Dual or triple solo Battery Charger

Dave gonzales · Dec 29, 2015

When i charge my 3 batteries for solo I have to wait for each one to complete charge with one charging unit, especially if I started late at night and want to go to bed, Has anybody seen any dual or triple solo battery chargers out there yet. Im thinking of buying another single charger but before I spend another $49 plus shipping and tax, I was hoping someone made one already.

Maddog · Dec 29, 2015

I have never seen or heard of one.

PdxSteve · Dec 29, 2015

Not yet. The problem is sourcing the special metal tabs that are used in the Solo battery connector, and also Solo's charging circuitry inside the battery. Its not just a regular lipo by itself.

I have 3 chargers. I don't like waiting either lol. Also, everything on 3DRs website is 20% off until the 1st. Stock up!
3DR website 20% Discount | 3D Robotics Drone Forum

Troiano27 · Dec 29, 2015

I have 5 batteries and 2 chargers. May invest in a third real soon.

Dash Hewes · Dec 29, 2015

The stock charger charges at 3.3 amps. Aftermarket chargers should charge at 5.2 amps. The battery is 4s5200mAh. For the price of the 3DR charger you could get a pair of chargers and cut the leads to fit the battery. I tried to source the connector which is Molex but the company will only deal with distributors and require a minimum purchase of 850 pieces. A huge number to deal with.
Something to ponder, I use both ways.

Chuck · Dec 29, 2015

I have 4 batteries and 2 stock chargers. I feel more comfortable with OEM chargers. Santa got me a BB gift card, so battery #5 will happen soon....

Dave gonzales · Dec 30, 2015

If they do make one i hope its drop in slot type of charger, and hope fully it will have some kind of storage charge may charge to 50%

Jubalr · Dec 30, 2015

I use a LiPo charger as well as the stock charger to do 2 at a time. Here is additional discussions on the subject.

Ian [P13] · Dec 30, 2015

Vu mentioned (I hope he wasn't joking) plans for a charger that would do up to 8 batteries. There was also a guy on the mod club looking into doing a kickstarter or similar for a 4x charger or thereabouts.

Hopefully we'll see something in 2016, for now I just use 2 chargers

LarryF · Dec 30, 2015

It's been talked about a few times, but the question keeps coming up about a Solo battery multi-charger. I already have a Hitec X4 AC Plus Four-Channel AC/DC Multi-Charger, so I made plugs to fit this charger and the Solo. I simply bought some 2 prong electrical plugs, wired them for the charger and bent the plugs to fit the Solo.

I can now charge up to 4 Solo batteries at once. I use the "Lipo Charge" option on the charger (not the balance charge). Although I could charge at a higher rate, I keep it at 3.3amps for a 4S Lipo. It still takes over an hour, but I'm getting four charged at the same time. The charger tapers off the charge at 16.80 volts (full charge), which I presume the smart battery is balancing the cells. I also like having more specific charging control and details on how much charge they took.

Soloing · Dec 31, 2015

LarryF said:
It's been talked about a few times, but the question keeps coming up about a Solo battery multi-charger. I already have a Hitec X4 AC Plus Four-Channel AC/DC Multi-Charger, so I made plugs to fit this charger and the Solo. I simply bought some 2 prong electrical plugs, wired them for the charger and bent the plugs to fit the Solo.

I can now charge up to 4 Solo batteries at once. I use the "Lipo Charge" option on the charger (not the balance charge). Although I could charge at a higher rate, I keep it at 3.3amps for a 4S Lipo. It still takes over an hour, but I'm getting four charged at the same time. The charger tapers off the charge at 16.80 volts (full charge), which I presume the smart battery is balancing the cells. I also like having more specific charging control and details on how much charge they took.
View attachment 2188 View attachment 2189

I was just going to suggest the same kinda thing... The battery doesn't really need a charger, because the battery IS the charger. Having said that, all the battery needs is power. What do you use for power? A power supply. Just like the OEM "charger" that comes with the Solo. That's all it is... A power supply.

Anyhow, some people prefer to use a charger as their power source, which it's totally fine. Some use the Lipo setting and others use the Pb setting...

Thanks.

Blaze1tx · Dec 10, 2016

Soloing said:
I was just going to suggest the same kinda thing... The battery doesn't really need a charger, because the battery IS the charger. Having said that, all the battery needs is power. What do you use for power? A power supply. Just like the OEM "charger" that comes with the Solo. That's all it is... A power supply.

Anyhow, some people prefer to use a charger as their power source, which it's totally fine. Some use the Lipo setting and others use the Pb setting...

Thanks.

Hey Soloing and 3RDpilots.com ... i know its a yr old thread but i was wondering if we have made any traction on this topic/thread/issue?? I wanna run dual batterys on my Solo fleet and charge multi simultaneously as well!

Thanks in advance and happy holidays!
@Blaze1tx

Soloing · Dec 11, 2016

... any traction on this topic/thread/issue? Sure. I sold my Solo a while ago, ha ha. Seriously though, have you looked at post number 10? He explains pretty good how to charge multiple Solo batteries. A quick google search brought up this:

GM Multi - Solo Charger

OR

Parallel charging multiple solo batteries - Test results

OR

DIY Multi Battery Charger

OR

https://dev.3dr.com/hardware-battery-charging.html

OR

Official 3DR Solo ***Owner's Thread*** - Page 1050 - RC Groups

I think you should be able to just open two Solo batteries and connect them into parallel?! However, what I would do first is, mount something that has the exact same weight as a battery, to the Solo and see what light times you get. I was told by a 3DR Engineer that the extra weight of a second battery is not worth the extra flight time.

Good luck.

Soloing.