Excal Charger.

[excalme]

Woo hooo. I needed a new charger for my Excal after my Sunray charger quit and I hate the crappy minlelab charger so after Critterhunter and Kereds info on the Accucel 6 and reading reviews on them on the Hobbyking website I ordered one. Especially good is it can do other packs and combis.
They were out of stock so had to wait.
I just got email saying now have my order processed and its on its way out in 48hrs. Cant wait for it to arrive.

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

thats a good charger, you can cycle your batteries which is important and you can fast charge them too..
hh
john

 

[erikk]

Was it the Sun-Ray SR 12 that quit?

 

[erikk]

What am I missing here??? Hobby King $25.00 E Bay $70.00 same charger?

 

[excalme]

Was it the Sun-Ray SR 12 that quit?

Yes Erikk, it was the SR-12 but I think it possibly was the transformer which may have been a problem. My SR-12 kept switching to trickle charge after only 15-20 minutes when trying to recharge my packs. I contacted Ralph at SunRay and he refered me to Mark Snyner at altraelectronics who was very helpful and it was him who suggested to me it could be the transformer. Not long after that the transformer quit! So it hopefully was that having a fault causing the charger to switch to trickle before the pack was fully charged.
But by then I'd made my mind up to get the Accucel anyway. I can do all size battery combos with that.
Yes I have seen the price of them on Ebay. You can get them here too (UK) off ebay but they are expensive. It works out cheaper for me even with the postage and possible customs tax to still order one from Hong Kong. I just hope it arrives undamaged and soon.
Martin.

 

[erikk]

Yes, mine has started doing the same thing. Not all the time but often enough so I have to unplug and re charge again to get a full charge. What is the total price from Hong Kong?

 

[kered]

they work out at $19.95 as you get an instant $5 rebate in your account for your next order, postage to me in Spain from hongkong was $12.45 if i remember

 

[excalme]

erikk, the price for me (Hong Kong to UK) was $24.99 plus $12.12 international registered airmail. So total just over 37 bucks.
Plus as Kered says 5 bucks into my account towards any next order.
It says my item has just been shipped and I have a tracking number so I will inform you all of when it comes etc.

 

[Critterhunter]

You are going to LOVE that charger! Yes, around $12 from over seas to the US, but they also stock them in the US warehouses and at other places, so check the site to see if one is closer to you. I just order it from overseas as it still comes in less than a week. Just pick cheapest shipping which I think is not the default one? Some of the other warehouses they ship from have items listed higher in price so the shipping from elsewhere might not save you anything.

 

[excalme]

Thanks, I believe I am. I have about 4 AA battery holders (hold 8 each) so it'll come in for charging the rechargables I have.
Plus to do my two Excally pods.
I checked the price for it from the States and Germany but funnily it was quite a bit more expensive from those two.
Hong Kong being cheapest. The default shipping one was the international airmail in my case and the cheapest too.
As long as it doesn't arrived damaged (me being the pessimist!) I cant wait.
Oh am I right in thinking it doesnt come with instructions?

 

[Critterhunter]

Mine didn't come with instructions. I'd go on Hobby City's forum or RCGroups.com batter/charger forum and dig up some threads on this unit. The manual should be on Hobby City's site but it's confusing and wrong in some areas so read those threads. I'd look for threads about 2 years old because that was around the time this charger first came out and there should be a huge thread on either forum with many pages. Most of the good info was sorted out back then from people. You could do a search on RCGroups for my handle (same) and find a large thread in the battery forum about that charger, because that was when we we're figuring things out on it like what m/v settings it liked compared to other chargers.

You know, you could charge two packs in parallel with this charge (I think it will do up to a 16 cell nimh or nicad pack?). If you plug both packs in either in series or in parallel you can charge two at once. I do that with a simple adaptor they sold for lipos (sold seperate on their site) that allows me to charge to 3 cell lipos at once when I want to. If anybody is using lipos on this charge remember that it needs BOTH the two wire power plug from the lipo plugged in and the Molex balance plug if the battery has both on it. Otherwise if just using the power connector to charge it you can choose the normal (unbalance) charge mode to charge a pack, but fast or balance charge modes should need the Molex balance plug plugged in as well. Very bad idea to charge any lipo without using the balance charge plug and most these days have them on them. Only time it's not needed is when charging a single cell lipo because obviously it doesn't have other cells to monitor, needing the parallel access of the Molex plug to the other cells. That's all those things do- they bring out the leads for each cell so the charger can see and monitor each cell as it charges.

Just remember, if you get a "CONNECTION BREAK" error then you've got a bad solder connection on one of your wires. Easy to fix.

 

[erikk]

Knowing little 2 nothing about chargers and it seems that my SR-12 is also about 2 bite the dust what do I need or need 2 do to get this unit to charge an excal battery. Do I need 2 buy anything else or is everything included with the unit??
Thanks

 

[kered]

The chargers are powered by 12v dc nominal(10-18v) so you will need some sort of power supply, i made one from an old power unit from a PC(plenty of instructions on the net and its easy)you can also get a 12v power supply (some use old laptop chargers) or even plug it into the car cigarette holder.

The first time you use it you will have to change a few settings

I turned off mah limit, max charge time.
Make up a lead that will plug into the ikalite charge connector and clip it to the output with supplied alligator clips or even better a dean connector on the other end and it will plug into the main output lead directly.
Plug in
select battery type nimh or nicad
Set charge rate
Start and away you go(the charger will recognize the amount of cells and adjust accordingly)

Charge rate
If you use the minelab battery you are limited to the amount of amps you can charge at as they have a thermistor inbuilt and if you go much above 1amp(excal2) the thermistor will cut off early with a connection break alarm.(i use 0.7amp if not in a hurry) you might have to register
If you have onlybatteriesareus refill you can charge as high as you like although more than 1C(1.4amp for the 1400mah pack) is not recommended as they may get hot and shorten the life, even at 1.4amp they should be charged in an hour from flat.
I also use it to charge my 2700mah and 2900mah rechargables in the etrac alkaline pack that i can charge at 2.5amp if in a hurry although i usually use 1.5amp

Critterhunter will probably give more detail as he has had his longer, I'm still in the experimental phase and although things sound complicated they aren't and I am highly delighted with the results so far.

As a footnote i have found that the charger is putting in more mah than the battery makers mark on the batteries, this is due to the efficiency of the charger that is filling all cells full

Link to making a power souce from a pc power unit

Accucel 6 manual

plenty of videos on youtube both for converting an atx pc power supply and Accucel-6 chargers

 

[erikk]

The chargers are powered by 12v dc nominal(10-18v) so you will need some sort of power supply, i made one from an old power unit from a PC(plenty of instructions on the net and its easy)you can also get a 12v power supply (some use old laptop chargers) or even plug it into the car cigarette holder.

The first time you use it you will have to change a few settings

I turned off mah limit, max charge time.
Make up a lead that will plug into the ikalite charge connector and clip it to the output with supplied alligator clips or even better a dean connector on the other end and it will plug into the main output lead directly.
Plug in
select battery type nimh or nicad
Set charge rate
Start and away you go(the charger will recognize the amount of cells and adjust accordingly)

Charge rate
If you use the minelab battery you are limited to the amount of amps you can charge at as they have a thermistor inbuilt and if you go much above 1amp(excal2) the thermistor will cut off early with a connection break alarm.(i use 0.7amp if not in a hurry) you might have to register
If you have onlybatteriesareus refill you can charge as high as you like although more than 1C(1.4amp for the 1400mah pack) is not recommended as they may get hot and shorten the life, even at 1.4amp they should be charged in an hour from flat.
I also use it to charge my 2700mah and 2900mah rechargables in the etrac alkaline pack that i can charge at 2.5amp if in a hurry although i usually use 1.5amp

Critterhunter will probably give more detail as he has had his longer, I'm still in the experimental phase and although things sound complicated they aren't and I am highly delighted with the results so far.

As a footnote i have found that the charger is putting in more mah than the battery makers mark on the batteries, this is due to the efficiency of the charger that is filling all cells full

Link to making a power souce from a pc power unit

Accucel 6 manual

plenty of videos on youtube both for converting an atx pc power supply and Accucel-6 chargers

Kered

Thank U very much f or your detailed reply however my knowledge of batteries & electronics is kind of limited to plugging in a lamp or screwing in a light bulb. I can weld but not solder and all those different numbers and letters are greek to me. Isn't there something out there that I can get that is like the old plug and play SR-12. Something with a idiot light that tells U when it is fully charged and doesn't have to be built to work. What I need is somthing SIMPLE (for me)!
Thanks erikk

 

[kered]

Yes there is one on the onlybatteriesareus web site under minelab excalibur, same place most get the refil packs from, its a delta V charger that recognises the amount of cells and charges accordingly red for charging and green for done, don't forget to get the conector for the excalibur to, they also have a conector for the etrac/explorer packs too. These chargers are limited to nicad and nimh batteries in cuantaties from 6-10 cells (7.2v-12v packs)

I'll try to put the link but it might get trashed

You will need item 11535 charger and 11534 pigtail for the excalibur and add the 12242 pigtail if you have etrac/explorer packs

both 11534 and 12242 can be made easily enough at less than half the price if your capable.

I have one and they work great although i have relegated it to spare since getting the Accucel-6

 

[erikk]

Yes there is one on the onlybatteriesareus web site under minelab excalibur, same place most get the refil packs from, its a delta V charger that recognises the amount of cells and charges accordingly red for charging and green for done, don't forget to get the conector for the excalibur to, they also have a conector for the etrac/explorer packs too. These chargers are limited to nicad and nimh batteries in cuantaties from 6-10 cells (7.2v-12v packs)

I'll try to put the link but it might get trashed

You will need item 11535 charger and 11534 pigtail for the excalibur and add the 12242 pigtail if you have etrac/explorer packs

both 11534 and 12242 can be made easily enough at less than half the price if your capable.

I have one and they work great although i have relegated it to spare since getting the Accucel-6

Thanks for all the info. I went to a battery place but they didn't have that model so I went to a hobby place and they fixed me up with a pro peak 8.5A power pack & a GWS MC 2002 charger, I got the connectors @ Radio Shack & made the pigtails. Don't know how good these units are but they do work, are pretty basic and I can charge the excal pods, Explorer and the Infinium LS & Sea Hunter MK 2. Just hope it lasts

Thanks again for all the info

 

[Critterhunter]

Once you set up the Accucel 6's settings you'll never have to change them again since it saves various battery settings for you if you want. You can load/save settings for several batteries with it. Setting it up is really pretty easy once you understand what the functions do. The hardest thing is the m/v setting, but we've already covered the numbers that should work fine for those in nimhs or nicads. Why buy a Yugo when you can have a Mustang for a much cheaper price (than most of the chargers out there, even the very primative and non-adjustable ones)?

 

[excalme]

I'm still waiting excitedly for mine to come.
In the meantime Critterhunter lay off the Yugos My brother had one and he named it the"Millenium Falcon" after the spaceship (off Starwars or some film) not because it was incredibly fast though! Quite the opposite.
By the way do you know what leads come with it and what they may fit or apply to? Or what lead/fitting will I need to get for my Excal?
cheers Martin.

 

[Critterhunter]

It's going to come with a bunch of connectors. One has alligator clips on it that you can just clip to any plug that fits your battery's plug if you don't want to solder a custom one up. Will respond more on another day as I'm off to chug some beers and work on the truck now...

 

[kered]

one of the plugs that comes with it plugs directly into the ikalite bit that comes with the excalibur, ie its the same as the plug on the minelab excalibur charger