Hi Guys,

I would seriously like to recommend an amazing field charger - iCharger 106B+
(http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6792)

I have been into aeromodelling for more than 4 years now. I have used field chargers from Imax, to Hot Charger, HK, Turnigy etc. This is a serious charger. Icharger has been developed by Junsi. (China). They are the original manufacturers of this charger. (No cloning). They have an indegenous team that works on the programming and development of the firmware and the hard coding.

You will see that this is a precision charger and it is WORLD FAMOUS for its accurate and precise balancing. I know some people will say, how does it matter if the cell voltage is 4.18 instead of 4.20v. But to me it does. I like to have my cells balanced at 4.200 v (not a single 100th of a volt less or more). Thats me... sorry.  

I had ordered this charger from HK a few days ago and I am very pleased with the look and feel and the features it has.
One of the best features I found was the "Regerative Discharge". The charger will actually charge the SOURCE BATTERY while discharging your model's battery. Its like, taking the energy from your lipo and rather than wasting it across a resistor, putting it back into your car battery. So while you will be discharging your TARGET battery, you will be actually charging your SOURCE battery. (i know nobody discharges their batteries on the field  )

There are a whole lot of other features that are built into this charger which you may not find in other chargers. There is also a thread on RC groups which talks about the recent firmware developments and other enhancements.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=839657

I found that I could even calibrate the balance port of the charger along with the temperature apart from calibrating the output voltage. (unlike regular 50W chargers which allow you to calibrate only the output but not the balance port)

The whole charger is quite small as compared to its charging capacity of 250W

Those who are interested may have a look at the features listed in the manual. (link below)
http://www.hillrc.com/UploadFiles/iC106B+_en.pdf

Some technical features of this charger: See attachment


Cheers !!!
Saurabh.

Multiple people have spoken highly of this charger before.  It is a bit steep on the pockets, I guess you get what you pay for.

absolutely Anwar...

I am really impressed with this charger. It is available to regular/new members of HK at a price of $119.95 + shipping

For platinum customers, it is availabe for $98.00 + shipping.

Quote from: saurabhhsrivastavaa on June 04, 2010, 04:41:29 PM
I know some people will say, how does it matter if the cell voltage is 4.18 instead of 4.20v. But to me it does. I like to have my cells balanced at 4.200 v (not a single 100th of a volt less or more). Thats me... sorry. 

With a claimed balance accuracy of +/- 10mV your individual cells could be anywhere between 4.19 and 4.21 V!

Keep worrying!

Sorry, that's me too!

Quote from: sushil_anand on June 04, 2010, 05:22:00 PM
With a claimed balance accuracy of +/- 10mV your individual cells could be anywhere between 4.19 and 4.21 V!

Keep worrying!

Sorry, that's me too!

I was expecting you to pitch in  
i guess 10mv should not matter... thats true !!!

btw, are we flying this Sunday at Airoli ? :d

Nice review

This charger has some unique features, no wonder it costs more than the others.

Thanks Anwar.  M glad you liked it ...

A little disappointed that it only ships with an "alligator clip" cable on the battery side   So the first thing people have to do is whip out the soldering iron and change connectors ? Should have shipped out with a deans or something !

You are correct. It ships with only the crocodile clips on the output side. however, one can order the multi plug cable for charging along with the charger.

I ordered the 6 parallel charging board. it works like charm, but I still have to solder an XT60. But doable. I still would have to rip off the dean and solder an xt 60 if deans were provided and otherway to many if xt60 was provided. So they gave it w/o anything i guess

Surely need to try this one..

Quote from: saurabhhsrivastavaa on January 26, 2011, 12:04:03 PM
however, one can order the multi plug cable for charging along with the charger.

Well i see a potential problem,what if you accidentally touch the bare connectors to a metal surface of the charger or power supply.

The connectors have caps, and one still needs to be careful though! Flying itself is more riskier/costlier than using a mulitplug  There are 1000s using them safely. Its better tape the ones that we least use.

agree with Vinay

Quote from: anwar on January 26, 2011, 08:46:39 AM
A little disappointed that it only ships with an "alligator clip" cable on the battery side  So the first thing people have to do is whip out the soldering iron and change connectors ? Should have shipped out with a deans or something !

With my iCharger 206B+ on the way I face similar blue. My not-so-accurate Thunder B6AC+ charger at lease came with:

1. Banana (with pluggable Aligator) - DC Pin (Power In)
2. Banana - Dean (Main O/P Lead)
3. Deans - JST
4. Deans - Futaba Servo
5. Deans - Glow Igniter charge lead
6. Deans - few more.
7. Temp + USB cables.

Usually the better rated chargers like  Hyperion , Bantam, iCharger etc are too snobbish  to give even the basic out put lead, forget the utility one. I have to build these connector myself I guess.