Quote:
Originally Posted by IamIan
While I agree, I will also point out that the additional features are not needed - the job can be done with the less expensive more basic tools. There are of course benefits of better tools, but it comes with more cost....
Option 3> PL8 balancing plug.
The balancing plug on the PL8 allows you to simultaneously control the voltage and current of 8 pieces of a series connection separately from each other.
Option 4> PL8 balancing in series.
Each of the 8 pieces is designed to do up to Li battery voltages ... which is equal to 3 NiMH cells in series ... which means if 4 Sticks were put in series you could connect every 3 cells ... thus doing something like what the Super Brain does .... but it would see each 3 cell half of a stick as a unit and it could do 4 sticks at the same time....
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I think these are probably the key options to consider when it comes to doing an Insight pack. One, you could do one stick much more thoroughly, if you can somehow connect each 'node' wire from the balancing port to each cell in the stick. Two, and probably more important, you can do 4 sticks at a time, plus be able to treat each stick as if it were a 3-cell stick rather than a 6-cell stick. You'd probably get a better discharge/charge, plus you'd reduce the time by a factor of 4... Only thing that'd bug me about this is that you'd have to remove the sticks from the pack and remove the shrink wrap, which adds some work and time (16 of the 20 sticks just pull out, 4 of them have extra wires/thermistors attached, which you'd have to remove, too)... Plus, I'm merely assuming that you can access the connection points between each cell - without damaging the stick. I've seen Mike D. do something similar before...
How many sticks could you do without removing anything, treating them as a 6-cell unit (i.e. not a few sticks in series or parallel)? Could you do 1 from the regular +/- leads and 1 from the balancing port?
Anyhow, I personally probably won't buy it, but maybe someone else will find it a good option. If I hadn't already done my pack and bought the Super Brain, and know what I know now about the PL8, then I probably would have bought the PL8. It'd be like $240, plus a few bucks for that bare wire adapter, plus maybe $20 for the USB data connection, plus the cost of the appropriate power supply, for which cost I have no clue...
Later...
Wow, maybe I jumped the gun on that one. I was just looking at the manual and the specs for power supplies, and then browsing some power supplies - and it looks like they can be really expensive. One I looked at was $400+... That's a serious downer...