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Muchmore Stick Pack Equaliser - Review |
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Muchmore Pack Equaliser
Sick of looking at the guys with side by side packs throwing them into their discharge trays and getting the most out of their batteries every time?
Well of course Powertubes is an easy way to get around that, but what if you dont fancy that idea? Or you've already got a heap of pre-soldered stick packs and dont want to pull them apart? Much More have got you covered...
At first I have to admit I couldn't understand how it worked! How many of those contact points were actually 'active' electrically? I pulled it apart to have a look but sadly the underneath view didn't exactly give much away.
But the instructions did. They say to cut a small window in the heat shrink to match the contact points along the side (5 of them) Now how these contacts work is that they take advantage of the fact that the negative of one cell is the positive of the next and that way the contacts can individually measure each cell. Brilliantly simple and you have to wonder why no-ones thought of it before?
You just put the pack in, and as you screw up each contact (there is a specific order) a corresponding LED lights up to indicate that the electrical circuit is complete. Then you connect the main lead and off it goes!   The first pack I tried was an old EP4200 pack which was in good condition but wasn't exactly a great pack to begin with. I discharged the pack as low as I could on my normal discharger and then slipped the pack into the equaliser. Tighten the contacts, connect the lead, and everything worked exactly as it was supposed to. Slowly, one by one, the red LEDS went out as each cell discharged, and then the main blue LED went out indicating all was finished. Hmm, seems to work OK! Next up, an old 4200 IB pack that was well past its best. Still reading correct voltage so all cells were intact, but the performance was well off. The pack wouldn't even take a charge any more. In short, a perfect candidate. Same procedure again, but this time 1 cell went off almost straight away, ok, that was probably the worst cell then! Two more went off within about 10 minutes, and the others took about 30 mins until they were done.  
At this point I was sceptical, while it seemed to work OK, there was still a part of me that couldn't get my head around just how the hell it all actually worked.
I stuck the pack on the charger and hit it with a steady 1 amp charge initially. After 10 mins I stuck it up to 6 amps and no problem at all. Hmmm maybe it is working? Certainly an hour earlier the pack was destined for the bin.
The next day we were down the track, so the first pack in the car was the 'reborn' 4200.. And..it was fine. Hey maybe not its absolute best but I wouldnt expect it to be, But a more than capable club racing pack for sure. The conclusion? Well don't fool yourself, if you've got a dead cell this wont fix it, so don't expect miracles. But if your packs just got a little sad, then this little unit from Much More might just do the job. thanks to Tony Gray from www.rc-mini.net for the review.
For more information on the stick pack equaliser see here |
