Let me try to sum it up for those who are having trouble deciding which charger is right for them. If you have about $100 to spend and you want a single, big charger (for parallel charging or for charging large individual packs) then consider the ProgressiveRC X6. It's very capable, however it might be a little annoying to use because of its tiny button interface and because the memory-based system might not be right for everybody's workflow. The ISDT T8 is comparable in spec and price, but has fewer features (regenerative discharge, "expanding discharge", configurable balance threshold and speed, and so forth). If you only need about 300 watts / 14 amps, look seriously at the ISDT Q6. If you want two separate channels for charging different voltage at the same time, consider the Hobbymate Duo D6. It's also a great choice if you need to plug directly into the wall, instead of into a DC power supply. However you won't get the full output power of the D6 if you run it off AC, so bear that in mind. Links to all these products are in the video description, including my review of the Hobbymate Duo D6 and the ISDT Q6 and T8.
A question, if I may. This charger should presumably have a "power source with a current limiter" mode of operation available as well. Could this mode be used as a "smoke stopper" just like with a proper current-limiting bench PSU, or would the processor lag in the current limiter be too large to help against a short? Could you test this somehow? Thanks.
I need a charger to charge some 21700 batteries 5s 3p so 20v 12Ah. I'm converting a tool to li-ion. How many watt or Amp charger do I need for a charge time of 30-45 min ?
FWIW at 5:00 mark that method of changing current is IMO wrong way to do things... at least that's how I used to do it until I realized there was an alternative. After charge starts if you hold status button for a second or two it pops up current adjust and you can spin knob to change it. So instead of navigating those annoying menus I have all presets set to 3A, safe for single or many packs. I then just quickly click through menus and never adjust anything, always just start charge at default 3A. Then after starting if I have many packs connected I hold status and spin knob to ramp it up to 15A. It ends up being much easier than adjusting presets. If presets work for you great, but if not you don't need to use them. Oh and the long press adjusts current charge, it doesn't change the preset, so the preset reamains at 3A.
Agree with Josh, I don't like the toggle switch and don't like the balance connector on the left side. Nor do i find this easy to use.... prefer the ISDT chargers.
I dont understand the regenerative discharge function. When I have fully charged packs and empty ones, I just put the fully charged packs in the input of my iSDT to supply power for the empty ones, then set stop voltage at 15.2v for the input.
Okay let me be clear as a master electrician it doesn't have 800 w in it it allows 800 watts to pass through it while controlling it the amplification does not come from the unit it comes from the power source which would be the power supply as long as it can put that power out
Sure, but it still has to convert 800 watts of AC into 800 watts of DC, and that process usually produces a lot of heat, which means you end up with larger, heavier devices.
I don’t have the X6, but I have had the 406Duo for several years, which is basically two X6s together (and has a big jog wheel and costs like 3 or 4 times as much). Anyway, I also have one of the original little 150W iSDT chargers, and to be honest, when I can I use the iSDT, and it’s exactly because of the whacky menu system on the iCharger. It has always driven me crazy. But it’s a $350 charger and does literally everything I want (except traveling with it) so I just deal with it. Presets are neat, but like you said, you never charge the same thing twice in a row. Oh, today I flew two 4S 5200s, preset change, next day I only flew one, preset change, today I flew three 1500s and a 5200, preset change *on both sides of the charger*. Long-presses, and tab buttons, and clicks, and scrolls, *argh*! Just do it like iSDT: “How many amps this time, sir? Very well, off we go, I’ll beep when I’m done.”
I have the x8. The features are great but, in my opinion, the interface is bad. I find the jog wheel to be inconsistent and tricky to use. Someone who is proficient with the jog wheel should save various programs for different lipos and different sources then offer them for download to those of us who are clumsy. Actually after spending several hours going through the instructions I finally figured out that my charger does not respond to the one second down command on the jogwheel. I cant get into several of the screens that are needed to set up the charger.
1 addition, you cant take full power from 12V input. It has a restriction of 35A input, so if you have 12V power supply. 12 x 35 = 420Watt max. For getting output power to 1000 w you need atleast 30V input :)
I saw the i6 Charger mentioned in your video about the Hobbymate D6 Duo and decided to get the i6. Just got it in the mail today and so far it is awesome! I already had a lab bench power supply so that is the power source currently. I am going to be building the 24v power supply to make it all one clean system that can stay together instead of having to connect and disconnect it from my power supply when doing other things. I love when you recommend a product that I am currently in the market for. Makes me feel so much better about pulling the trigger when I know it has the Joshua Bardwell Seal of Approval. Waiting on the JB Balance Charger in the mail to round out my charging station needs.
This is the first video I have watched of yours and I'll be back for more, thanks.Learned something new about balance chargers but there is another type of balance charger called active balance. Balancing can be active or passive. The term battery regulator typically refers only to devices that perform passive balancing. In active balancing, energy is drawn from the most charged cell and transferred to the least charged cells, usually through capacitor-based, inductor-based or DC-DC converters. Battery balancing can be performed by DC-DC converters, in one of 3 topologies: Cell-to-battery, Battery-to-cell, Bidirectional. Typically, the power handled by each DC-DC converter is a few orders of magnitude lower than the power handled by the battery pack as a whole.
I’ll sum it up to. Isdt is no where near as good as this icharger and its so small and the options it has is just awesome. Plus no more abnormal battery connection.
Great presentation! Thank you. One parameter that I needed in a charger was a higher input voltage. I bought a 36 volt 20Ah Li Ion bicycle battery as a storage reserve battery. (I fly away from the power gird..) The voltage when fully charged can be as high as 43 volts. The ISDT T8 has one of the highest input voltage rating of 40 volts. Of the 10 or so different chargers that I looked at, the T8 was the highest. 43 volts is only 7.5% higher that the highest input voltage for the T8. I gambled a $100 and took a chance that the 3 extra volts would be ok. NOT! So it was hard to find a charger that would take an input voltage or more that 36 volts. I finally found the iCharger 4010 from Banggood that will handle a 50 Volt input. Nice dual charger. the bummer was the cost of $350. Had I known about this voltage issue, I would have just continued to use an el cheapo lead acid in series with my car battery or bought a lower voltage Li Ion but that bites into total storage capacity. (Yes, I know the T8 will take a 12 volt input. However, DC to DC bucking converters are grossly inefficient...) If you or anyone know of a lower cost smart charger that will take a50 volt or higher input voltage, please post.
Josh, I wish that you would experience the user interface that the Revolectrix GT series chargers offer, along with the quality and precision of their equipment. The chargers use both quick setup as well as presets with a easy jog dial that lets you set up a charge in seconds. The GT1000 is priced at $100, has 1000w of power and can charge up to a 6s pack at 40A. If you want 8 capable, the GT1200 does 8s at 40A with up to 60 input current for $105. These may not be mini chargers, but definitely are not huge and very capable at the field. Brian
Hold up for a sec... About fast charging, this charger has a balance drain spec'd at ">2 amps" according to Amain. The other ichargers are spec'd at 1.2 amps. And almost every other charger is about 600mA. (I asked the manufacturers since normally this spec is left out.) The only thing that would actually affect charge times is to have a higher balance drain amperage, meaning the low cells can charge faster. Right? Accuracy has nothing to do with it.
I've owned both the Isdt & iChargers I definitely prefer the ichargers over the Isdt. matter fact I don't even want to get started on the nightmare I dealt with on the last 2 isdt's I owned!! currently I run the newer S6 icharger w/ xt90 plug ends the bigger brother to the X6, it dishes out 40amps 1100 watts & most important to me is the 2 Amp balance charge, unfortunately you don't see 2amp BC on ISDT chargers, among several other options. Isdt makes decent chargers I'm sure even having dealt w/one issue after another with the Air 8 😡 but I'm sure there good chargers just my luck,.. However I do prefer the quality & feature packed ichargers all day....
Thanks for the review! and the explanation of the two discharge types. though with the expanded discharge mode the resistor is not soaking any more amps because it is in series, it is soaking volts, so the amps through the resistor and charger are the same, it is the volts that are different. Say a 6S battery with a 1 ohm resistor in series is being discharged at 10A. the 6S battery will ideally be at 25.2v so without an expanded discharge setup, meaning no resistor in series, the charger needs to have 10A pass through it, this will be 252W that needs to dissapate in the charger. Now with a resistor in series, 10A flows through the resistor and the charger. with Ohms law we can calculate that there will be 10v across the resistor, that is 100W on the resistor leaving 15.2v and 152W for the charger to dissapate. This is not a realistic scenario because different resistor configurations will be much better but you can easily see how it would work with simplified numbers, the charger will always have lower voltage across it so it will not run into its wattage limit as easily or overheat as quickly.
I don't think pushing 15A through balance port is a good idea LOL! 4:54 Most chargers start the balance function as soon as you start the charge function, not when one of the cell reached 4.2V. If that's the case, then the charging process will take even longer than it should be. 7:06 Gotta love the regenerative discharge! Absolutely hate wasting power for nothing. Lead-acid battery is the most suitable kind for regenerative discharge because it's the best to keep lead-acid battery fully charged all the time. Great for emergency, field charging and most importantly, cheap! Just saw that Acehe Li-Po, kinda wonder how good it performs? Kinda on the expensive side so I'm expecting good performance.
I would want some verification about the charger starting the balance function immediately. I guess it's easy enough to do if you have a clamp meter ... WHICH I DO! Wow. You are correct! It starts pulling current from the balance leads as soon as charging begins. How about that!
Joshua Bardwell There are many balance settings you can select to adjust the balance current behavior. The default is to begin balancing at target voltage minus 0.2V, but you can adjust this anywhere from the full target voltage itself to target voltage minus 1V to always balancing.
I would be surprised if they do that as cells that are not very well matched can have varying voltages mid charge and when they get to full charge go back into balance. (edit Which would mean it would be making work for itself when the pack reached full charge.) Honestly though once you have balanced a pack once on a charger it wont have to do barely anything each time you charge as healthy packs shouldn't go out of balance for no reason.
Joshua Bardwell An I charger shows which cells it is pulling power from to balance. In balance charge mode it immediately starts pulling power from the highest charge cell
Also this icharger x6 has an SD card and temperature probe input which no ISDT has, you could have mention it, I do only have ISDTs but also a few temperature probes from old imax chargers.
Same jog wheel that was on the true-D. It sucked on that product and it sucks on this charger. Maybe they will wise up and put 3 buttons on it. I can live with the interface for the price/performance but I'm very tempted to crack it open and mod some buttons in place of the jog.
Joshua Bardwell You can plug the full battery in and use it to charge to discharged battery putting them both in storage mode in the process. Go into system settings and set the low voltage limit to 15.36v and you have essential set to input battery to be put in storage at 3.84 volts per cell, but unbalanced, just like the ISDT FD100 discharger. For batteries without bad cells this should be fine. So, if you had a 10000mah 8S battery to use for field charging all your 4S batteries, Set your input low voltage limit higher when 8S is the source in the field. Come home and change it to 15.36 and start putting your 4S batteries in storage pushing current into the 8S, or into any 4S that you flew that need to be charged.
Still can't beat the isdt interface in my humble opinion. The only feature this has that I would want, is the regenerative discharging. BUT, the isdt chargers, and others with DC input and adjustable min voltage, already do that. I just plug all my packs into a balance board, plug that into the power input on the charger, and then plug in my 6s 45ah lipo pack to be charged, and boom, drain my packs and charge my big storage battery. When the input voltage hits 15v they are done. It's not perfect, but it works very well regardless, and I do it often.
When you mentioned this Icharger could regeneratively discharge a battery by dumping into another battery pack(referred to as target pack). My question is while dumping into the target pack I didn't see any connections for balance leads. So how do you take the source battery pack and dump it into the target pack without protecting the target pack without balance leads on the target pack?
Hey josh, another company who competes step for step with icharger is Revolectrix. They’re known for their powerlab chargers which are also crazy priced like most icharger’s but they introduced the “gt” series a year or two ago, that use the same charge software and accuracy, but don’t have all the pc logging software. They’re a desktop charger for sure, but I got my gt1000duo(1000watt per channel) charger for about 125$ on sale, they’re normally around 150ish but are on sale routinely. They have a 500watt single and duo, a 1000wAtt single and a 1200watt single currently I believe... your viewers may enjoy your honest review on another high end somewhat budget charger
That little jog button on the iCharger X6, they're actually very good when used correctly, I have 3 of those on the LCD remote for my (10 year old but still going strong) iRiver mp3 player and they allow me to operate it much easier than if there were 9 individual buttons, and without having to look at the screen. I wish they had put a rubber surface on the iSTD Q6 scrollwheel, I keep clicking instead of scrolling because it needs pressure to get grip.
Having a hard time finding a proper cooling fan for an X6. Just recieved the second and of course it won't work and of course. No refunds. Anyone have a reliable source for a x6 fan?
Can you do a review on some of the HTRC chargers??? I want to know your opinion on the T240 Duo specifically. It looks like its got a neat interface. For a price of $75 on bangood, its definitely in the mix for multi-chargers if its got the same feature set, accuracy, and durability.
any news on vendors adding battgo to batteries? I would be willing pay a small amount per battery to be able to 1) program each battery the way I want to charge it, 2) Dump battery info to the computer, as I track cell resistance for battery health. 3) have the charger know what the absolution low voltage limit is for the input battery, regardless of number of cells when using a battery as a source. 4) track watts replaced vs starting/resting voltage when charging (to help calibrate current sensors on quads. An one more idea based on the external load/resistor idea for discharge, I'l like to be able to hook my ISDT FD100 discharger to my T8 to help speed putting batteries in storage. That way I could use the T8 for all of them because it can either charge or discharge as necessary to get them to storage.
Hey Joshua if I was to say to you I bought upgraded motors for an inductrix And they’re a very high KV with no props on they spin up smoothies with my remote throttle commands. When I put props on the motors are super delayed and it’s unflyable. I tried changing PID’s in motor separated from PWM speed I don’t know what else it could be if you please have an answer let me know ?
Can you also do cycle chargers with an external load? That would be really useful to cycle in batteries without having to restart the process manually all the time. I use the isdt discharger at the moment to cycle charge my packs but of course I have to start the charging and discharging process manually all the time....
I love my x6 its freaking awesome! The lipo recovery feature is great. Scroll wheel is a lil meh though. But all the other things make it totally worth it. I have a 2,4,8,&12 amps memory program setup on mine for parallel charging.
Is it worth saying at this point I've lost every isdt ive bought (5) and my icharger 10s duo has never missed a beat! I also love if you set input to 10v for like a battery it will slow the charge keeping the imput to 10v not just sag the battery to 10v and error out. Looking into this charger now. I like pocket chargers for on the go.
Im looking for a dual battery charger that can charge at fast rate for when im on the field at events any recommendations?. Also a bang for the $$ not trying to spend lot ..i alot have a 24v 1800w power supply i built
I have a question what battery charger would you recommend for hybrid Prius cells for the modules individual cells need to be charged that go into the module packs so I need to charge those what would you suggest
5:11 - damn, those beeps are going to get annoying. Also, the button to control the menus seems like a joke. I like the accuracy and the discharge options though. I’m pretty happy with my Q6 but it can’t discharge properly
he keeps saying progressive RC, thats a store, the manufacturer is junsi in china. also the difference between normal fast and slow balance is in the parameters, it says fast is 8mv difference, normal is 5mv, slow is 3mv and than there is user defined. this video is sketchy on the details
@@JoshuaBardwell Thanks for your input, a ton of features doesn't interest me too much, primary use for me is to check a battery and to charge a battery, also to monitor the progress.. Simplicity and ease of use is also a plus.. I guess the next challenge is to make sure to stay away from a counterfeits.. Are there any other sub $50 chargers that you could recommend that I check out..
So after a lot of deliberation, I finally bought one of these. I am flying large edf’s and wanted a compact charger and power supply combo since I will mostly be using it to charge 6s packs for this specific purpose. I also bought one of your 6s parallel boards (very nice btw). Got a 24v 400w 16.7A led power supply. I plan to charge four 6s 5200mah at 1.4C. I don’t have everything yet so I ran a test with two 4000 mah 6s at 3C. I set it to 24amps and it ran for about 5 seconds before shutting off. It won’t turn on except for make a few beeps and the screen backlight doesn’t work now. Did I make a newbie mistake or is it just a faulty charger??
Already sent an email to them. I know the power supply is lacking in terms of amps and watts. I just wanted to run a test and see where the amps were limited. I didn’t expect it to completely fail with the built in protections. I’m still learning. 🤔
I need to order a new charger and am undecided between icharger x6/x8 or the ISDT T8, disregarding the price, which one would be the better charger in terms of functionality, precision, reliability and ease of use?
I love your I I charger insight. Nice video. Since your video I purchased one, but I need and 6s harness plug but this one was not shipped with one. Where can I find one. I hope I worded it correctly
@@JoshuaBardwell I got the T8 and it's amazing! My only issue is it will only storage discharge at 1.2a. Quite disappointing. It takes like 2 hours to discharge a pack. I had it set at 5a, 20a, and 30a. Still 1.2. Any idea what's going on?
with ISDT Q6PRO I have several Lipo swelled now. When I used iCharger 206B was'nt the case. Probably a difference in quality of balancing? or ??? ( loading at max 0,5 C)
You should look into the venom pro duo charger it’s a dual charger up to 6s and works beautifully. The instructions are horrible with it but I have the venom pro duo. Dual charger around $100
With this charger (x6) does it require the power supply if you're looking to use a lipo batter to power the device in the field? I used to have another icharger and the device needed server power supplies, and I have seen this thing (x6) in pictures with the power supply connected but I'm not sure if it's using a lipo or not.
So when i buy soldering stuff and fcs or vtx stuff if i click the link you get paid still ? I dont mind im new to flying drones and i got an rc Dwing but your videos are my favorite tutorials
Hi Joshua! First, THANKS for the great informative videos! The Junsi website shown in your description doesn't work. I'm trying to find out what the X6's maximum input amperage is for a 2s lipo. I would like to charge 2s lipos at 20amps while using a Motiv Power Brick 12v/60A/720W power supply. I'd hate to buy this charger to find out it's limited to 10a charging for a 2s. Can you kindly confirm? Thanks in advance!
Hey love your videos and everything you do for the hobby. What do you think of the ecube cq2 designed by e v Peak, it's four Channel only 50 watts per Channel at Max 6 amps per Channel I only charge at 1C maybe 2C at most anyway. And you can plug it into the wall or a power supply or car battery and AC accepts 110 voltage or 220 LOL it's kind of big and bulky but whatever I bought it like 3 years ago
I have one of those cheap battery checkers with a dual buzzer. It consistently reads 0.07V too high on cell 4. Good thing I have a 300 dollar volt meter for reference. Don't buy cheap stuff from amazon.
Hey Josh could you let its know what it comes with like a wall plug? It helps us noobs like me who know that you need a power supply to use these at home. Otherwise it's a really nice paper weight when you get it. Thanks again.
What I meant was some chargers come with AC to DC wall plugs (the ones with the large brick). Where you don't have to go out and buy or make a converter.
Mine is about 2-3 ohms if memory serves. Do the math... 16.8 volts / 2 ohms = X amps X amps * 16.8 volts = Y watts If Y < the power rating of the resistor you're golden. Repeat the numbers with different voltage for 6S if necessary.
When discharging energy with the wirebound resistor, where does that energy go? Is it heat? Same for the frame of a car or the rebars of a house, i have never been able to figure it out.
Has anyone ever used an adapter to use drill batteries as power supply I have a new Milwaukee m18 12 amp battery with 218 watt hours that should be able to change a good and the have a 3 year warranty
The charger doesn't care about the source of the power so you definitely could do this. But I think your estimate of 400 amp-hours is waaaaaaaaaaayyyyy too high. A little googling suggests to me that the M18 packs are between 1.5 and 12.0 Ah at 18 volts, with the most common size being 3.0 Ah. This gives 216 Watt-hours for the largest (12.0 Ah) pack. By my calculations this should recharge at most 10 1300 mAh 4S packs. The 3.0 Ah M18 pack would recharge about two 4S 1300 mAh packs. For perspective, a giant 90-lb deep cycle marine battery might be close to 200 Ah.
Don't discharge. Put it in storage (3.8 volts-ish) if need be. I leave them charged for a few days at most then put them in storage if I'm not going to fly them.
Hello I’m new to the hobby and I’m having trouble with death rolls and or motor twitching and don’t know what the cause could be but there is a short from ground to the shaft of the twitchy motor and not for my others so is there any way I can fix that and could that be the cause
You need a DC power supply. You could in theory run it off your truck battery, but I would recommend idling the truck to be sure you don't kill the truck battery. Better to buy a DC power supply that plugs into the wall.
@@JoshuaBardwell could you recommend a DC power supply? I think i would only need a 12 volt im only trying to charge at 10 amps after a fishing trip is done to be ready for the next morning. For you helping me i can use your promotion code when I order one to help you out for taking time to help me.
I'm looking to replace my old charger but I need something AC compatible. Either using a converter on the power cord or have an all in one like my old imax b6ac. Ideas?
Dear Joshua. The discharging is quite eloquent. However I am more concerned with getting my batteries charged quickly. Daylight int Netherlands at afterwork hours is very limited. It would be ever so great if all charger manufacturers would stop producing chargers with this awfull balancing method and start making them with balancing through the balance-leads. I have one that doe this experimentally from a chinese site but it is not very reliable. I would love to see more production models. It speeds up charging so incredibly much that it would take a simplem 20C pack about 40% less time to charge. This means 15 to 20 mins at most on average in stead of more than an hour to balance up to the last millivolt.
This balance method can be quite fast you just need to get a charger with a high balancing current. Some have balance current over 1 amp, which can finish balancing quite quickly.
Let me try to sum it up for those who are having trouble deciding which charger is right for them.
If you have about $100 to spend and you want a single, big charger (for parallel charging or for charging large individual packs) then consider the ProgressiveRC X6. It's very capable, however it might be a little annoying to use because of its tiny button interface and because the memory-based system might not be right for everybody's workflow. The ISDT T8 is comparable in spec and price, but has fewer features (regenerative discharge, "expanding discharge", configurable balance threshold and speed, and so forth).
If you only need about 300 watts / 14 amps, look seriously at the ISDT Q6.
If you want two separate channels for charging different voltage at the same time, consider the Hobbymate Duo D6. It's also a great choice if you need to plug directly into the wall, instead of into a DC power supply. However you won't get the full output power of the D6 if you run it off AC, so bear that in mind.
Links to all these products are in the video description, including my review of the Hobbymate Duo D6 and the ISDT Q6 and T8.
Joshua Bardwell I believe the icharger is actually made by Junsi not progressive rc.
It is made by junsi... progressive rc is just the USA distributor, and I believe buddy rc is also a licensed distributor now too
What power supply do you recommend using?
A question, if I may. This charger should presumably have a "power source with a current limiter" mode of operation available as well. Could this mode be used as a "smoke stopper" just like with a proper current-limiting bench PSU, or would the processor lag in the current limiter be too large to help against a short? Could you test this somehow? Thanks.
I need a charger to charge some 21700 batteries 5s 3p so 20v 12Ah. I'm converting a tool to li-ion. How many watt or Amp charger do I need for a charge time of 30-45 min ?
So you don't have to use the memory settings, you can change the charge/discharge values on the fly.
FWIW at 5:00 mark that method of changing current is IMO wrong way to do things... at least that's how I used to do it until I realized there was an alternative. After charge starts if you hold status button for a second or two it pops up current adjust and you can spin knob to change it. So instead of navigating those annoying menus I have all presets set to 3A, safe for single or many packs. I then just quickly click through menus and never adjust anything, always just start charge at default 3A. Then after starting if I have many packs connected I hold status and spin knob to ramp it up to 15A. It ends up being much easier than adjusting presets. If presets work for you great, but if not you don't need to use them. Oh and the long press adjusts current charge, it doesn't change the preset, so the preset reamains at 3A.
Agree with Josh, I don't like the toggle switch and don't like the balance connector on the left side.
Nor do i find this easy to use.... prefer the ISDT chargers.
I dont understand the regenerative discharge function. When I have fully charged packs and empty ones, I just put the fully charged packs in the input of my iSDT to supply power for the empty ones, then set stop voltage at 15.2v for the input.
That's basically doing the same thing.
Okay let me be clear as a master electrician it doesn't have 800 w in it it allows 800 watts to pass through it while controlling it the amplification does not come from the unit it comes from the power source which would be the power supply as long as it can put that power out
Sure, but it still has to convert 800 watts of AC into 800 watts of DC, and that process usually produces a lot of heat, which means you end up with larger, heavier devices.
I don’t have the X6, but I have had the 406Duo for several years, which is basically two X6s together (and has a big jog wheel and costs like 3 or 4 times as much). Anyway, I also have one of the original little 150W iSDT chargers, and to be honest, when I can I use the iSDT, and it’s exactly because of the whacky menu system on the iCharger. It has always driven me crazy. But it’s a $350 charger and does literally everything I want (except traveling with it) so I just deal with it. Presets are neat, but like you said, you never charge the same thing twice in a row. Oh, today I flew two 4S 5200s, preset change, next day I only flew one, preset change, today I flew three 1500s and a 5200, preset change *on both sides of the charger*. Long-presses, and tab buttons, and clicks, and scrolls, *argh*! Just do it like iSDT: “How many amps this time, sir? Very well, off we go, I’ll beep when I’m done.”
i really wish you went into the settings in the charger to set it up for extra discharge.
I have the x8. The features are great but, in my opinion, the interface is bad. I find the jog wheel to be inconsistent and tricky to use. Someone who is proficient with the jog wheel should save various programs for different lipos and different sources then offer them for download to those of us who are clumsy. Actually after spending several hours going through the instructions I finally figured out that my charger does not respond to the one second down command on the jogwheel. I cant get into several of the screens that are needed to set up the charger.
1 addition, you cant take full power from 12V input. It has a restriction of 35A input, so if you have 12V power supply. 12 x 35 = 420Watt max. For getting output power to 1000 w you need atleast 30V input :)
I saw the i6 Charger mentioned in your video about the Hobbymate D6 Duo and decided to get the i6. Just got it in the mail today and so far it is awesome! I already had a lab bench power supply so that is the power source currently. I am going to be building the 24v power supply to make it all one clean system that can stay together instead of having to connect and disconnect it from my power supply when doing other things. I love when you recommend a product that I am currently in the market for. Makes me feel so much better about pulling the trigger when I know it has the Joshua Bardwell Seal of Approval. Waiting on the JB Balance Charger in the mail to round out my charging station needs.
This is the first video I have watched of yours and I'll be back for more, thanks.Learned something new about balance chargers but there is another type of balance charger called active balance. Balancing can be active or passive. The term battery regulator typically refers only to devices that perform passive balancing. In active balancing, energy is drawn from the most charged cell and transferred to the least charged cells, usually through capacitor-based, inductor-based or DC-DC converters. Battery balancing can be performed by DC-DC converters, in one of 3 topologies: Cell-to-battery, Battery-to-cell, Bidirectional. Typically, the power handled by each DC-DC converter is a few orders of magnitude lower than the power handled by the battery pack as a whole.
I’ll sum it up to. Isdt is no where near as good as this icharger and its so small and the options it has is just awesome. Plus no more abnormal battery connection.
but imo the firmware is not as intuitive as the isdt. plus it’s expensive and the build quality is not as good.
Ahhhhh I am not the only one bugged with that "abnormal battery connection" Crap
Great presentation! Thank you.
One parameter that I needed in a charger was a higher input voltage. I bought a 36 volt 20Ah Li Ion bicycle battery as a storage reserve battery. (I fly away from the power gird..) The voltage when fully charged can be as high as 43 volts. The ISDT T8 has one of the highest input voltage rating of 40 volts. Of the 10 or so different chargers that I looked at, the T8 was the highest. 43 volts is only 7.5% higher that the highest input voltage for the T8. I gambled a $100 and took a chance that the 3 extra volts would be ok. NOT!
So it was hard to find a charger that would take an input voltage or more that 36 volts. I finally found the iCharger 4010 from Banggood that will handle a 50 Volt input. Nice dual charger. the bummer was the cost of $350. Had I known about this voltage issue, I would have just continued to use an el cheapo lead acid in series with my car battery or bought a lower voltage Li Ion but that bites into total storage capacity. (Yes, I know the T8 will take a 12 volt input. However, DC to DC bucking converters are grossly inefficient...)
If you or anyone know of a lower cost smart charger that will take a50 volt or higher input voltage, please post.
You are fantastic to explain things for us ordinary RC users, wish you where a member in my club. Love Your videos👍👍👍👍👍
Joshua, off subject. I haven’t seen any recommendation scales to weight drones, would be a great subject for us begginers
Nice video. Thinking of getting the S6.
Josh, I wish that you would experience the user interface that the Revolectrix GT series chargers offer, along with the quality and precision of their equipment. The chargers use both quick setup as well as presets with a easy jog dial that lets you set up a charge in seconds. The GT1000 is priced at $100, has 1000w of power and can charge up to a 6s pack at 40A. If you want 8 capable, the GT1200 does 8s at 40A with up to 60 input current for $105. These may not be mini chargers, but definitely are not huge and very capable at the field. Brian
Hold up for a sec... About fast charging, this charger has a balance drain spec'd at ">2 amps" according to Amain. The other ichargers are spec'd at 1.2 amps. And almost every other charger is about 600mA. (I asked the manufacturers since normally this spec is left out.) The only thing that would actually affect charge times is to have a higher balance drain amperage, meaning the low cells can charge faster. Right? Accuracy has nothing to do with it.
I've owned both the Isdt & iChargers I definitely prefer the ichargers over the Isdt. matter fact I don't even want to get started on the nightmare I dealt with on the last 2 isdt's I owned!! currently I run the newer S6 icharger w/ xt90 plug ends the bigger brother to the X6, it dishes out 40amps 1100 watts & most important to me is the 2 Amp balance charge, unfortunately you don't see 2amp BC on ISDT chargers, among several other options. Isdt makes decent chargers I'm sure even having dealt w/one issue after another with the Air 8 😡 but I'm sure there good chargers just my luck,.. However I do prefer the quality & feature packed ichargers all day....
Thanks for the review! and the explanation of the two discharge types. though with the expanded discharge mode the resistor is not soaking any more amps because it is in series, it is soaking volts, so the amps through the resistor and charger are the same, it is the volts that are different.
Say a 6S battery with a 1 ohm resistor in series is being discharged at 10A. the 6S battery will ideally be at 25.2v so without an expanded discharge setup, meaning no resistor in series, the charger needs to have 10A pass through it, this will be 252W that needs to dissapate in the charger. Now with a resistor in series, 10A flows through the resistor and the charger.
with Ohms law we can calculate that there will be 10v across the resistor, that is 100W on the resistor leaving 15.2v and 152W for the charger to dissapate. This is not a realistic scenario because different resistor configurations will be much better but you can easily see how it would work with simplified numbers, the charger will always have lower voltage across it so it will not run into its wattage limit as easily or overheat as quickly.
I don't think pushing 15A through balance port is a good idea LOL! 4:54
Most chargers start the balance function as soon as you start the charge function, not when one of the cell reached 4.2V. If that's the case, then the charging process will take even longer than it should be. 7:06
Gotta love the regenerative discharge! Absolutely hate wasting power for nothing. Lead-acid battery is the most suitable kind for regenerative discharge because it's the best to keep lead-acid battery fully charged all the time. Great for emergency, field charging and most importantly, cheap!
Just saw that Acehe Li-Po, kinda wonder how good it performs? Kinda on the expensive side so I'm expecting good performance.
I would want some verification about the charger starting the balance function immediately. I guess it's easy enough to do if you have a clamp meter ... WHICH I DO!
Wow. You are correct! It starts pulling current from the balance leads as soon as charging begins. How about that!
Joshua Bardwell I can confirm this too with my fake B6 charger. Once I stopped charging halfway, it came out fully balanced.
Joshua Bardwell There are many balance settings you can select to adjust the balance current behavior. The default is to begin balancing at target voltage minus 0.2V, but you can adjust this anywhere from the full target voltage itself to target voltage minus 1V to always balancing.
I would be surprised if they do that as cells that are not very well matched can have varying voltages mid charge and when they get to full charge go back into balance. (edit Which would mean it would be making work for itself when the pack reached full charge.)
Honestly though once you have balanced a pack once on a charger it wont have to do barely anything each time you charge as healthy packs shouldn't go out of balance for no reason.
Joshua Bardwell An I charger shows which cells it is pulling power from to balance. In balance charge mode it immediately starts pulling power from the highest charge cell
Sold! Thanks! Used your link. Extra thanks!
Also this icharger x6 has an SD card and temperature probe input which no ISDT has, you could have mention it, I do only have ISDTs but also a few temperature probes from old imax chargers.
Same jog wheel that was on the true-D. It sucked on that product and it sucks on this charger. Maybe they will wise up and put 3 buttons on it. I can live with the interface for the price/performance but I'm very tempted to crack it open and mod some buttons in place of the jog.
Looks really great, JB! Fantastic! 😊
1:30.idst?
Where can I get one of those voltage measure units
The only thing I saw that the ISDT T8 doesn't do is the discharge with external load. Regardless, the control wheel is a deal breaker!
It also can't do regen discharge.
Joshua Bardwell You can plug the full battery in and use it to charge to discharged battery putting them both in storage mode in the process. Go into system settings and set the low voltage limit to 15.36v and you have essential set to input battery to be put in storage at 3.84 volts per cell, but unbalanced, just like the ISDT FD100 discharger. For batteries without bad cells this should be fine. So, if you had a 10000mah 8S battery to use for field charging all your 4S batteries, Set your input low voltage limit higher when 8S is the source in the field. Come home and change it to 15.36 and start putting your 4S batteries in storage pushing current into the 8S, or into any 4S that you flew that need to be charged.
Still can't beat the isdt interface in my humble opinion. The only feature this has that I would want, is the regenerative discharging. BUT, the isdt chargers, and others with DC input and adjustable min voltage, already do that. I just plug all my packs into a balance board, plug that into the power input on the charger, and then plug in my 6s 45ah lipo pack to be charged, and boom, drain my packs and charge my big storage battery. When the input voltage hits 15v they are done. It's not perfect, but it works very well regardless, and I do it often.
I use that junsi 4010 duo and I love it. ICharger is the best 👍
When you mentioned this Icharger could regeneratively discharge a battery by dumping into another battery pack(referred to as target pack). My question is while dumping into the target pack I didn't see any connections for balance leads. So how do you take the source battery pack and dump it into the target pack without protecting the target pack without balance leads on the target pack?
It just charges over the charge lead and fingers crossed the cells stay balanced.
Hey josh, another company who competes step for step with icharger is Revolectrix. They’re known for their powerlab chargers which are also crazy priced like most icharger’s but they introduced the “gt” series a year or two ago, that use the same charge software and accuracy, but don’t have all the pc logging software. They’re a desktop charger for sure, but I got my gt1000duo(1000watt per channel) charger for about 125$ on sale, they’re normally around 150ish but are on sale routinely. They have a 500watt single and duo, a 1000wAtt single and a 1200watt single currently I believe... your viewers may enjoy your honest review on another high end somewhat budget charger
That little jog button on the iCharger X6, they're actually very good when used correctly, I have 3 of those on the LCD remote for my (10 year old but still going strong) iRiver mp3 player and they allow me to operate it much easier than if there were 9 individual buttons, and without having to look at the screen.
I wish they had put a rubber surface on the iSTD Q6 scrollwheel, I keep clicking instead of scrolling because it needs pressure to get grip.
Having a hard time finding a proper cooling fan for an X6. Just recieved the second and of course it won't work and of course. No refunds. Anyone have a reliable source for a x6 fan?
Can you do a review on some of the HTRC chargers??? I want to know your opinion on the T240 Duo specifically. It looks like its got a neat interface. For a price of $75 on bangood, its definitely in the mix for multi-chargers if its got the same feature set, accuracy, and durability.
I have Ordered A lot of Great products from Progressive RC and have had nothing but Fast Shipping and some of the Best Customer Service from them.....
any news on vendors adding battgo to batteries? I would be willing pay a small amount per battery to be able to 1) program each battery the way I want to charge it, 2) Dump battery info to the computer, as I track cell resistance for battery health. 3) have the charger know what the absolution low voltage limit is for the input battery, regardless of number of cells when using a battery as a source. 4) track watts replaced vs starting/resting voltage when charging (to help calibrate current sensors on quads.
An one more idea based on the external load/resistor idea for discharge, I'l like to be able to hook my ISDT FD100 discharger to my T8 to help speed putting batteries in storage. That way I could use the T8 for all of them because it can either charge or discharge as necessary to get them to storage.
Battgo is going nowhere....
Spektrum has adopted the tech with re-branded isdt chargers
Sad, it would make charging at the correct current automatic, tracking battery health easy...
Wow that yellow battery? Isn't that acehe? Are you going to make a test of these?
Is that little light bulb an old 1157 car bulb..??
thanks for posting, never knew about half the stuff you mention , "today " I did learn some thing
Hey Joshua if I was to say to you I bought upgraded motors for an inductrix And they’re a very high KV with no props on they spin up smoothies with my remote throttle commands. When I put props on the motors are super delayed and it’s unflyable. I tried changing PID’s in motor separated from PWM speed I don’t know what else it could be if you please have an answer let me know ?
I don't know but if it were me I would put the old motors back.
4:25 lmfao.....reminded me why i subbed
Icharger hands down! Best quality for commercial available chargers
Hi tell my how many amps get that charger itself on discharging without any regen or resistor when is powered from AC power supply ?
Can you also do cycle chargers with an external load? That would be really useful to cycle in batteries without having to restart the process manually all the time. I use the isdt discharger at the moment to cycle charge my packs but of course I have to start the charging and discharging process manually all the time....
Chargers are finely starting to get competitive for years we were stuck with power to $$$
i got the isdt sc-620 for 64 bucks seems like a no brainer to me
I love my x6 its freaking awesome! The lipo recovery feature is great. Scroll wheel is a lil meh though. But all the other things make it totally worth it. I have a 2,4,8,&12 amps memory program setup on mine for parallel charging.
Can you use an external resistor's instead of another battery for discharging on the input connector ?
Is it worth saying at this point I've lost every isdt ive bought (5) and my icharger 10s duo has never missed a beat! I also love if you set input to 10v for like a battery it will slow the charge keeping the imput to 10v not just sag the battery to 10v and error out. Looking into this charger now. I like pocket chargers for on the go.
So what happens if I put say a brushed motor in place of the light bulb for the extra discharge feature would that work
Im looking for a dual battery charger that can charge at fast rate for when im on the field at events any recommendations?. Also a bang for the $$ not trying to spend lot ..i alot have a 24v 1800w power supply i built
or a touch screen? if a $60 AC/DC charger can have a full color lcd touch screen, why cant the ISDT and icharger?
I have a question what battery charger would you recommend for hybrid Prius cells for the modules individual cells need to be charged that go into the module packs so I need to charge those what would you suggest
Can you set it to charge LiFePO4 cells to 3,45 V? Manual says that it is not possible:
Chg Cell Volt: 3.85V/Cell-4.35V/Cell; Default: 4.2V/Cell
5:11 - damn, those beeps are going to get annoying. Also, the button to control the menus seems like a joke.
I like the accuracy and the discharge options though. I’m pretty happy with my Q6 but it can’t discharge properly
he keeps saying progressive RC, thats a store, the manufacturer is junsi in china. also the difference between normal fast and slow balance is in the parameters, it says fast is 8mv difference, normal is 5mv, slow is 3mv and than there is user defined. this video is sketchy on the details
ISDT Q6 vs ToolkitRC M8 - what is your take on these two chargers.. Do you prefer one over the other or just toss a coin?
The M8 has more features but the Q6 is way better built. But some people are getting "counterfeit" Q6 and they are shit quality. So ummm.... yeah.
@@JoshuaBardwell Thanks for your input, a ton of features doesn't interest me too much, primary use for me is to check a battery and to charge a battery, also to monitor the progress.. Simplicity and ease of use is also a plus.. I guess the next challenge is to make sure to stay away from a counterfeits.. Are there any other sub $50 chargers that you could recommend that I check out..
Hi Josh. Why is the ISDT T6 not so popular. I just ordered a T6 yesterday and today you launched this video. :(
Late to the party, looking at getting myself one, do you need a power supply to charge at the advertised 30 amps
You need a power supply, period. This charger works from DC input only.
So after a lot of deliberation, I finally bought one of these. I am flying large edf’s and wanted a compact charger and power supply combo since I will mostly be using it to charge 6s packs for this specific purpose. I also bought one of your 6s parallel boards (very nice btw). Got a 24v 400w 16.7A led power supply. I plan to charge four 6s 5200mah at 1.4C. I don’t have everything yet so I ran a test with two 4000 mah 6s at 3C. I set it to 24amps and it ran for about 5 seconds before shutting off. It won’t turn on except for make a few beeps and the screen backlight doesn’t work now. Did I make a newbie mistake or is it just a faulty charger??
Surely iCharger will stand behind their product. I would take it up with the retailer immediately.
Already sent an email to them. I know the power supply is lacking in terms of amps and watts. I just wanted to run a test and see where the amps were limited. I didn’t expect it to completely fail with the built in protections. I’m still learning. 🤔
I kinda like the isdt t8 , is the icharger any better???
I need to order a new charger and am undecided between icharger x6/x8 or the ISDT T8, disregarding the price, which one would be the better charger in terms of functionality, precision, reliability and ease of use?
X8 is the best charger and isdt q8 MAX but i think x8 is better but more expensive
Looks like a single channel of the Duo range repackaged. Is there a USB port for PC control / logging and firmware upgrading?
I love your I I charger insight. Nice video. Since your video I purchased one, but I need and 6s harness plug but this one was not shipped with one. Where can I find one. I hope I worded it correctly
What other charger can you add a resistor bank to? That's not as expensive? Can you add them to any charger?
No you can't add them to any charger. I can't thin of another one off the top of my head but I do know they exist.
@@JoshuaBardwell thanks
If you were buying today would you buy this, the isdt t8 or isdt sc-620?
T8
@@JoshuaBardwell thanks!
@@JoshuaBardwell I got the T8 and it's amazing! My only issue is it will only storage discharge at 1.2a. Quite disappointing. It takes like 2 hours to discharge a pack. I had it set at 5a, 20a, and 30a. Still 1.2. Any idea what's going on?
with ISDT Q6PRO I have several Lipo swelled now. When I used iCharger 206B was'nt the case. Probably a difference in quality of balancing? or ??? ( loading at max 0,5 C)
Would have been good if it was touch screen... Touch screens are so cheap these days I don't know why they would put a switch interface.
I need exactly this kind of charger, but I think I'm gonna buy ISDT T8 after all the things you said in this and other videos
You should look into the venom pro duo charger it’s a dual charger up to 6s and works beautifully. The instructions are horrible with it but I have the venom pro duo. Dual charger around $100
Thanks Joshua..great vlog
With this charger (x6) does it require the power supply if you're looking to use a lipo batter to power the device in the field? I used to have another icharger and the device needed server power supplies, and I have seen this thing (x6) in pictures with the power supply connected but I'm not sure if it's using a lipo or not.
I kinda wanna talk about why you charge your lipo's to 4.25v per cell....
So when i buy soldering stuff and fcs or vtx stuff if i click the link you get paid still ? I dont mind im new to flying drones and i got an rc Dwing but your videos are my favorite tutorials
As long as you click the affiliate link first.
Hi Joshua! First, THANKS for the great informative videos! The Junsi website shown in your description doesn't work. I'm trying to find out what the X6's maximum input amperage is for a 2s lipo. I would like to charge 2s lipos at 20amps while using a Motiv Power Brick 12v/60A/720W power supply. I'd hate to buy this charger to find out it's limited to 10a charging for a 2s. Can you kindly confirm? Thanks in advance!
Hey love your videos and everything you do for the hobby. What do you think of the ecube cq2 designed by e v Peak, it's four Channel only 50 watts per Channel at Max 6 amps per Channel I only charge at 1C maybe 2C at most anyway. And you can plug it into the wall or a power supply or car battery and AC accepts 110 voltage or 220 LOL it's kind of big and bulky but whatever I bought it like 3 years ago
It seems okay but it doesn't seem to be in stock anywhere. Is it discontinued?
How did you make that awesome wire-wound resistor?
I bought it :-)
Link in the video description.
I have one of those cheap battery checkers with a dual buzzer. It consistently reads 0.07V too high on cell 4. Good thing I have a 300 dollar volt meter for reference. Don't buy cheap stuff from amazon.
Hey Josh could you let its know what it comes with like a wall plug? It helps us noobs like me who know that you need a power supply to use these at home. Otherwise it's a really nice paper weight when you get it. Thanks again.
You should assume that all LiPo chargers need a DC power supply and do NOT plug in to the wall, unless specifically mentioned otherwise.
DONT PLUG INTO WALL.. car battery 12v is fine or big lipo packs or a DC power supply.
What I meant was some chargers come with AC to DC wall plugs (the ones with the large brick). Where you don't have to go out and buy or make a converter.
@Jashua Bradwell. How many Ohms for the 200watt power resistor for 3s to 6s lipo on this charger/discharger? Thanks and have a great year!
Mine is about 2-3 ohms if memory serves. Do the math...
16.8 volts / 2 ohms = X amps
X amps * 16.8 volts = Y watts
If Y < the power rating of the resistor you're golden.
Repeat the numbers with different voltage for 6S if necessary.
When discharging energy with the wirebound resistor, where does that energy go? Is it heat?
Same for the frame of a car or the rebars of a house, i have never been able to figure it out.
Heat yes.
Has anyone ever used an adapter to use drill batteries as power supply I have a new Milwaukee m18 12 amp battery with 218 watt hours that should be able to change a good and the have a 3 year warranty
The charger doesn't care about the source of the power so you definitely could do this. But I think your estimate of 400 amp-hours is waaaaaaaaaaayyyyy too high. A little googling suggests to me that the M18 packs are between 1.5 and 12.0 Ah at 18 volts, with the most common size being 3.0 Ah.
This gives 216 Watt-hours for the largest (12.0 Ah) pack. By my calculations this should recharge at most 10 1300 mAh 4S packs. The 3.0 Ah M18 pack would recharge about two 4S 1300 mAh packs.
For perspective, a giant 90-lb deep cycle marine battery might be close to 200 Ah.
Joshua Bardwell I messed up but I have 1 12a a 6a and three 9amp Milwaukee batteries that would do a lot of field charging
Joshua a very nice Charger! I just like this! I hope to get one off this.
I've never discharged a battery, should I be doing this, even if I can use it within a couple days?
Don't discharge. Put it in storage (3.8 volts-ish) if need be. I leave them charged for a few days at most then put them in storage if I'm not going to fly them.
Thanks Joshua!
can you do a video on how to calibrate a few charges?
Yes.
ua-cam.com/video/L5gAohxwOxU/v-deo.html
Hello I’m new to the hobby and I’m having trouble with death rolls and or motor twitching and don’t know what the cause could be but there is a short from ground to the shaft of the twitchy motor and not for my others so is there any way I can fix that and could that be the cause
Motor screws too long and touching windings? Back the out a turn and see if it fixes it. Motor may be permanently damaged.
Joshua Bardwell ok thank you love your content
Are you going to test the acehe lipos soon?
I need a bardwell bobble head for my fpv flight vids and I can't find one I would by one if it would fit on my quad c'mon Joshua
Hi! What is the size of the power plug? XT 60? or XT 90?
XT60
Does it offer accurate IR measurement like other ichargers? If it does It might be my next charger.
Of course!
Would this charge my tattu 25000mha 10c lipo? Having a hard time finding something I can afford.
Assuming it's 6S lipo or less yes.
@@JoshuaBardwell it is a 6s, do I just solder banana clips on and hook it to my truck battery to power it?
You need a DC power supply. You could in theory run it off your truck battery, but I would recommend idling the truck to be sure you don't kill the truck battery. Better to buy a DC power supply that plugs into the wall.
@@JoshuaBardwell could you recommend a DC power supply? I think i would only need a 12 volt im only trying to charge at 10 amps after a fishing trip is done to be ready for the next morning. For you helping me i can use your promotion code when I order one to help you out for taking time to help me.
JB or anyone else, where is the KMoon voltage reference from?
ua-cam.com/video/L5gAohxwOxU/v-deo.html
I'm looking to replace my old charger but I need something AC compatible. Either using a converter on the power cord or have an all in one like my old imax b6ac. Ideas?
ua-cam.com/video/c7iaDd2WTLc/v-deo.html
Dear Joshua. The discharging is quite eloquent. However I am more concerned with getting my batteries charged quickly. Daylight int Netherlands at afterwork hours is very limited. It would be ever so great if all charger manufacturers would stop producing chargers with this awfull balancing method and start making them with balancing through the balance-leads. I have one that doe this experimentally from a chinese site but it is not very reliable. I would love to see more production models. It speeds up charging so incredibly much that it would take a simplem 20C pack about 40% less time to charge. This means 15 to 20 mins at most on average in stead of more than an hour to balance up to the last millivolt.
This balance method can be quite fast you just need to get a charger with a high balancing current. Some have balance current over 1 amp, which can finish balancing quite quickly.
T8 can run of 12v? My T6 lite has recked two 12v power supplies when charging 6s batteries at even less than 10 amps...go figure
They can all run off 12v.
How do I know how fast I can charge a lipo? Cause there is no information to find about it. (GNB 550mah 3s)
1C charge rate is safest. For 550 mAh use 0. 55 amps.
do this require a power supply or safe to charge/discharge 2s HV lipos for 1/10 buggy without it?
It requires power supply.
I have not a clue, need a charger too x