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Brand Specific Charger and Battery Support Brand Specific Charger and Battery Support |
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05-07-2010, 06:26 AM | #41 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Apr 2009
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The charger is nice, but i am seeking for something capable of charging 12S non-split packs at about 1kW power.
There are some notes on the web that this charger will have option to connect two units together. Even for this feature, packs need to be split, right?
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05-07-2010, 10:49 PM | #42 (permalink) | |
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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Quote:
To address your first question, I am going to provide you with a link to the PL8 Power Spreadsheet that we established: http://www.fmadirect.com/support_docs/item_1301.zip Now, if you take a minute to look at this spreadsheet, it is designed to answer 5 questions relevant to powering the PL8. Your first question is Question 4 on the spreadsheet. You have a 10s pack that can be broken up in to 2 x 5s. You want to charge them in parallel, so the charger will see that as a single 5s, 10,000 mAh pack. You plug your power supply characteristics into the spreadsheet and the informaton about your batteries and it will calculate the max charge rate. The spreadsheet says your batteries can be charged at 26.1A using your existing power supply. That's 26.1 / 10 = 2.61C charge rate, not 1C. If I misundertsood you, and you're talking about charging 4 packs in parallel, then the rate would be 1.3C. But that's still very respectable for charging up 20,000 mAh of capacity. One great feature of the PL8 we term Advanced Power Management. First thing everybody should do when they get a PL8 is go in and specify what you're using to power the unit. It holds 2 different configurations; one for Power Supply and one for Battery. Each time you start up the PL8, and one time only, it will ask you whether you are using the Power Supply or the Battery as your input source. Setting this up right away will prevent the PL8 from ever damaging your input source. Your current power supply is not capable of delivering all of the current the PL8 will want to pull. Therefore, you have to limit the input supply to protect your power supply. Personally, I do not see any benefit to sync charging; at least as it is implemented by other manufacturers. Nevertheless, sync charging only applies when there are 2 channels involed. The PL8 is a single channel charger. We handle multiple packs with our Safe Parallel Adapters that safely interconnect any number of same-cell-count batteries in parallel. Safety is provided by self-resetting polyfuses that go to a high resistance state in the event of wrong connections or reverse polarity. This effectively protects the adapters and the charger from damage under these conditions. When one charges in parallel, the charger sees multiple packs as one large pack. All the cells still get 100% balanced to each other. There is no compromise here. PL8 will balance your cells to within 1 mV (0.001V) with a tolerance accuracy of 5 mV. There is another feature of the PL8 that we term Expansion Channels. You can interconnect 2 or more PL8's together. One remains the Primary channel. The others get designated Expansion Channel 1, 2, 3, etc. The master now sends all preset information to the others. If you are charging the same chemistry cells on every charger, then you only have to initiate the charger at the master. This is the ultimate way to achieve super high rate charging to all of your batteries at one time. But then the problem becomes how do I provide that much power to the PL8's? Only practical solution at this time is probably large Pb's for input power. It would not be advisable to parallel charge two 12v batteries and then connect them in series at the same time to power the PL8. You could use independent float chargers to maintain each of the 12v batteries wired in series, so long as they are isolated (no common ground). Or you could use a 24v float charger. I hope this addresses all of your good questions. You had a lot of them. Thanks, Tim Marks |
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05-07-2010, 11:03 PM | #43 (permalink) | |
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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Quote:
Currently, yes. When running Expansion Channel mode with 2 or more PL8's interconnected, the connected packs must be separated, not connected together in series. If you are using separate, isolated power supplies to power each of the PL8's, the only thing preventing what you describe is the actual physical wiring between the data ports of each of the PL8's. If there is enough demand for it, we may eventually develop an opto-isolated data hub. Currently, to interconnect PL8's for Expansion Channel mode, we simply connect the data ports together using standard R/C Y harness and a male-to-male extension (servo plugs on both ends). Then the other side of the Y harness connects to the FUIM3 PC interface. If we opto-isolated this interconnect, and you were to use isolated (no common ground) power supplies to each PL8, then it would be possible to charge, discharge, or cycle a single battery pack up to 16s provided that the pack had separate balance taps to the cells within the pack. So what's the benefit of running Expansion Channel mode? You set one charger as the Primary Channel, and the others as Expansion Channel 1,2,3, etc. Now you call up one preset on the Primary and connect same chemistry packs to all the chargers. The Primary sends over the preset information and you initiate the charge from only one unit without ever touching the buttons of the other chargers. Now, if you don't mind having to start chargers independently, then you can already charge a non-split 10s/12s pack across two PL8's provided you power each of the units with isolated (no common ground) power supplies. For more information about charging series wired packs across multiple chargers, check the following document from the FMA website: http://www.fmadirect.com/support_docs/item_1295.pdf The above shows images of a Cellpro 4s charger, but the same principals would apply to PL8. So, yes, what you want to do is possible, but not yet using Expansion Channel mode. We will be looking for feeback from customers over time to determine if Expansion Channel Mode is popular. If so, we may consider the opto-isolated hub I talked about to support series charging across multiple PL8 units. The next question and for another day would be, how do I supply power to two 1000W PL8's? Seems people are already trying to figure out a good way to power one. Isn't technology great? Tim Marks |
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05-12-2010, 03:11 PM | #45 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Aug 2008
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FMA has received an update from our manufacturing partner on the delivery of first production run orders for the Cellpro PowerLab 8, PL8 combos and adapters. There has been a slight delay of about 3 weeks. The worldwide recession has created a situation in which allocations of certain raw materials, especially microcontrollers and FETS, have moved lead times out considerably. The result is that projections for receipt of these parts have been difficult to meet. With the latest scheduled date approaching quickly, we wanted to notify all those with orders that the schedule is now moved out to mid June for first production run. Because the new scheduled date is so near, our partner has assured us that the delivery of certain long lead time items is solid. In fact, most materials are in house now to complete the run. For those customers with orders on the second production run, you can expect about a two week delay to July 1. We know that everyone with an order is anxious to get the new PL8 work station in their hands, as is FMA. We appreciate your patience and commit to keep you posted with news over the next few weeks that may impact your orders.
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05-13-2010, 04:52 PM | #46 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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When the packs are charged in parallel as I understand it the packs are seen by the charger as one pack.
If one cell is at a low voltage and it is in parallel with a cell that is at a higher voltage how does the charger ensure that both cells get charged to the same voltage? How is one cell taking more charge than the cell it is in parallel with prevented? I understand that packs of a similar age and usage should all have approximately the same performance but over time one cell can develop a higher internal resistance than another cell, if this is in parallel with a better performing cell how are both charged equally? I am sure this is all covered but I would just like to know for my own peace of mind, that parallel charging packs with no thermal cut off is a safe thing to do. kind regards and thanks in advance to any testers that answer :-) |
05-23-2010, 09:15 AM | #47 (permalink) |
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Northern Vermont
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I'm getting 2 of the PL8's. To power them at max 1000w each, I will use 2x IOTA 13.6v 90a ps in series. That will feed 27.2v 90 amps into the chargers. The nice thing about these is the metal cases are not grounded to the ac ground.
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05-31-2010, 06:42 AM | #48 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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Can 2 PL8's be networked to charge and balance 2 packs or do you have to charge them in parallel with 1 PL8?
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05-31-2010, 10:25 AM | #49 (permalink) | |
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Join Date: Jul 2009
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Quote:
Last edited by automandan; 06-09-2010 at 12:00 AM.. Reason: bad puncutation |
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06-08-2010, 03:10 PM | #50 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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PL8 Manual
Hi:
The PDF version of the manual may now be downloaded from the FMA Direct website at the following link: http://www.fmadirect.com/support_docs/item_1322.pdf |
06-16-2010, 01:03 PM | #51 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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PL8 Charge Control Software (CCS) is available!
The PL8 Charge Control Software (CCS) is available for download and install at the following link: http://www.fmadirect.com/new_applica..._software.html This Windows program does not require that you have the PL8 in order to install and run the software. Check the on-line help with direct access to pertinent information by clicking the "?" buttons throughout the various tabs.
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07-10-2010, 06:24 PM | #52 (permalink) |
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Join Date: May 2007
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Currently charging twelve 6s 3300's @ 50amps between two PL8's via one Meanwell 24V 63amp ps. This is the first cycle on these chargers. I'll bump it up to 60amps on the next cycle if everything looks good.
The highest rate I've been able to get previously was 20amps betweeen two iCharger 1010b's. Special thanks to David over at ProgreessiveRC. Saweet!!!
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08-27-2010, 01:56 PM | #53 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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Just got my PL8 from Progressive RC.
It's nice to be able to charge at such high rates, even on 12V. I can do 6 3s packs, at high rates, and just walk away from them, and let them charge. My 450, and 600 are gonna see a lot more flights. Havent even tried 24V yet.
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09-02-2010, 01:36 AM | #55 (permalink) |
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Join Date: May 2007
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I have made them before but the sets I picked up from David of Progressive RC are much nicer and very reasonably priced. I would not bother to make my own again.
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09-24-2010, 03:02 PM | #57 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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Glad you guys are enjoying your PL8s. They are pretty sweet for sure and are proving to be exceptionally reliable. I've been spending some more time with the software recently as well and I much say it is top notch.
Great job - the PL8 comes highly recommended for those that will make use of the computer interface side of things. Cheers, David |
09-24-2010, 03:51 PM | #58 (permalink) |
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Join Date: May 2007
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Sup David? Got taps?
I need some parallel balance taps for 6x 6s Hyperion lipos. Would that be 6s6p?
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