[kitbuilder]

I've been using a Team Great Hobbies AC/DC Q6400 100WX4 for over a year now. It's been great charging 4 batteries at a time. Today on #4 station it started showing an error code "In Voltage Error" and would not start charging. I changed batteries, changed charging wires, changed balancing board, did a factory reset on that station - all to no avail. The manual is no help at all when it says "incoming voltage insufficient". I even checked the AC wall outlet and it was fine. The 3 different batteries I tried were all at the correct voltage (3.86v) for a storage charge. While all this was going on the other 3 stations continued working properly. Does anyone else have this charger and has had problems with it? (worst case scenario is that I now have a 3 station charger . All comments appreciated.

[4*60]

I agree you have a 3 station charger.

[waynepinke]

I have the DC version myself & have not taken mine apart (still working well), but there may possibly be a separate fuse inside for each "station" where the power is supplied to the "charging" portion of its circuitry, but doesn't affect the power for the display to keep working. Some fuses may look obvious as we have seen, but it can also look like a resistor or even a "surface mounted" device on the circuit board.

Other than that, it could be a poor connection or a bad component feeding the charger for that "station". Might be worth taking a look inside to see what's there ------- fuse, poor connection, or burn/hot spots near an electronic part to get an idea of what you're dealing with.

You can possibly send it in (during the "off-season" when you're not flying) for repair/exchange/upgrade or whatever is available from Hitec or the place in Illinois that repairs a lot of our equipment.

If you feel comfortable looking inside, I hope this may be of some help to find the problem.

[floyd]

My Hobbico Accu-Cycle Elite 2 port charger has also lost a channel. I get different error codes from the bad side. I now have a one port charger and cycler. I have 2 Hitec X4's that I use with no issues yet. If I do lose a channel on one of my X4's I'll try the HobbyKing brand. For the price of the Hitec I expect them to last a lifetime. I did contact Hobbico about my Elite but I got no reply. Cheers Floyd

[kitbuilder]

opened it up but no fuses to be seen. All solid state. They're actually made by EV-Peak in China so I'm not sure about warranty if any. I sent an e-mail to GH about repair work and possibly they'll get back to me early next week.

[kitbuilder]

Kudos to Great Hobbies - - they exchanged the faulty charger with a brand new one free of charge. Called me long distance from PEI to arrange it. Excellent customer service.

[4*60]

That is good service!

[CF105]

I ran into the same thing with my X4 last year. It's now a 3-port charger. It's even touchier if I try to run it off a power supply. The other ports often struggle to balance packs before timing out, so I now only charge 3S 3300 and smaller packs with it. Anything bigger goes on the PowerLabs charger.

I think the Hitec (as well as GH and SkyRC) are all using a generic charger from one company in China. The price is high... but the quality doesn't seem to be there.

[kitbuilder]

Originally Posted by CF105

I think the Hitec (as well as GH and SkyRC) are all using a generic charger from one company in China. The price is high... but the quality doesn't seem to be there.

They're all made by EV-Peak in China. They've got an interesting web site. GH gave me the latest model the CQ-3.

[Max]

A friend of mine had the same problem with is x4 charger. Turns out he shorted the battery cable when he used one of those octopus cables. With battery attached and a short generated, it overloads the Mofset that shuts off the power from the charger to the battery when the charge is complete. The Mosfet cant handle the power surging through the short and it burns up. Visibly its hard to see but if you look closely, it is broken.


This is the Mosfet in question:
http://www.alldatasheet.com/view.jsp?Searchword=F7413

I ordered up a few and swapped it out. Works great now.

This is not to say this is the cause of your problem, or even the solution to your problem, but it may be worth a look.