308duo quality?

[Pitch-Itch]

Hi guys, my first high end charger should be here friday, im pumped needless to say. With my current charger, charging my packs (only 5) takes almost 6 hours. With this thing that will be cut down to less than one.

Anyway, Ive been looking for youtube videos on the 308, and to my surprise I can find videos, but they all seem to be people who have issues. Is the 308duo known to have issues, or is it just a case of more people with problems posting vids compared to people with no issues?

Also since I have you, I got the 308duo and a 24v69a power supply from feather merchant. Is there anything specific I should know about these high power setups before starting? My current charger is the imax b6ac if that matters.

Thanks guys!

[edin508]

All I can add is that I have the 308duo and love it! I use a 24v 60a power supply and it works great. A little bit of a learning curve to program it, but once you figure it out it's easy as pie.

[Slyster]

Here's a video of my 4010 Duo.. not that different of a charger... same programming etc. I LOVE IT. Rock solid build.

iCharger 4010 Duo. A little tour of Chernobyl (0 min 56 sec)

[RedOctobyr]

The Duos are good overall, I'm very happy with my 308Duo. But I'd say they likely have more issues than the FMA PowerLabs, anecdotally.

As with anything, people are more likely to post looking for help with issues, etc, vs just to say they're happy with a product.

For the power supplies, do they have a 12V output in addition to 24V output? If so, I might do a high-power charge off just PS A, at 12V. Then off just PS B, at 12V. This helps you test each supply individually, to ensure they can each provide full current, and are "healthy".

The Duos don't like big input-voltage changes. Such as if you're using 2 supplies in series (24V) and one suddenly shuts down (dropping you to 12V).

If you can test your supplies individually at 12V, you can ensure that each one is working properly. Dropping from 12V to 0V during a charge is easier on the charger than dropping from 24V to 12V.

If you can't do that, at least you are using supplies that can put out 69A, more than the 60A that the charger can draw. So there is less risk of a single supply overloading and shutting down during a charge (24V->12V), like there would be if using, say, 47A supplies on a charger that can draw 60A.

[philtea]

The best advice anyone gave me getting into rc a year ago was to get a good charger.
I did my research and bought a 308 duo.I am super happy with it and have no regrets.
It's become a bit of a side hobby on it's own converting power supplies,building discharges and field charging setups etc.
I am just running it on a single 12 v 47a server supply right now as I am only using 3 cell but I bought a spare to run at 24v when I get into 6 cell batts.
I found the manual a bit confusing but when I just went ahead and dug in I found the charger quite intuitive.
I'd say good choice

[bladechopper]

Originally Posted by Slyster

Here's a video of my 4010 Duo.. not that different of a charger... same programming etc. I LOVE IT. Rock solid build.

A little tour of Chernobyl - YouTube

Love the way you talk. You talk pretty slick hahhaha

[Bladecpnitro]

Can the 308 duo not be set to terminate charge if voltage drops below 24v?

[RedOctobyr]

It can, but the damage can happen very quickly, apparently. Too quickly for a software change to be effective, according to Junsi. The hardware can't react quickly enough.

A guy on RCG, coolice, made a circuit you can buy that cuts power to the charger completely if one of your series supplies shuts down.

Sent using Tapatalk.

[Pitch-Itch]

Originally Posted by RedOctobyr

It can, but the damage can happen very quickly, apparently. Too quickly for a software change to be effective, according to Junsi. The hardware can't react quickly enough.

A guy on RCG, coolice, made a circuit you can buy that cuts power to the charger completely if one of your series supplies shuts down.

Sent using Tapatalk.

Just got a response from feathermerchant, and it looks like my PS is just a straight 24v, so no risk of it dropping to 12v unexpectedly. (I guess it could drop from 24 to 0, which would be worse)

If you can't tell I'm a newb to high power charging. Are my assumptions above correct?

[RedOctobyr]

Depending on how the question was phrased, there may have been some confusion on feathermerchant's part.

He only sells server supplies, and server supplies are 12V, not 24V.

He may have thought you were asking whether your supply is wired to also have a 12V output. It probably is not. But it is still a pair of 12V supplies in series, for 24V. It can still drop to 12V if a single supply shut down, or if you unplugged one of the two, etc.

As it's been explained to me by more-knowledgeable people, dropping straight to 0V is actually better than 24V->12V. The reason is that no power is available to the charger at all, so it just stops. There's no energy available to cause trouble. While if you go 24V->12V, before things have time to react, current draws can really spike, potentially overheating areas of the charger, and causing problems.

Not every time, mind you. Some folks said they've had individual supplies of a pair shut down, without problems. But it has apparently damaged chargers, so best to minimize the risk where you can. If you're not pushing the limits of your supplies, that's a big help.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make this sound like a massive issue, it's really not. It's just something that I'd test, A) if it were me, and B) if the supplies could easily be run as 12V from each. But it's not me, and the supplies can't easily be checked individually, so I'd just go with it.