Advantages of 2 powerlab 8?

[rz1a]

Hi I was wondering what the advantages of having 2 powerlab 8 would be? Besides increased wattage and amps.

I read somewhere I could charge different cell lipos at the same time?

[RedOctobyr]

Not sure I understand the question. You mean with them linked together (providing a single, higher-amperage output *see below), or not?

With them working separately, even from a shared power supply, they could certainly be doing different charging tasks. Charging 3S on one, and putting 6S packs to storage voltage on the other, etc.

It's worth noting that you can charge same-cell-count-but-different-capacity packs together, in parallel. So if all your helis are 6S, even if one is a 450, and one is a 600, as long as their voltages match initially (eg- you flew them all down to 3.75V/cell), you can connect them all in parallel (such as 2 1200mAh 6S, with 4 5000mAh 6S) to charge them together.

* Edit- My apologies, after reading Gregor99's post, I clearly misunderstood how the linked mode works.

[Gregor99]

The Powerlabs offer a linking feature called "Expansion Mode" Up to 16 Powerlabs can be linked together and all controlled by a single Powerlab (21,504 watts total, no that's not a typo). In the expansion mode one unit is designated as the primary. The operator uses the primary to select the preset, and other settings if desired. All these settings are inherited by the "slaves" or expansion units.

In this mode, the chemistry of the packs must be the same. But the cell count of the packs as well as the size of the packs can be different (nice advantage over parallel charging). If you are using an AUTO mode charge setting the current is automatically determined for each charger. If you are using the set current, all chargers will charge at that rate.

I originally added a second Powerlab to reduce my dependence on parallel charging. But to surprise the expansion mode turned out to be incredibly useful. Not only does it cut the button presses in half for starting a charge, during the charge you can also scroll through all of the charger screens and the second screen follows along.

FMA's Howard Matos created this video demonstrating the expansion mode feature.

[rz1a]

So one charger can charge 3s while the other charger does 6s batteries? One charger can't do different cell counts when the two are connected?

[Gregor99]

Originally Posted by rz1a

So one charger can charge 3s while the other charger does 6s batteries? One charger can't do different cell counts when the two are connected?

In expansion mode the cell count between chargers does not have to match. Yes one charger can do 3s and the other charger can 6s. But unless you use an auto mode, the set current would be the same on both chargers.

For the cases were I want at a different charge rate per charger, or I want to start each charger at a different time, I temporarily disable expansion mode. Its very flexible.