[keblerelf]

Okay, so having not raced in the past 18 years, things have sure changed. My kids are starting to get interested in the hobby and the bug has bitten me to race again as I found a great track pretty close to my house. So we went to watch a race this weekend and all the racers had power supplies to power their chargers. When I raced, we just plugged them into the wall or power strip. I realize that there are some chargers that are DC only. Are their advantages to a DC only charger and a power supply? I was told by a racer that AC/DC chargers are for just bashing in the back yard and for kids. DC chargers are the only way to go for racing. So I am in the market for a charger, and I will race sometimes and the rest of the time will be introducing my kids to the hobby. My oldest is already interested in racing too. I don't have a ton of money to buy a charger, find out it is garbage and then buy a charger and power supply. Would rather do it right on the first try. I appreciate your help in advance.

[trax de max]

the chargers which needs a power supply will be more powerful. with lipo batteries you can fully charge them at 1C which takes an hour, but, some lipo's can have 8C which will fully charge in just over 7 minutes. Giving that particular charger has the power to charge at that high of Amps.
if your looking for a good charger straight off, look for chargers above 150 Watt also a power supply to match. An old computer psu is an inexpensive way but will need to mod it. Plenty of how-to's on youtube.

[Merc4Stroke]

+1 on the cpmputer power supply mod. It's easy to do, all the wires are color coded once you get in there. Just about everyone has an old computer sitting in storage that doesn't work any more, but still has a good p/s. lol

I switched to Lipo power a couple years ago, when I converted a 1/8 scale buggy over to brushless electric. Thanks to alot of great advice/help on this forum.

A few people suggested: hobbyking.com I picked up a couple chargers, and a pile of lipo packs from them. Out of the 8 packs I bought, I only had problems with one of them. They did replace it, there was a couple of hoops to jump through, but again, they did send me a replacement.

As for chargers, I know some people are big on brand names. But that's just like everything else, from vehicles, to tools, to dish soap.

This is the charger that was suggested to me: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idproduct=7028

It gets good reviews on the site, and you can't beat the price for what it does.

It took about 20 days to get to Wisconsin from over seas, and now H/K has a warehouse in the states, so transit time can be faster.

[jojoseg]

Originally Posted by Merc4Stroke

+1 on the cpmputer power supply mod. It's easy to do, all the wires are color coded once you get in there. Just about everyone has an old computer sitting in storage that doesn't work any more, but still has a good p/s. lol

I switched to Lipo power a couple years ago, when I converted a 1/8 scale buggy over to brushless electric. Thanks to alot of great advice/help on this forum.

A few people suggested: hobbyking.com I picked up a couple chargers, and a pile of lipo packs from them. Out of the 8 packs I bought, I only had problems with one of them. They did replace it, there was a couple of hoops to jump through, but again, they did send me a replacement.

As for chargers, I know some people are big on brand names. But that's just like everything else, from vehicles, to tools, to dish soap.

This is the charger that was suggested to me: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idproduct=7028

It gets good reviews on the site, and you can't beat the price for what it does.

It took about 20 days to get to Wisconsin from over seas, and now H/K has a warehouse in the states, so transit time can be faster.

i have just gotten back into rc's myself and i have this charger from hobby king so far i am nothing but happy with it and it is easily the best charger i have had so far i'm still looking for a power supply for this unit but it really isn't a problem i just charge off my car battery it would be nice to be able to charge inside the house and i have an old pc just sitting around, but havn't had the time to tear into it