Turnigy Accucel-8150 PC support

[Stephen Wallace]

Hi.

I recently purchased a Turnigy Accucel-8150 charger to replace an Overlander RC-6S that I had been using for a while. I was looking for a charger with a wider adjustment range than what I currently had, and specifically, one that could be connected to a PC to plot discharge curves and so forth.

After looking at what hobby chargers were freely available in the UK, and their features and accessories, the Accucel seemed like a good set up for the price.

The manual and some reviews I read stated that the charger would come with a seven piece cable set, comprising one adapter cable, five 'pigtails' with different plugs and a temperature sensor. There would also be a USB cable and software on a CD.

As it transpires, I received the adapter cable, two pigtails, no temperature sensor, no USB cable and no CD. More reading revealed that there have been several different versions/packages of the Accucel charger, and recently they have come with the bare minimum of accessories as I received, despite the manual still referring to the complete set of accessories. I've even read that some versions of the Accucel-8 do not have the USB socket, and the port where it should be is covered with a sticker.

Which brings me to my query for you. My Accucel-8 has the USB port, and I have Mini USB-B cables to hand anyway, so no issue with not being supplied a cable. It has been suggested to me that the charger would be compatible with Bantam eStation, and others have suggested the use of Logview or Battery_Charger_Monitor, so again, no issue with not having the CD included. I have installed the Silabs CP210x USB driver, which I believe is all that is required to have my PC be able to connect to the charger.

Here is the rub though - when I connect the charger to the PC, my PC doesn't recognise that new hardware is present. If I ignore that, and start either of the three software applications listed above, none of them seem to register the presence of the charger. Logview requires you to specify which COM port the charger is attached to, but I haven't been able to identify which COM port - again, this might suggest that the charger isn't actually registering as being attached via any COM port.

I wondered if there had been any reported instances of Accucel-8s that had the USB socket, but where the socket was inactive for some reason - not connected to the board, or the charger not having the firmware necessary to control the port?

If not, would someone be kind enough to post a step by step guide as to how to install the drivers and software, connect the charger, and set up the software to link the Accucel-8 to a PC successfully? I'm wondering if I am overlooking something, or inadvertantly doing something stupid that is preventing the charger from communicating with my PC. A way to ascertain what COM port the charger is using would also be handy. It's a Dell XPS420, Core2 Quad Q6600, with 32 bit Windows Vista SP2 and 4GB ram if that makes any difference.

Many thanks in advance.
Stephen