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eFuel Power for the Hyperion 720iDuo3

Discussion in 'CineStar FAQ - Tips and Tricks' started by Gary Haynes, Feb 14, 2013.

  1. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    So with the larger 9000-11000 packs that are starting to show up on the market and after reading the notes from Josh I took the plunge and bought the eFuel 1200 power supply from QC.

    Got it last week and what a difference in charging. I was using the PRC500 which was only 500w. The Hyperion can output 20 amps on each of the two channels. So with the PRC I was only getting about 1/2 of the capability of the Hyperion.

    With the eFuel I can now charge each channel at 20 amps. Example QC6200 you could charge at 3.22C rate which would lower your charging time.

    At the same time I took the plunge and bought a pair of parallel boards from ProgressiveRC. With the Para boards I can plug in 2, 9000mah packs on one channel, and they charge and balance together at 20amps, so a little over a 1C rate. And I can do the same thing or a different set of packs on the other channel.

    The only thing I've read is that you want to charge similar batteries together. So no mixing of 3S or 4S and the packs should ideally be the same size.

    Here's the eFuel and also a shot of the ParaBoards eFuel Power.png
    eFuel.jpg
     
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  2. Jim Swanson

    Jim Swanson Member

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    Yes Gary, good call on the E-Fuel. I have the same Hyperion 720 plus an older 620 series and can charge four lipos at once on the E-Fuel. Unfortunately, the other E-Fuel outputs can only support 10amps each (from memory) so you can't do more than 1c, but it works great on all the other "little lipos" needed to run the hexa, downlinks, etc.
    I'm a big fan, especially when juggling 20 lipos.
    Also, I recently bought a Deep Cycle Marine battery for field charging. I can hook the Hyperion 720 up to that and charge another 4-8 lipos on location.
     
  3. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Jim, how does one charge a Marine battery?
     
  4. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    Steve, put it in a really big boat like the Carnival Triumph.

    Oh, that might not work if the engines don't run. :eek:

    Really, just buy a good charger like something from Schumacher. Preferably a 24 volt marine batter/charger combo so that you can get the max into the Hyperion.
     
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  5. Jim Swanson

    Jim Swanson Member

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    What he said.:)
    I was going to buy a Honda Generator for $1000 or more Lipos at $175 a pop. Marine Deep Cycle battery was $108 plus a $65 charger. I put the Marine Battery outside the car, set the Hyperion to 2c or so and within 40 minutes-give or take-I have two fresh ones. 10 lipos can become 14 pretty quickly.
     
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  6. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    Gary

    I just bought the E fuel power suppl and I was looking at the ProgressiveRC board which looks really cool. Do you know what adapter cable I should buy from the options on the website? At this time I only plan to use the board to charge 4C Quadropower batteries. It says on their web site "If you don't see your charger listed, select the iCharger 106B/206B/306B option and connect through the 6S slot of a JST-XH balance board." Won't the Hyperion charger think you are charging 6S batteries if you do this? I just want to make sure I'm buying the right stuff. Great find by the way.
     
  7. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    That is the correct one. Hyperion cable plugs into the Hyperion JST-XH board. The Paraboard plugs into the 6S slot on the Hyperion JST-XH board. No it doesn't think you have 6S batteries. You only have 5 wires (4+ground) coming out of the battery.

    Works great with the eFuel. Make sure you set the charging amp on that channel to 20amps on the Hyperion, not the typical 1C or 2C rate if you are charging multiple batteries
     
  8. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    OK, thanks. I ordered it with the iCharger 106B/206B/306B option.
     
  9. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    Gary what about balancing batteries? I would assume that the only way to truly balance two batteries would be to have only one battery on each channel? Since I always fly with two batteries in parallel I just wanted to throw that question out there.
     
  10. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    Dave, with the paraboard, if you only have 2 batteries I would charge them on a single board. So if you bought 2 boards, one for each side of the duo, you could charge 2 pairs, a set on each side of the Duo. The paraboard balances all batteries that are connected.
     
  11. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    I've been doing it this way for the last few months, and all my batteries are still nicely balanced.
    Me, less so. :confused:
     
  12. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    Steve you may still be looking for your missing quad copter :rolleyes:
     
  13. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    So if I want to balance a specific pair I leave them on the same board huh? I guess there's no need to run the duo in sync mode then. That's good to know. Thanks.
     
  14. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    Correct, no sync mode required.
     
  15. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    Thanks man!!
     
  16. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    Gary I just got my boards in the mail. I tested them and they are working nice. One question since this is a parallel board and current in a parallel circuit add, I assume that when you want to charge 2 batteries on the board at the same time you would need to double the charging current in the battery setup in the Super duo 3 charger? I normally charge my batteries at 2 amps, so I assume that I would need to change the settings in the memory model to charge at 4 amps? Also how close to the batterey voltages need to be on the board? Just wanted to make sure because you know what they say about assumptions.
     
  17. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    Dave most batteries these days in my opinion are good to charge at multiple C rates. The Hyperion default is a max of 2C so on a FF9000 it would be 18amps for a single battery. I run both sides at 20 amps the max for the Hyperion.

    If you are only going to charge at 2 amps then it would make sense that you would set the 720 for 2a for 1 bat, 4a for 2 etc.
     
  18. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Dave: You might also want to check out Hyperion's Tutorial on parallel charging: http://media.hyperion.hk/dn/g3lipo/lgum6p.htm

    The most curious thing is that I would have thought that you need to set the Capacity parameter on the charger to reflect the total capacity of the combined batteries you're charging. For example charging four QC8000 presents a "capacity" to the charger of 4 x 8000. But the tutorial says:

    (1) Hyperion EOS chargers have a capacity setting for each Lipo pack you charge. However, in the case of Lipo this setting does not actually affect the charge itself, and is mainly there as a safety measure of last resort. As such, it is not critical that the capacity setting closely match your micro battery capacity (the safety timer function provides the same kind of protection). Set capacity to the closest setting rounding UP. For example, for a pack of 100mAh or LESS, set capacity to 100mAh. For packs between 110mAh and 200mAh, set capacity at 200mAh.​

    So the real message is, nah, don't bother. Just have the capacity set to capacity of a single battery.

    Makes you wonder why we bother to set the Capacity parameter in the first place....

    Andy.
     
  19. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    Capacity? I have enough to blow up my house now!! I have two Duo 3 chargers, the regular charger, E fuel power supply, 4 parallel boards, a deep cycle battery for the field and 8 sets of batteries (a set includes 2 QC 6200 batteries). Heck I have a Pelican 1610 just for the lipos. Looks like I'm going to start doing some serious charging.
     
  20. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    I know where to go if my Tesla runs low in your neighborhood (if I ever get a Tesla).
     
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