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The IMAX B6AC Clone |
Although I'm sure the original charger is fine, the internet (eBay) is full of Chinese clones with an unknown quality. This post summaries all the weaknesses I could find of my IMAX B6AC charger.
It seems this charger design is fairly common and lots of clones from various brands and counterfeit of original brands can be found on the internet. Here is a list of other chargers seeming to share the same design and firmware (source):
- RC-Power B6 charger
- Imax B6
- Turnigy Accucel-6
- GT Power A-6
- Mystery B6
Edit: since I wrote this post I received precious input from readers and will try to nuance it whenever seems appropriate
No warning if the balance circuit fails
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Balance circuit repaired |
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Look at that cheap (and dangerous) power supply |
A cheap power supply
Once you open the B6AC, you see that they made a shortcut and just used a laptop-like power supply inside the casing.
The ground pin is not even connected to the charger casing ! (this is not mandatory in this configuration but I would feel safer considering this is a cheap Chinese power supply).
If you're reading this, chances are you know cheap Chinese power supplies can be really dangerous. The photo on the right of my B6AC clearly shows I have one of these dangerous ones.
If you're unsure about how dangerous such power supplies can be, you might want to read this story.
The ideal replacement would be a 5.7cm x 13.3cm x 3cm 12 - 15v charger. I recommend the highest power rating possible:
5A x 25.2v = 126W (ignoring conversion inefficiencies -> 150W?)
Hand soldered (by a monkey?)
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Inside the B6AC clone |
If you have a closer look at the picture on the left, you will see that resistors are not as professionally soldered as one would expect from an industrial assembly line (not perfectly aligned). This particular meter might have been made by a monkey or a kid in a Chinese factory, I wouldn't know (but I care...).
If it's hand soldered, it is more likely to have a defect and if it's not obvious but can cause the charger to malfunction, you could end up with an exploding battery.
Or at least that's what the manufacturer says.
If you look at the picture on the right, you will see the charger misses the BT1 component. It was intended to protect against reversed polarity (?). I don't see how a diode could help in any way.
One possibility could be a missing capacitor?
If you look at the picture on the right, you will see the charger misses the BT1 component. It was intended to protect against reversed polarity (?). I don't see how a diode could help in any way.
One possibility could be a missing capacitor?
Poor calibration
To test the precision of the charger, I plugged two Li-Po 3s (3 cells) in series to simulate a 6s battery. The aim is to fully charge them using the 'Balance' program and compare the charger measurements with a precision voltmeter (ISO-TECH IDM 305).
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Test rig: two 3s LiPo batteries in series |
IMAX
B6AC
|
ISO-TECH
IDM 305
|
Sinometer
MS8230B
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Cell 1 | 4.19 v | 4.197 v | 4.13 v |
Cell 2 | 4.19 v | 4.227 v | 4.16 v |
Cell 3 | 4.18 v | 4.195 v | 4.13 v |
Cell 4 | 4.19 v | 4.200 v | 4.14 v |
Cell 5 | 4.19 v | 4.206 v | 4.14 v |
Cell 6 | 4.19 v | 4.186 v | 4.12 v |
Total | 25.20 v | 25.218 v | 24.7 v |
Edit: The critical voltage for Lipo is 4.4V. There however seems to be an empirical consensus in the RC community that any anything beyond 4.2V per cell shortens the Lipo battery life. The point made here is the cell charging voltage precision is around 1% (which is not too bad) but I would prefer if I could keep the max cell charge below 4.2V.
Here are my conclusions:
- Don't use a cheap voltmeter to test the voltages: they are inaccurate
- Although the meter was obviously calibrated, its calibration was a little too high to my taste, since two battery cells were above 4.20v (considered critical) while the charger was reading 4.19v.
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'Real' voltage measured by the precision meter |
Next: read my other post on the procedure to re-calibrate the charger.
I have what is supposed to be a original Imax B6, and yesterday it was smelling like burn electronics.
ReplyDeleteToday I opened and found out that the balancer trace on the board burned. Gonna have to fix it god damn it...
But I like the charger. Mine has the anti reverse polarity thing soldered since it's original, and yes it's a little different than the inside of your fake B6 picture.
Hi Guily,
DeleteThis is interesting. I would appreciate if you could send me a couple of photos of the inside of your original charger, the additional thing (sopposed to be for) for reverse polarity (as well as what's written on it) and the burned trace so I could complete the info here with your photos.
Hi Martin,
ReplyDeleteI have 4 IMAX B6 chargers, 1 genuine and 3 copies. Interestingly all 3 are subtly different PCB wise.
I was booking to do the well known resistor chnage from the 1% to 0.1% and recal but I figure does it matter? Surely, even if the rsistors are 1% and slightly adift I can compensate by recalibrating in the 2 servie menus. Is this correct?
Thanks,
Alex
Hi Alex,
DeleteChargers are calibrated to correct the imprecisions of its resistors before leaving the factory. Changing the resistor even by more precise ones will only make matters worse since the electronics of your charger will compensate expecting to work with the original resistors.
I suggest you read my other article on recalibrating the charger as you can improve its precision.
I just added the link to the recalibration procedure at the bottom of my post.
Cheers,
Martin