what power supply do i use for a lipo charger and where do i get one?

[Abba]

Hi flyers, back again with another question.

so i want to buy this lipo charger: iSDT SC-620 500W 20A MINI Smart LCD Battery Balance Charger
Link: https://www.banggood.com/ISDT-SC-62...y-Balance-Charger-p-1060646.html?rmmds=search

as far as i know most lipo chargers do not come with their own power supply. Im not too sure what kind of power supply i would need and where to get one.. The closest 500w power supply i could find are computer power supplies. looking at the specs they can technically provide the current/wattage needed, but is this a dumb idea?

If its possible to use a 12V rail from a computer psu, can i just cut off the connector and solder in an xt60 to it?

Thanks

 

[mikeporterinmd]

Sure, you can use a computer power supply.

That charger puts out quite a bit of current (20 amps), so you need to watch your wire size. A typical computer power supply might put out 20 amps, but it probably won't be designed to do so with all 20 amps on one output wire. You need to solder them all together, and then use a 12 gauge wire from the bundle to the XT-60. Don't forget to connect positives together and negatives.

My 500 watt power supply has two 12V rails with 15 amps and 18 amps on each of the rails. I would not combine rails, so I would be limited to 18 amps output into a single charger.

Why do you want such a powerful charger? Are you charging really large batteries with a high S count? I have 4 5amp chargers and
two 10 amp chargers. I have them balanced across the two rails of my computer power supply. I don't recall ever charging over
5 amps. I could probably charge my 3000mah 3S battery at 6amps (I often charge at 2C, but most people do 1C).

Mike

 

[RichardEllis]

If you have a old xbox 360 power supply laying around you can cut off the end and solder/heat shrink a barrel plug connector on it to save money and its unique. Thats what I did, I always like hacking up and reusing whatever I have laying around. I use the cheap Hobbyking ECO SIX that ive had for about 5 years now and it has been running strong.

 

[TazRC]

Laptop power supplies are common too, unless you plan on parallel charging lots of big batteries.

 

[Hai-Lee]

The possible sources of a suitable 12 volt supply/source are far too many to list here but anything that can supply 12V 2 or more Amps would suffice.

Just a little side tracked suggestion. You could use an old "Trickle/Fast" Battery charger as found in most home garages. Buy a SLA battery for the charger to charge and you have a high current source at 12 volts that you can carry to the flying field and charge batteries. Good for those marathon sessions and the model flying road trips.

Have fun!

 

[ElectriSean]

To get the full 500W charging ability you will need a power supply able to supply in excess of 40A at 12V. If you use a 24V power supply you will only need 20-25A. I doubt you'll need that much power unless you have really big 6S batteries, but it is something to be aware of as you will easily melt a smaller unit. Computer power supplies are commonly used to run chargers like this.

 

[tamuct01]

I built a charging box with two computer power supplies from Dell 2950s that were headed for the trash bin and a Harbor Freight box. I took one PS apart and floated the ground to get 2 supplies at 12V or a combined 24V with both. This is way overkill for the 300W Turnigy and 50W Electrify chargers I presently have, but it should future-proof me for a while.

You can generally find the pinouts for most computer/server power supplies with a quick Google search. I mapped the pins on these for power on and fan low/high speeds.

 

[Try-n-glide]

If you have a old xbox 360 power supply laying around you can cut off the end and solder/heat shrink a barrel plug connector on it to save money and its unique. Thats what I did, I always like hacking up and reusing whatever I have laying around. I use the cheap Hobbyking ECO SIX that ive had for about 5 years now and it has been running strong.

<-----

This is what I did. There must be PILES of old XBOX 360's with the "RROD" (red ring of death) failure that are no longer used, but have perfectly good functioning power supplies. They look pretty nice, are super simple to convert (youtube it), and work great.

IIRC it is 200W, so it isn't super powerful, but easily enough to run a couple 3S chargers at 1C or a little more.

 

[Abba]

Hey guys im back! i eventually settled on a 500w power supply off of amazon i believe its for lots of LED or something. I got the 24V version instead of the 12V because of the amperage. I would rather preffer to use a smaller gauge wall power cord because they are cheaper and much easier to come across. The one that i ordered was 24V and 21A i think?
The reason i wanted to get such a high power charger is for my new Turnigy Graphene batteries. I want to be able to parallel charge them at over 1C.

To my recent understanding, i hear that they are theoretically capable of charging at 15C each. So it would be nice to be able to push a moderate amount of amps when im in a rush to charge them. I probably wont be charging at 15C because that is just ludicrous. But it would be nice to have a charger that can supply enough wattage or current to charge 6 parallel batteries at like 2-3C or even 5-7C (carefully supervised ofc) when in a rush. ill make an update when i get the supplies from the mail. Wish me luck thanks!

 

[Hai-Lee]

Just a note of caution! Never try to fast charge a hot battery. I always manage the starting temperature of my batteries by refrigerating them first and watching the temp whilst charging. If the battery starts to get warm I cease charging and return to refrigerator.

Temperature management is the key to long battery life!

Have fun!

 

[Abba]

Will do thanks. Ive never had a battery warmer than room temp before, idk where all these people with these hot batteries are coming from lol. But will definitely keep an eye especially at higher amperage.