A better charger for your RC car Batteries

RC car technology has changed a lot over the years and one of the biggest changes have been batteries. I started with Sanyo SCRC NiCd pack, left the hobby before NiMH came out and came back when LiPo was full swing. Along with brushless power systems, LiPo batteries have revolutionised all RC vehicles - more burst power, higher energy density and multiple cell options. LiPo batteries need a lot of care, more than than a set of nichrome wires that hook your battery pack directly to a car battery anyway. The technology you need to properly charge and care for Lipo (and LiIon batteries) is a balance charger which allows the charger to charge each individual cell at a time rather than all together in series. This is important to not only extend the life and performance of your battery but to minimise the risk of the Lipo pack causing damage to your surroundings.

The right tool for the job
Like everything else to do with RC Cars, LiPo balance chargers are available in any number of models with different features, different interfaces and different quality levels. However unlike, motors, wheels, servos, escs and any other RC car parts they don't wear out and typically the charger you use will be with you for a long time so it is definitely worth having one that does the job properly. With that said you don't need to spend a lot to get a good charger that you can trust with your safety and life of batteries. This is in contrast to charger that come with RTR RC Car kits which at best are inaccurate and at worst are downright dangerous.

This is the charger that comes with the WL Toys 144001. I don't trust it to charge my lipo battery correctly nor do I trust plugging it into any of my USB ports! Previously when charging and checking voltages with a multimeter it has overcharged my Lipo. This will shorten battery life and is dangerous to boot

The chargers I recommend are ISDT, these have been the gold standard for quadcopters (where we typically parallel charge multiple 6s packs) for the past 3 years. They have the best quality and user interface in the game hands down. So much so that I have seen that spectrum are using ISDT chargers under their own brand. Below are 3 models the I believe represent the most cost effective options in each bracket. All use XT60 discharge connectors by default. My recommendation is to switch to XT60 for all your batteries but if not it is easy to get adaptors like this premade $2 xt60 to deans t-plug converter

ISDT Q6 Nano BattGo 200W 8A Pocket Battery Balance Charger for 1-6S Lipo

You'll need an old laptop power supply if you want to run of AC but this $30 ISDT option and even includes the new BattGo smart battery tech.

​ISDT 608AC AC 60W DC 200W 8A BattGo Smart Battery Charger Discharger with Detachable Power Supply

Full review is here. This is simply the most versatile charger about with modular, removable AC to DC adaptor and costs about $50-$60. This is my personal recommendation - I would use day to day if I didn't already have the D2 model. Includes BattGo smart battery tech

​ISDT D2 200W 24A AC Dual Channel Output Smart Battery Balance Charger

This is essentially two high powered chargers side by side - each channel works independently in a compact package and costs about $120. Charge at up to 12A per channel! I have personally been using this charger at home daily for the last 2 years. It is a lot of money but is certainly one of my prized possessions

You'll need to plug in your battery and the balance lead. 6s shown here

Multiple functions to choose from here. Including.... DESTROY!

Know your battery
As well as giving you more charging options, any of the above chargers will immediately give you the current voltage of each cell in the pack. This information is absolutely critical and you can tell a lot from it:

• If you have overdischarged you pack (below 3.5v per cell) you may wish to increase your ESC's LVC or get a basic low voltage buzzer if you can't. Like this Battery Voltage Meter Tester Battery Monitor Buzzer Alarm
• If there is more than 0.1-0.2v difference in voltage between cells your battery may be at the end of it's life
• If you don't plan on using your battery for a period of time you'll want to keep the voltage between 3.7v and 3.9v per cell

Also when charging you can get feedback on the internal resistance of you battery cells. This measure is the second-most important metric on the quality of a pack - the higher the number the worse the pack. This however dependent on overall capacity. Quality lipos with high c-ratings tend to have very low internal resistance

Individual cell voltage is the most useful information for your batteries

All of the ISDT charger are able to storage charge your battery automatically

The internal resistance is a very good measure of battery health

That's it for this article, my goal was to show that it doesn't cost a lot to get a good charger and they shouldn't be hard to use (looking at you SKYRC Imax B6)

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