to charge again, but waiting on the 12 volt deep cycle battery I have to re-charge foamies at the field seems like it takes a lot longer now than it used to....

[dick hanson]

OK your task -should you choose to take it - is to find us some wet cells either two 8's or one 2volt large enough to use at the field
I found gel cells but they are puny
Somewhre -there must be some of those old large single cell wet cells which have enough amperage to add to the 12 volt batt and get 15 volts (aprox.)
a lab batt maybe - I will check with my lab rat here and se what I can find.

[Zeeb]

I don't do enough field charging anymore to monkey around with it, but who knows if I happen to get more into electric powered?

I've "heard" there are 7 cell automotive batteries available used in mostly drag racing, but never tried to track down whether or not it's fact because I'm guessing if they exist, the price tag would be really outrageous.

Sort of like when I started looking for 15 volt capable power supplies which could put out at least 20 amps and preferably more for the 10S, they KNOW what they want for those puppies most of which seem to be aimed at the HAM radio guys....

[dick hanson]

The 16 v drag racer batts go for up to 1900 bucks!!
ah screw it