For those of you who are picky about your batteries...

I stumbled across this little gem on DX and it looks useful...

iMAX B6 2.5" LCD RC Lipo Battery Balance Charger (100~240V/US Plug) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I'm looking into getting one of these chargers.

A review here states that it's an okay charger except the voltages might be off by +/- 0.03V.

I'm comparing DX's version here and ebay's cheap one here, and they look identical to me. There seems to be a genuine one and a copy, and I'm not sure if the ebay's is genuine. Has anyone personally tried this charger out? How is it?

Hopefully I don't blow up any of my lithium ion batteries.

Cheers! :beer:

20$ ? Seems like a fake.

Aurelienbis said:

20$ ? Seems like a fake.

Click to expand...

Again you have no clue....
Try reading the specs and the Front Panel Labels...

They are both the same iMAX B6 Li-Po balance chargers.
We have a few of them in the shop to charge our R/C
batteries.


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

The question I'm asking is whether the two iMAX B6's are identical.

Yeah, I guess I'll take the chance and buy the ebay version.

I'll write up a review of it once it arrives.

Thanks for your inputs everyone!

Cheers! :beer:

I bought one off eBay and another from an RC supplier...
They both looked the same with the same labeling.

They both charge my RC Li-Po batteries in the same way
and the Firmware works the same on both chargers.

The only difference I found was the boot up Splash
Screen on the LCD when first applying power to the
B6 chargers.


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

lasersbee said:

I bought one off eBay and another from an RC supplier...
They both looked the same with the same labeling.

They both charge my RC Li-Po batteries in the same way
and the Firmware works the same on both chargers.

The only difference I found was the boot up Splash
Screen on the LCD when first applying power to the
B6 chargers.

Jerry

Click to expand...

Thanks for the spot-on reply.

Did they both have a hologram genuine sticker? Also, were the voltage readings accurate? I hope they don't overcharge the cells. :yh:

Thanks mate! +1 for you!
Edit: Sorry, doesn't let me do it.

None of my 4 different chargers has a "genuine" sticker.
I've been using these "knock off" chargers for over 2
years and have never had a problem with my Li-Po
batteries.

I guess if you are not worried about the money you could
buy the "genuine" B6..


Jerry


You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

If you constantly push your LiPo sacks to the limit with your charging and sidcharging currents, go with the more accurate genuine. If you just need something that will charge them, I don't see too much harm in going with the knock-off. It can't be as bad as the notorious DSD charger... That thing didn't even have a charging mcu, but rather, a hacky retasking of a cell protection circuit to drive a transistor to charge the cell with CV :tsk:

I have one of these Dynam Supermate DC6 DC Multi Function Balance Charger/Discharger 1-6 cell Lilo/LiPo/LiFe, 1 to 15 cells NiCd NiMH

It works great. And it ships from the US.

lasersbee said:

None of my 4 different chargers has a "genuine" sticker.
I've been using these "knock off" chargers for over 2
years and have never had a problem with my Li-Po
batteries.

I guess if you are not worried about the money you could
buy the "genuine" B6..

Jerry

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply!
Nah, I buy the cheapest things when I can.

BShanahan14rulz said:

If you constantly push your LiPo sacks to the limit with your charging and sidcharging currents, go with the more accurate genuine. If you just need something that will charge them, I don't see too much harm in going with the knock-off. It can't be as bad as the notorious DSD charger... That thing didn't even have a charging mcu, but rather, a hacky retasking of a cell protection circuit to drive a transistor to charge the cell with CV :tsk:

Click to expand...

I have something very similar to the DSD charger. It's the charger that came with my flashlight set, and it overcharges my cells to 4.23V, which is very annoying. I'm trying to get a better one to have more control over the battery, such as charging current and cutoff voltage.

Jacob32123 said:

I have one of these Dynam Supermate DC6 DC Multi Function Balance Charger/Discharger 1-6 cell Lilo/LiPo/LiFe, 1 to 15 cells NiCd NiMH

It works great. And it ships from the US.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll check that out.

Thanks for your replies, and +1 to all of you whenever I can. : )

Cheers! :beer:

Regarding that video -

I'm a big fan of spending more money to gain quality.... but there's a catch: that only applies when the quality gained is meaningful. A Lexus is higher quality than a Toyota, but if I just cared about having a car that could get me to work, then the quality gained by spending more money on a Lexus wouldn't be meaningful to me. I'm the same way with electronics.

Some people will frame the decision to buy a less expensive "knock off" doohickey as a evidencing a "cheap personality". I've never understood this. Are you a cheaper person if you own 3 small homes in different cities, instead of a big house in just one? At the end of the day, if you save $20 on some particular piece of hobby gear, you're probably just spending it on another hobby gizmo instead. That's not "penny pinching", that's just "alternate penny distribution".

I'm a big fan of assessing decisions based on logic, rather than on emotion or rhetoric. Ask yourself what qualities you need in a particular item, and then assess what you need to spend to get it. If you need a rock solid charger that will give you as close to bulletproof performance and safety as can be achieved in a consumer product, with life-long durability, then maybe you should spend $40 on the original item with its "scratch away validation numbers" and the "online system" for registering and verifying your unique code of authenticity. If you need a charger that will be moderately reliable and charge cells for you in a non-mission critical setting, then maybe the $20 clone is okay.

With the exception of the missing reverse polarity feature, nothing about what that fellow in the video showed us would have been a deal killer for me. I don't care if it uses a different IC package than the original, if it works. I would care about whether it thing does what I need it to do.

Thanks for your input.

The only reason why I'm trying to get the cheaper knock-off version is that for me, $$ isn't unlimited, and I want to, as you have stated, maximize my use of it.

In this case, I want to get a mediocre charger that'll do everything a genuine one does, while I can get something else for the 20 bucks I save. It might not be as accurate, but hey, if it gets the job done, why not? : )

Cheers! :beer:

Yup, sometimes the only difference in price/brand is that one is (supposedly) certified to a certain quality level, whereas the other you have to certify it yourself. Sometimes they're made by the same company even.

I have ordered one for myself. If you are looking good you can find the same charger for less than $20 shipped. Measuring the mAh of the li-ion is a good feature even if it is somewhat off reading. The error seems constant during all measurement. I can compare it to a known cell like a Sanyo 2400mAh.