What battery and charger should I get?

[Charles Leng-uch]

What battery and charger should I get? I'm making my first plane the FT flyer and I'm wondering what battery and charger I should get. Here is my list so far if you need it (tell me if I'm missing something)

Air Frame + Power Pack B (FT): 3 PACK SWAPPABLE SPEED BUILD KIT
Transmitter + Reciever: FlySky FS-i6 2.4G 6CH AFHDS
Battery: ?
Battery Charger: ?
Trainer Disc (FT):TRAINER LIMITER DISCS

 

[mjmccarron]

I have successfully built and flow this design with a 24g (blue wonder) motor and up to a 1300mAh 3S pack. The spec recommends a 500mAh 2S or 3S battery. Staying with the smaller pack will give you lighter wing loading and a slower flight. Given that, Id recommend a 3S, 500mAh pack like this http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__14971__Turnigy_500mAh_3S_20C_Lipo_Pack_US_Warehouse_.html As for the charger, If you plan to stay in the hobby you should buy the best one you can afford. That will leave you room to grow.

Good Luck!
Mike

 

[rockyboy]

I started with parts very similar to yours, and made my first charger this little $5 piece:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=58556

And a year later I do have a much nicer charger in my box - but I still use this little cheap-o $5 charger sometimes in addition to my nice one (for instance I'll have a couple 3 cells working on my nice charger, so I'll top off a 2 cell on the little one), so it wasn't a wasted purchase at all.

Make sure you get a battery tester too - again, something less than $10 will serve you well for quite a while, and when you do move up to something that measures internal resistance and things like that, you will still find uses for the simple one. I end up putting my nice one near my charging station and the cheap one stays with me on the flight line.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...tal_Battery_Health_Checker_AR_Warehouse_.html

 

[Charles Leng-uch]

ok thanks guys, helped lots

 

[pressalltheknobs]

Get a lipo storage/charge bag. Make sure you understand lipo safety. It's not hard but you can burn you house down if you don't. This is a fun video..

http://flitetest.com/articles/lipo-battery-bunker

 

[Charles Leng-uch]

yeah, I've been a bit scared of that and I definitely don't want to burn down my house. Also how do I balance my batteries?

 

[pressalltheknobs]

yeah, I've been a bit scared of that and I definitely don't want to burn down my house. Also how do I balance my batteries?

Just pay attentions and treat them with respect. Then, if you have a fire, which is unlikely, it will happen in a safe place.

As to balancing, a balance port only charger like this

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=58556

does it automatically. You use the balance port to charge the battery so there's no choice. The advantages are they are fairly foolproof and they are cheap. The disadvantage is there are slow, can only charge a limited selection of batteries and they can't deal with problem batteries.

So call "computer" or "4 button chargers" like this

https://store.flitetest.com/imax-b6ac-pro-battery-charger/

have to configured to the correct settings for the battery you want to charge so you need to understand what you are doing. They can charge through the balance port and main leads at the same time and allow you to set the charge current (charge rate) so they can charge much faster. There is a setting for balance charging that you should always use since it checks the battery has the number of cells you say it does. The advantages are they can charge much faster and they give you the tools to fix problem batteries and they can charge batteries of different chemistries. The disadvantage is that they are much more complex to set up - you have to be careful to select the right chemistry, cell count and charge rate. Most lipo fires probably happen as a consequence of not setting the charger up correctly.

The other point about chargers is that some have AC power supplies built in so you can use then either from a wall plug or an external 12v source. But many are 12V only an require an external power supply.

If you have a tight budget a balance port only charger will get you going giving you a bit more time to research better chargers so it's not a bad place to start, bearing in mind that they are not the greatest. You still have to observe lipo safety because they can go wrong but there is less to learn initially.

 

[Burly]

Get this one...built like a tank...
http://www.hobbypartz.com/thac6smbachw.html

Plugs into the wall so you don't need a separate power supply.
If you spend another $1.06 on something, your order will be over $50.00...so you'll get free shipping.