I've been using FD200 for a few years now and it has been one of the best RC purchases for me. I discharge my quad batteries using a parallel board so it doesn't take much time to discharge 20 batteries. BTW, FD200's internal bolts tend to get loose in time. One thing not covered in detail in the video is using the DIY dischargers in combination with chargers that have external discharge option. Auto stop is supported in that way.
Don't know how I didn't see this video sooner! BD250... pretty much spot on on your analysis, especially the danged BEEEEEPs. However, I don't find it loud at all, yes, you can hear that the fan is running, but it's not at all obtrusive or annoying, unless you're using it in a 50dBA limited quiet space. The heatsink does get fairly warm, but the fan will continue to run until it is cool after the discharge is completed if you allow it to, which I HIGHLY recommend you do in order to extend the life of the MOSFETs. Besides the super annoying beep, the only thing that I don't like about it is that you have to be very accurate when setting the discharge. It will do exactly what you program it to do... if you put in an incorrect discharge voltage, you could easily damage or destroy a good pack, and the BD250 will happily do it.
Thank you for the video, I ended up building the Capt Dan and since I live in New England the extra heat conversion is welcomed. Nothing wasted here and it was cheap to build
Well done video on battery dischargers...Just purchased a BD250....Like the simplicity of it and that you can view record the discharge cycle. Only change I made was to the fan. Pulled out the OE fan and installed a Noctua...noise level is near gone.. CFM on the Noctua is a little less but since I won't go any higher then a 10A discharge, it cools it just fine.
I was about to pull the trigger on the BD250. I wanted something to do some tests on my batteries to see the health of them. What kind of analysis modes do they have?
To the Admiral. If you also want to use it like the captain dan one, a bridged xt60 connector instead of the icharger x6 would do... or am I mistaken? Also you might want to rethink your coolingfan choice. They are fan and heatsink in one. The air that does fans push nerver really cools your big heatsinks.. at least not activly.
Going to have to disagree about the fans. The amount of hot air displaced by them indicates to me they are actively cooling. Cool air in, hot air out. They're still working fine to this day.
Been using a few of the Aokoda 150W bulb-based ones for a handful of years. Can't beat them for the price. Usually ~$20, has discharge controls and cutoffs, per-cell balancing, and no beeps!
Another great video. Aboit the admiral discharge we can just wire as you made and for use they as a battery killer make a jumper cable between the two ends and connect the battery
Sure, you can rearrange the inputs. I thought about doing that myself, but I figured if I'm going to kill a LiPo it might be better/safer to discharge it at a lower rate.
Thanks for the comprehensive comparison John. I never cease to be impressed with the clarity of your explanations. To be fair on the commercial dischargers, they do offer quite good discharge power for general use. It depends on the mix of batteries in your stash. For example, both the SkyRC and the ISDT would outperform the "Admiral" for 3S discharge speed, and the SkyRC would beat the "Admiral" for 4S.
Yeah, that's why I used watts as the measure vs time as watts illustrates peak possible performance. ISDT and SkyRC can vary resistance to reach max wattage where The Admiral has fixed resistance. In any case, Regen discharge beats them all if you want to talk about speed.
I have both the ISDT FD200 and the SkyRC and will say they’re both great dischargers. The one thing about the SkyRc one is that you have to tinker with the end voltage a bit. It needs to be slightly lower than what you intend because it will reach that voltage with the load, but once you stop the voltage will end up being slightly higher, if this makes sense. That’s the only annoyance with it.
One of the guys in the livesream did mention that. I noticed on high amperage settings it definitely does not account for sag, but on lower settings it seems to get a lot closer to the desired voltage level which makes sense. Evidently it only does CC and does not transition to CV.
Excellent video - thank you! I own an X8 and love the idea of using a discharge bank. Would I be limited to only discharge 6S via regen with a 25.6V lifepo bank? I need to discharge 8S and 4S also.
Can't most AC/DC or DC chargers be used as a regen into a LiFepO4 battery bank? If I use the DC in on the charger with the battery I am discharging, and set my charger to charge a 4S LiFe, doesn't that do the same thing?
Whether or not most chargers specifically have a regen function is unknown to me. Some do, some don't have a 'regen' function. Whether or not it's most--I have no idea. Now switching the input power from a battery bank to a flight pack and just running a charge--of course you can do that--that's just charging. I think regen comes in handy for scenarios where the connections are challenging to swap--like field charging cases with decks that are screwed down and the charger is below the surface. Or if there's a BMS that limits the charge rate. Or for people who might want to charge one cell while discharging another when capacity might become an issue. But if you simply want to empty a few packs you charged with a battery bank back into the battery bank and you have easy access to the leads--of course you can swap them.
Question on the wiring of the admíral. Is it battery (load) positive to one side of the bank and negative to the jumper (black wire) going into the (charger port) negative?
Ground from battery to discharger. Positive from battery to one side of admiral and the other side of admiral to charger. i.e. Resistors are in-series with the positive line.
Thanks John for another great video and tutorial. I wanted a discharger to discharge 6S at 20-30 amps. Now, my M6D charger can only provide high amps when in regen mode. Can I still use the Admiral and set the mode to regen?
How do you know when there's enough capacity in the battery bank to put whatever battery your discharging into the bank? Does the i charger stop when it can't put any more juice into it? Or do you have to put a volt meter on the battery bank?
Several safeties: 1) If you start with the bank full, and then charge any number of batteries, any number of those batteries can be put back into the bank. It would be different if you start with the bank full and then start dumping already charged batteries into the bank in which case #2 takes over. 2) The batteries have built in BMS. When the BMS sees the voltage of the battery is peaked, it opens the circuit disconnecting the battery from the discharger.
Hi John, quick question on the iCharger X6. Could I connect the output from the regenerative charge mode into something that will use the power (like the admiral or captain dan) instead of a battery bank?
Amazing what that little iCharger is capable of. I have an RCToolkit M6D which is a dumb version of this. With a good DC source, they are capable of so much. Can you provide more information on those batteries you are using for your charge / discharge station? Similar units I found looked quite expensive. Do you just have them wired in series to the XT60 connector and use that same connector directly for charging and discharging?
I have two of the BD250s and love them. If they died I'd order another asap. I discharge in the garage so the noise is meh. I do like your hand-built models but I was too lazy to make one.
@@RCVideoReviews yeah I kinda figured that, so I ordered the RC Toolkit analyzer to complete the parts I need for a EDF stand. Thanks for your great content lately regarding this topic. I’m gonna save up for the X6 to regenerate into my solar generators safely. Key word there, safely.
I've been using FD200 for a few years now and it has been one of the best RC purchases for me. I discharge my quad batteries using a parallel board so it doesn't take much time to discharge 20 batteries. BTW, FD200's internal bolts tend to get loose in time.
One thing not covered in detail in the video is using the DIY dischargers in combination with chargers that have external discharge option. Auto stop is supported in that way.
The LRP Pulsar competition charger is still the GOAT. Ease of use and balances Lipos very well and has the 20A discharge bank inbuilt.
Don't know how I didn't see this video sooner!
BD250... pretty much spot on on your analysis, especially the danged BEEEEEPs. However, I don't find it loud at all, yes, you can hear that the fan is running, but it's not at all obtrusive or annoying, unless you're using it in a 50dBA limited quiet space. The heatsink does get fairly warm, but the fan will continue to run until it is cool after the discharge is completed if you allow it to, which I HIGHLY recommend you do in order to extend the life of the MOSFETs.
Besides the super annoying beep, the only thing that I don't like about it is that you have to be very accurate when setting the discharge. It will do exactly what you program it to do... if you put in an incorrect discharge voltage, you could easily damage or destroy a good pack, and the BD250 will happily do it.
Thank you for the video, I ended up building the Capt Dan and since I live in New England the extra heat conversion is welcomed. Nothing wasted here and it was cheap to build
Well done video on battery dischargers...Just purchased a BD250....Like the simplicity of it and that you can view record the discharge cycle. Only change I made was to the fan. Pulled out the OE fan and installed a Noctua...noise level is near gone.. CFM on the Noctua is a little less but since I won't go any higher then a 10A discharge, it cools it just fine.
@user-nc4sb5iw4o what model of the Noctua, pls? THX
Used the BD250 for a couple of years now. The fact I can use it stand alone or plug it into my laptop and get some decent data is perfect.
Agreed. The data is nice. Good feature.
I was about to pull the trigger on the BD250. I wanted something to do some tests on my batteries to see the health of them.
What kind of analysis modes do they have?
@@bassohollic Total energy out at a given current down to a set voltage.
To the Admiral. If you also want to use it like the captain dan one, a bridged xt60 connector instead of the icharger x6 would do... or am I mistaken?
Also you might want to rethink your coolingfan choice. They are fan and heatsink in one. The air that does fans push nerver really cools your big heatsinks.. at least not activly.
Going to have to disagree about the fans. The amount of hot air displaced by them indicates to me they are actively cooling. Cool air in, hot air out. They're still working fine to this day.
Been using a few of the Aokoda 150W bulb-based ones for a handful of years. Can't beat them for the price. Usually ~$20, has discharge controls and cutoffs, per-cell balancing, and no beeps!
My favourite discharger by far. Simple, easy, but has now jumped up to $30
Another great video. Aboit the admiral discharge we can just wire as you made and for use they as a battery killer make a jumper cable between the two ends and connect the battery
Sure, you can rearrange the inputs. I thought about doing that myself, but I figured if I'm going to kill a LiPo it might be better/safer to discharge it at a lower rate.
Thanks for the comprehensive comparison John. I never cease to be impressed with the clarity of your explanations.
To be fair on the commercial dischargers, they do offer quite good discharge power for general use. It depends on the mix of batteries in your stash. For example, both the SkyRC and the ISDT would outperform the "Admiral" for 3S discharge speed, and the SkyRC would beat the "Admiral" for 4S.
Yeah, that's why I used watts as the measure vs time as watts illustrates peak possible performance. ISDT and SkyRC can vary resistance to reach max wattage where The Admiral has fixed resistance. In any case, Regen discharge beats them all if you want to talk about speed.
This is great. I thought the Isdt discharger only works with Isdt chargers, and the same with SkyRC. It's really good to know that it doesn't matter.
I have both the ISDT FD200 and the SkyRC and will say they’re both great dischargers.
The one thing about the SkyRc one is that you have to tinker with the end voltage a bit. It needs to be slightly lower than what you intend because it will reach that voltage with the load, but once you stop the voltage will end up being slightly higher, if this makes sense.
That’s the only annoyance with it.
Once again, great video 👍🏼! Thank you 🙏🏼
One of the guys in the livesream did mention that. I noticed on high amperage settings it definitely does not account for sag, but on lower settings it seems to get a lot closer to the desired voltage level which makes sense. Evidently it only does CC and does not transition to CV.
You're welcome :)
I also find the SkyRC discharger inconvenient for this reason.
Excellent video - thank you! I own an X8 and love the idea of using a discharge bank. Would I be limited to only discharge 6S via regen with a 25.6V lifepo bank? I need to discharge 8S and 4S also.
Best FD200 & BD-250 reviews! Thx.
Thank you!
Nice job.. I have the FD200 and have really used the heck out of it.. Very simple solution for me. Thanks for making this video.
You’re welcome. Thanks for watching.
Can't most AC/DC or DC chargers be used as a regen into a LiFepO4 battery bank? If I use the DC in on the charger with the battery I am discharging, and set my charger to charge a 4S LiFe, doesn't that do the same thing?
Whether or not most chargers specifically have a regen function is unknown to me. Some do, some don't have a 'regen' function. Whether or not it's most--I have no idea.
Now switching the input power from a battery bank to a flight pack and just running a charge--of course you can do that--that's just charging. I think regen comes in handy for scenarios where the connections are challenging to swap--like field charging cases with decks that are screwed down and the charger is below the surface. Or if there's a BMS that limits the charge rate. Or for people who might want to charge one cell while discharging another when capacity might become an issue.
But if you simply want to empty a few packs you charged with a battery bank back into the battery bank and you have easy access to the leads--of course you can swap them.
Just got the ISDT FD-200...Mainly for it's ease of use. It will do up to 8S.
Hard to argue with ease of use on that device.
Question on the wiring of the admíral. Is it battery (load) positive to one side of the bank and negative to the jumper (black wire) going into the (charger port) negative?
Ground from battery to discharger. Positive from battery to one side of admiral and the other side of admiral to charger. i.e. Resistors are in-series with the positive line.
Thanks for making the content! It is very helpful! Great job!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks John for another great video and tutorial. I wanted a discharger to discharge 6S at 20-30 amps. Now, my M6D charger can only provide high amps when in regen mode. Can I still use the Admiral and set the mode to regen?
How do you know when there's enough capacity in the battery bank to put whatever battery your discharging into the bank? Does the i charger stop when it can't put any more juice into it? Or do you have to put a volt meter on the battery bank?
Several safeties:
1) If you start with the bank full, and then charge any number of batteries, any number of those batteries can be put back into the bank. It would be different if you start with the bank full and then start dumping already charged batteries into the bank in which case #2 takes over.
2) The batteries have built in BMS. When the BMS sees the voltage of the battery is peaked, it opens the circuit disconnecting the battery from the discharger.
Hi John, quick question on the iCharger X6. Could I connect the output from the regenerative charge mode into something that will use the power (like the admiral or captain dan) instead of a battery bank?
I think in regen mode it might be looking for voltage. I don't think I've tried regen mode outside of a battery.
Amazing what that little iCharger is capable of. I have an RCToolkit M6D which is a dumb version of this. With a good DC source, they are capable of so much.
Can you provide more information on those batteries you are using for your charge / discharge station? Similar units I found looked quite expensive. Do you just have them wired in series to the XT60 connector and use that same connector directly for charging and discharging?
Yes, the iChargers are solid feature packed devices. This video should explain the battery bank: ruclips.net/user/liveBm9Bjpb74RQ
thanks for a great video - can I ask, what size is the ESC you have attached to the Prop stand?
80a ZTW Beatles.
Is it ok to use an 80A esc with a 70mm EDF and a timer to discharge lipos?
Sure. That's a great strategy. I made a discharge stand like that with a prop motor. It works great.
I have two of the BD250s and love them. If they died I'd order another asap. I discharge in the garage so the noise is meh. I do like your hand-built models but I was too lazy to make one.
I’ve been using the BD250 quite a bit over the last couple of days and I do really like the graphing/analysis features.
Can i make the captin function like the admiral using my s6 lipo charger? Please help.
Sure, just modify the wiring to copy the admiral.
What part of FL, I'm in West Palm Beach area
If you jump the Admiral plug used for the charger doesn’t it become a battery killer now?
It sure could.
Have you looked at the ToolkitRc power analyzer? I like mine better than the WattsUp.
I did actually check one of those out once. It seemed thorough, but I found the fonts/data very small and difficult to read.
Any comments on the SkyRC BD350…?
I haven't tested it, so no comment.
@@RCVideoReviews yeah I kinda figured that, so I ordered the RC Toolkit analyzer to complete the parts I need for a EDF stand. Thanks for your great content lately regarding this topic. I’m gonna save up for the X6 to regenerate into my solar generators safely. Key word there, safely.
You're welcome.
Very enjoyable John. 👍
Thanks Dave!
Can you kill Lipos with the FD200? I mean a totally discharge
No
Hi John, would u be able to build me one for me? The Admiral pls, let me know how much pls. Thanks
Sorry, I don’t think I’ll be making/selling these. They’re not too hard to build though. You can do it just by looking at the video.
@@RCVideoReviews 😎 🙏