FMA 10s Charger Question

[holler1]

Hi guys,
When charging a 2 cell A123 with the FMA 10s do you have to have a balance charged lead connected, or can you just charge through battery discharge lead? An FMA rep said the charger will not even start charging without balance lead connected. Does anyone who has this charger know if this is true?

Thanks

[JBenson]

The rep was right you have to have the ballance tab connected to charge anything. Aftre having a Fromeco pack that did not have ballance tabs go bad in about 30 cycles I would not recomend charging witout it anyway. The 10s is a very nice charger. It will charge your A123 packs in as little as 5 minutes and it has the capability to charge your A123s as well as other types of batteries and it can do them 2 at a time which is nice. Just my .02.

JB

[jamesrxx951]

yup you need the balance connectors to charge your batteries. you can get the connectors from cell pro. i needed to solder some in for my fromco li ion's so they would work. the a123s charge real fast to. i only charge at 1 amp through connector, i tried 3 and the plug got hot. but it still charges quick.

[Zeeb]

Yeah you gotta have good connectors if you're going to charge high rates through the balance taps.

I adapted the CellPro plugs to some 20g. gold plated pin type servo leads. I do the engine pack and one rx pack at the same time with my 10S and if the model has two rx packs, I do the second one after the first (common ground issue). I use the 4 amp charge rate and the connectors just get slightly warm.

I just put the charger on the batteries when I get the model out at the field and they are usually done by the time I get it put together for flight.

[Pilotpete]

I get my A123 packs from Radical with a three wire 20g servo lead serving as the discharge lead and balance charging lead. I use MPI HD switches and remove the signal lead at the receiver so the signal lead can be used as the "node" connection for balance charging, works great
Pete

[Zeeb]

I did just the opposite, I eliminated the signal lead from the battery output to the switch so I can have outside access through the HD charge switches to the rx for the Flight Log and bind ports on the rx. My charge leads are just left inside the fuselage since I never fly enough in one day to run the A123's down, I just charge 'em before I put the hatch on.

[kiosk]

is there a way to charge a 2s Fromeco LiOn with the 10s? mine has the JR lead and i use a fromeco charger now, but would love be able use the 10s for everything....

[FlyinRyan93]

Does the 10s come with the connectors to charge my A123's through my balence tap or do I have to buy the balence tap lead seperate??

[jamesrxx951]

you will need the balance connectors for any battery type. li-ion a123. either the company that sells the battery can install them or you can call FMA to get the connectors like i did for my a123's and li-ions and just solder them on.

[FlyinRyan93]

Thanks but I think you mis understood my question.
My batteries have the balance tap, what I'm wondering is if I the charger comes with the lead to plug into so I can charge through my balance tap.
I hope this clarifies my question.
Thanks

[jamesrxx951]

oh my bad. it does come with some balance lead connectors but you may have to call them because they offer others to that you have to buy. i ended up buying all of them just to make sure. the balance leads are usually manufactor dependent. everyone has there own lead.

[FlyinRyan93]

Ok THANKS!!!!!

[dick hanson]

FMA offers two ,small adapter boards -
IF you use only a specific brand battery- they can tell you which board to purchase .
For example:
Thunder Power uses a specific connector -which requires one type adapter board
The friggen EFlite and Rhino require the other type
It gets worse -
there are a jillion brand names now of LiPos and other Lithium cells on the market , so you have to be careful -or buy both boards .
I charge/balance tiny LiPo packs and BIG A123 packs (10 cells) on my 10 S so I needed both boardsas well as some homemade adapters to charge/change two, two cell packs, into one, four cell pack -for charging purposes.
Frankly I don't care for any of the competitions setups -either too slow or no balancer
tor an add on balancer.

Anyone who believesbalancing is not required -lives in a dream world
Even the teeny new LiPo packs from China have balancers - on two cell packs
It is the BEST setup.

[JimC-MD]

I order my packs with the FMA style balance taps on them. The one thing about the 10S is that the charger uses a six pin plug on the side of the charger. The 4S used a five pin. My 10S came with two, six to five pin jumpers because most of the balance boards and the existing packs I had were five pin. Simple. You can order whatever you want.