The Integy 16x405D2 is a Charge/Discharge/Cycle unit for NiCD & NiMH Battery Packs and is manufactured by Eagle Racing. Tower Hobbies sells this model for $128.99. It's AC/DC so you don't need an external power supply and a temperature sensor is included. Specifications LCD…………………………………….2x16 character indigo blue backlit LCD Input Voltage…………………….DC input 11.5-14.5V & AC input 100-120V Charge Current………………….0.1-5.0A, 0.1A steps Discharge Current……………..0.1-10.0A, 0.1A steps Discharge Cutoff Voltage….0.1-16.8v, .01v steps Voltage Threshold……………..3-25mV/cell, 1mV/cell steps Smart Trickle…………………….5% of charge current Battery Cell………………………..1-10 cell Cell Capacity....................50-6000mAh Buzzer………………………………..Start/Error/Peak Buttons………………………………Membrane Switch Cycling……………………………….1-3 times Battery Type……………………..NiMh & NiCd Selectable Cutoff Temp…….10-65 °C, 1 °C steps Overview The first thing I noticed besides the flashy box was that it had a factory seal. The two previous chargers I owned (mrc 959 and Duratrax Intellipeak) did not have a factory seal on the box. Once the box was open I was delighted to find that the AC power cable was detachable like on a computer. Very nice. The power cable is also quite long at 6ft, which is nice because I don’t need an extension cord to use it on my workbench. The DC power cables are also detachable which help reduce the clutter when you not using a DC power source. One thing that had me worried before I got the charger was the buttons. They are the membrane-switch type, like those found on the remote control for car stereos, a Speak ‘N Spell, or some of the Novak chargers. I was worried they would be insensitive and that I would really have to mash on them to get a response. That is not the case at all. They are very solid felling. They do not feel ‘soggy’ at all. There is a definite ‘click’ feel and sound when you press them so there is no question as to whether you pressed it or not. Another nice feature is the included temperature sensor, or Thermo-Sensor as Integy calls it. It plugs in the side of the charger much like a servo plugs into a receiver. The sensor is concave shaped and fits right onto a sub-c cell (the manual says it also fits on AA, AAA, and mini batteries like those used in 1:18 trucks). It is magnetic so you can use it on the side of a stick pack! I looked at the battery leads coming out of the front of the charger and noticed there were four wires soldered to the two alligator clips—a red and white wire on the positive clip, and a black and blue wire on the negative clip. The red and black are flexible 12-gauge wires that are no doubt the positive and negative charge wires. I couldn’t image what the little blue and white wires were so I looked in the manual—they “provide remote voltage sensing, making accurate voltage measurement(s) of your batter pack” possible. Charging The 16x405D2 can be set to charge in Normal Peak mode, which is a linear mode that delivers a constant charge rate, or “Fuzzy Logic” mode, which discharges the battery before charging it linearly. I plugged the power cable into the back of the charger then into the wall and it instantly came on. Ooohhhh…. Pretty blue display! It's more blue than it apprears in my photos. The fact that it powered up upon plugging it in caught me off guard. For some reason I thought there would be an on/off switch but there isn’t. Plugged in is on, unplugged is off. Right away I grabbed an ib4200 stick pack and tried to see if I could operate the charger without first reading the manual. No problem. The menus are very easy and self-explanatory. I went ahead and set the charge voltage to 4.0A, threshold to 5mV/cell, and temp cutoff at 50°C. This is the screen you see while a charge is in progress showing charge time in minutes and seconds, mAh added to pack thus far, charge rate, and current voltage of the pack: By pressing the Enter button the display is changed to show input voltage from AC or DC source, and current temp reading from the Thermo-Sensor: My first charge went perfectly smooth. It took 67 minutes and change to charge my 4200mAh pack at 4.0A. The internal fan is temperature activated, with no manual override or speed settings. Once the charger reaches a certain (undisclosed) temperature, it kicks on. Mine kicked on for the first time during my first charge—about 30mins in. I immediately noticed how loud the fan is. It’s louder than I expected, but not too loud. Once the fan kicked on, I started feeling all over the charger to see how hot it actually was. The front of the charger, under the buttons, was quite warm. Not hot, but about as warm as a freshly peaked NiMh pack. The rear, near the vents/fan/heatsink was noticeably less warm. Within 5 minutes of the fan switching on, the charger temp had dropped significantly. Near the back of the charger, where the heatsink and fan are, it was cool to the touch. Cooler than ambient temperature! The front of the charger, where it was quite warm had dropped to just barely being warm. So the fan is louder than I anticipated, but it also works better than I anticipated! The fan turned off upon hitting the Enter button to stop the buzzer at the end charge cycle. Since the charger was cool at the time of the first pack finishing, I threw a gp3300 stick pack at it and let it charge. It was basically a repeat of the first charge—smooth sailing. The fan kicked on about half way through the charge and when it was done the buzzer beeped and I went in there and noticed that it had not peaked, but reached the 50°C temp limit I had specified. I was glad to see that the Thermo-Sensor worked as advertised (assuming the sensor is accurate). Again, at the end of the charge, the charger was cool so I put another gp3000 stick pack on. No problems this time either. So I charged three 6-cell stick packs back-to-back without any problem from the charger. My last charger, MRC 959 was burning hot after just one pack. Charging Pack 4.... Pack 5.... pack 6.... Pack 7..... Pack after pack it performs very well. I've charged over a dozen packs on it now without any reason to complain. It charges packs consistently and charging mulitple packs in a row doesn't phase it. Discharging I thought I would try the discharge function on the 16x405D2 just to see how it worked. So I set one of the 3300 packs to discharge at 10A and a 5.4V cutoff. Wihtin a few minutes or starting the discharge the fan came on. The charger got noticeably hotter than it did during charging. It took 16 minutes to discharge the pack to my specified cutoff voltage. Cycling The D2 also has a cycling mode with adjustable delay time between discharge and charge, adjustable in 1 minute steps for any value between 1 and 60 minutes. I have not tried the cycling mode yet. Menus The LCD can display the following: -Elapsed Charge Time -mAh added to pack thus far -Charge Current -Current Battery Voltage -Input Voltage from Power Source -Current Battery Temperature -Total Charge Time -Total mAh of Pack -Battery Voltage -Discharge Rate -Elapsed Discharge Time -Total Discharge Time -Discharge mAh
It can also display the
following errrors: At the end of a charge, the Battery Management Data
display is now selectable and shows: The instructions are as basic as you can get with only 6 pages--3 of which are flow charts for the menu screens. All the info you need to operate the charger is there, but they don’t elaborate on anything. Also the suggested settings table is a little out of date and does not include the newest cells. See manual I scanned here: PAGE 1 (front cover) PAGE 2 PAGE 3 PAGE 4 PAGE 5 PAGE 6 The battery leads coming from the front of the charger are not detachable. I wish they were. It’s not a huge deal, but it would have been nice to take them off and reduce clutter on the workbench. The warranty. It pretty much sucks. 90 days only, and only with dated, itemized sales receipt. 90 days is nothing compared to what some manufacturers are offering these days. Duratrax offers a 5 YEAR warranty on their units. Conclusion So far, I am VERY pleased with this charger. My only complaints are rather insignificant, save for the laughable warranty. I think this charger is an exceptional value for someone not planning on making the leap to LiPoly batteries just yet. It has met all my charging needs and surpassed my expectations in terms of quality and ease of use. One of the things I like best about it is that is it is consistent. My 4200 pack takes the same amount of time to charge every time (+/- 2 minutes). As I said above, pack after pack it performs well. I've had no cause for complaint. Another thing I really like is it's case design. It's one of the coolest looking chargers on the market IMO and I wanted one the first time I saw one. Pictures, Here is what the box looks like. Appealing graphics and specs printed all over. Here is what comes inside the box: Thermo-Sensor, AC power cable, DC power cable, Manual, and Charger. This pic shows the charger while operating. You can get an idea of size next to the stick pack. Also notice the thermo-sensor on the side of the pack. Back of charger showing plugs for AC and DC power supply as well as fan placement. Here is the side of the charger showing 7.5A removable fuse and thermo-sensor attachment point. www.INTEGY.com www.EAGLEMODEL.com www.TOWERHOBBIES.com |
