Massive power. So compact! HOTA S6 lipo charger

[@jinlongliu1514]

The PD output feature can also be used as ‘discharger’, just charge your phone or laptop from flying batteries, without being wasted into heat😉

[@theflyinggrip]

Good to know…I don’t know why it’s so hard to get regen charging on these?

[@jinlongliu1514]

@@theflyinggrip I don’t know why they are not having this function on S6, but they do on P6 and F6. F6 is a great charger if you have a lot of batteries, my experience with F6 was fantastic. Regen charging is also very useful in my opinion, when I had some big packs to use as field battery. But now I only have fly packs and I got a PD module with 100W output😆, I found it can also do the discharge job for me, perfectly.

[@RAYROTHSTEIN66]

The built in power supply is great for foam cutter builders. Now you can fine tune the volt/amp setting to burn the perfect cut.

[@agunther08]

I LOVE the user interface of the Hota, the one I always reach for. Just so easy to live with.

[@gillian9178]

I love my Hota S6 charger, I bought mine from banggood when they were on special offer for $150. Thank you Joshua for a fantastic indepth review on the S6.

[@LS-xb2fh]

Given the beefy integrated power supply, I would have loved to see an additional more powerful DC output to power a second DC only charger (eg. isdt Q6). Then you could have three total channels in a very small form factor in the field. And 133W/channel is still plenty.

[@luqmanhakimnoorhisham5402]

Agreedd!! Like i dont like to use parallel board to charge and 2 channels is not enough to charge out in the field.

[@p39483]

"Power Supply" one of the charge programs. You set voltage, and watt/current limits and the respective front port becomes a supply. The rear output is fixed at 12v,1a.

[@DrewJHarrison]

Great review! Since making this there is a new variant of this charger on the market that has a few additional features to boot. It's the Ultra Power UP8. Specifically the ability to add an external 200W discharger for quick discharging on channel 1, servo tester, motor tester & wireless charger on top. Would be great to see a review on this one as it appears to be just as powerful with a similar footprint and some additional features.

[@Themlpg73]

Is the UP8 a new version of Hota S6? I thought they were separate brands.

[@jakeh3144]

I wish they did this with the HOTA F6. The 4 channels are a god send. I don't para charge anymore, and my batteries seem to appreciate that.

[@Sourdough_Humboldt]

Also external discharge aves 80-90% of the power by discharged, by putting it back into a battery. Very nice for cycle testing packs.

[@DoRC]

That works well if it does regen external discharge. This charger only does external discharge through a resistor though.

[@radfield6089]

Its also worth mentioning the D6 has a wireless phone charger on top where the thunderbolt is.

[@Sourdough_Humboldt]

External discharge mode is for when you have a bigger battery plugged in to the input port, you can discharge a battery that is plugged into the charge port, at a way faster rate.

[@KrotowX]

Block of 12V (till 3S) or 24V (till 6S) bulbs in paralel as load do the job just fine. Also you can charge a phone or power other things and discharge battery packs in one go.

[@DoRC]

Actually this charger doesn't have the ability to discharge to another battery. It only discharges to an external resistor. It does not have regen discharge capability

[@chrismitchelmore9379]

I use it to parallel discharge all the time. Wipe out all quads in the field and have tons of full batteries. Whack in parallel and stick in the back then dump the charge back in to the field charge LiFe with min voltage set. Flip it back round and balance to storage.

[@KrotowX]

@@chrismitchelmore9379 Correct. I often discharge larger (3-6S)LiPo's with charging 1S batteries for whoop via this charger in same time.

[@KrotowX]

Did a peek into specs: - Balance Current: 1600mA * 2 - Discharge Current: 0.1~3A * 2 Wow, that's nice! You can stop just here. This would be my new LiPo charger if I would need a new one now.

[@heroflying]

Couple other things to point out about the specs of the HOTA S6 vs the toolkitRC... 1. The HOTA S6 actually has a 478W PSU. When you use the USB or XT60 rear out, those do not count against the 400W for the main charging. Quick charge your phone, use your pinecil iron while you're charging, doesn't matter, there's still 400W for your LIPOs for charging. The toolkit RC's is 200W total no matter what ports you're using, so in the same scenario, you're sapping wattage from battery charging. 2. The ToolkitRC also has only 1000mA balance current. The S6 is 1600mA balance current. So the S6 will charge packs faster because it'll balance them faster. HOTA S6 is the far superior charger IMHO.

[@Deceptive24]

PLEASE NOTE though.... 650watt charging on the S6 is only capable with a >26volt input. Otherwise it defaults to 400watt. This is a massive fail to be honest. So buyer beware. 24v DC is easy to find but >26v is challenging. Strange that they would design it like this. I have the S6 and found this out the hard way..

[@heroflying]

@@Deceptive24 First off thanks for pointing this out. My rebuttal here shouldn't overshadow pointing this out for people who would want to know this. Of note, FYI a new firmware was released on 2/8/2/23. I don't see any release notes, but maybe it addresses this? I don't have a power supply hefty enough to test this. With that said... Curious? Yes. Bad? Yes. Massive fail? This charger is so big and due to its price, if you were looking for a high output charger for use with an external DC input, choosing the S6 would also be a curious choice by the buyer. Let's be honest here - The HOTA S6 is going to be used overwhelmingly on AC power by the overwhelming number of buyers. I disagree a limitation hardly anyone would even run into is a massive fail.

[@Deceptive24]

@HeroPsycho fair argument, agree I will use AC 90% of the time and 400watts is is more than most people need. I guess I'm just puzzled that they chose a 26v -30v dc supply range to activate what is essentially a 60% extra charging capacity over 400w. That would be like buying a sports car advertised everywhere at 650hp but only giving 400hp if you don't use a difficult to obtain fuel. There was a Turnigy 1200w power supply perfect for this but its not longer on the market. The alternatives are really not easy (or cheap to find) sometimes more than twice the unit cost. Unfortunately the recent firmware update doesn't address this, I have written to them but not response as yet.

[@FAB1150]

​​​​@@Deceptive24ight be wrong as it's been a while since I did it, but isn't the D6 Pro a 650W charger that runs fine on 24V? I built my power supply from two server PSUs in series and my D6Pro is able to get to max power IIRC

[@SANDY-FPV]

Looks like a great charger! Especially the inbuild 400W PS. Have you ever seen the Hota F6? It has four channels!

[@Bannisterpost]

Literally just bought this charger today, picking it up later. Thanks for the video JB!

[@FPVian]

I love ToolkitRC BUT out of 6 chargers I’ve had 1 DOA so just factor that in when you buy one.

[@benupde1979]

I have a hobbymate speed h6. Very compact and is plenty of capability to charge my 2-4s packs. I parallel charge 6 4s packs at the maximum 200 watts and it typically only takes about 30 mins.

[@jlarson42]

Great review. I just got the Hota D6 Pro based on your review and continued support of it. Very happy with it. Happy flying everyone. 🤓

[@tlanfer]

I keep seeing those huge resistors for discharching, and i'm just here with my cheap automotive halogen light, a few XT30/XT60 connectors and a big circuit breaker. simple and cheap method to discharge. you just need to keep your eyes on a lipo checker on the balancer plug, because it goes very quickly 😄 The charger looks interesting. I'm still using my laptop psu + isdt q6 pro if i only charge single or small lipos, or server psu + isdt q6 pro when i need to parallel charge a lot of lipos quickly. I keep them in a small briefcase, that i could theoretically grab and throw out the window if something goes wrong. Its not the most elegant solution, but it works.

[@dirtrider88]

i just want to know where to buy one of these discharing resistors. everything i see is just a how to

[@dirtrider88]

if i wanted to use a lightbulb with this charger for external discharging would i just wire an xt60 plug to a lightbulb and plug it in to the charger like he described at 4:11? would that discharge a battery any quicker than the 3 amp discharge the charger is rated at?

[@IBHiNation]

Wow your timing. Just bought one on Sunday. Told me it would take 2-4 weeks to arrive. Showed up today.

[@BKD70]

Joshua, I'm not sure that your explanation of the end current setting is correct. Usually when the charger goes into CV (constant voltage) mode toward the end of the charge cycle, it will stop the charge when the amperage drops down to 10% of your charge current (or whatever you set in the end current). So, let's say that we're charging at 5.0amps... when the charger goes into CV mode (usually 4.2V/cell) the amperage will drop as the battery becomes fully charged. When the charge current eventually drops to 10% (or whatever you select in the end current setting) of the selected charge rate (500 milliamps) the charger will terminate the charge cycle.

[@anonymousdrft]

Idk if I heard you mentioned the wireless charging on the d6 pro. It’s totally unnecessary but I love it!

[@aXc000]

I can also recommend Hota D6+ with 300W vs this 400W S6. Comes with sturdy metal frame

[@p39483]

Instead of that external discharge method I have these dongles that plug into each lipo and run it down to storage voltage (though without balancing) over the course of a day. Really nice... if it starts raining and it's time to quit I put the dongles on the charged batteries and forget about it. Each one was about $5.

[@DoRC]

Been very happy with mine

[@laurentiupopescu9491]

Using an M6D with an empty external battery does the job of discharging to storage a lot faster than heat discharging. Most batteries are empty after a fly session. Using a port to charge and one to discharge, even with an almost full external battery, the ones charging will take out charge indirectly from the ones charged. Or, if some batteries are still full, yfli has an 1W automatic storage mode “plug and forget”. These are the best.

[@Just4FunRC]

Its a great charge for those who dont want a power supply or even new to the hobby.. but i just made myself a psu 2400w 24v 100a from two server psuwich works great for me. you had a video about it sometime ago :) I realy like this charge altough im a isdt fanboy. this would no. this hota s6 is a great workbench charger.

[@suborgulag7289]

100a? What are you charging my man

[@Just4FunRC]

@@suborgulag7289 well it comes in handy if i need to go do a job for a client. i could just charge everything at once frome it. Drone/Rov/lipo,liion/cameras/Batterybank/USB Devices. insted of waiting forever my 20mah 6s powerbank is done. then the drones, then etc etc. compare having multiple tiny 600w12v 16a as an example. but this just works great for me.

[@mmineque]

@@Just4FunRC so I guess also some stepdown 24->5V for usb? Do you have above these any smoke detectors?

[@Just4FunRC]

@@mmineque nope i have 2 server psu in series. i also hooked up ground and live from the same psu lets say PSU A= wich gives me a 12v line. contra A+B? 24v i hooked it up to a 12v usb panel. you can find those easy online... yes smoke detector above where i charge and store my lipos,liion. i store most of my lipos in torvol lipo bags. and the bigger lipos in a batsafe container. just incase. have it on metal shelf. on the floor likewise with the wall theres a stoneplate/concrete . we just moved to the new house. so shed is still beeing built on. but in a perfect world building the storage and charge setup in a fireresistense wall material would be prefered. but hey anything is better then charging then on the table in a building... when you experiance a lipo fire first hand. then you will understand why some ppl spend tons of time and cash .with theire charghing system i have also started to make a mobile charge station in my truck too........ dang i havent shown my truck on the channel yet XD

[@flyinryanfpv]

Why is it so difficult to get a power button on these electronics in this hobby? Lol took forever to get one on our goggles...

[@DrMacca]

I was thinking the exact same thing! I love my old HOTA D6 Pro charger but it always just feels weird to yank the power cable out the back whenever I want to 'turn it off'!

[@KrotowX]

AC power switch would be nice. So far I use extension cord with power switch for my HOTA D6 Pro.

[@lionelttl]

Why is it so difficult for American power output plugs to have an on off switch? 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

[@seanconnolly2179]

@@lionelttl he has a point

[@shaneridge9557]

I just cut the power cable that I use for mine in half and soldered in a power switch from a lamp cord I had laying around. Looks ghetto but fixed that annoying issue

[@MrHelidude]

Thank you so so so much. Many happy greetings from Tasmania ....... 🙂

[@SquatchWerks]

I’d really like to know more about that resistor. What do I need to look for when I’m shopping for one? That’s great! Seems incredibly useful.

[@dirtrider88]

i would also like to know. i cant find anything like that

[@hungryFPV]

I would also like to know as well

[@shotbyarian]

i never had issues with toolkitrc m6dac, a few m6d, an m8 .. all seem calibrated fine and work fine since about 2,5+ years

[@bloatedgoatfpv]

I'm looking to get one of these this fall. I'll probably go with the D6 pro. Just to chime in on toolkit rc: I've got an M4Q and it's a good little 3 channel charger. One of the 4 acts up. If I went through the calibration process it might be fine but the balance pins on that channel sit just a hair too low in the socket, so you have to tilt the plug down a bit and force it in place compared to the others. That's got to add stress to solder joints on the board in addition to the calibration issue. I've never really had to have a 4th channel, with other chargers laying around, but like so many others it really stinks when you get something that doesn't work like it should.

[@YotaGuy_Kyle]

I do like the additional charging ports. USB’s and all. I might need to retire my HTRC c240 charger. Had it almost 5 years. Still kicking.

[@memorx87]

Its a IEC C13 connector from the IEC 60320 standard. Rated 15 amps (us) and 10 amps (eu). Cheers :)

[@Daniel-ts2yo]

I love my Hota D6 Pro.... At home i use it with a power supply to charge everyting fast and if im traveling i just throw it in the backpack.... i think now i need a S6 :D

[@scottyd035ntknow]

Also broke a Hobbymate screen... go figure. The Turnigy D6 Pro is the same thing as well, what I'm running right now with a DIY 2400w 24V PSU which I learned how to make from a Bardwell video too. This would be awesome to pair with my little 700w inverter generator tho for charging at the club where the 650w off the Turnigy plus the PSU itself is a little much for it. 400w will still do 15A one one channel. 3C for a 5000mah 6S pack from storage voltage=15 minute charges. And of course its out of stock everywhere... Also the Qi charger on the D6 was completely ignored in this video. At the field it is really cool to just be able to plop my phone down on top of my charger and it gets some juice while I'm flying.

[@ChaddRainsFPV]

It would be nice if the Hota S6 could use it's 1st channel to discharge a battery into the resistor on the 2nd channel. That's how the iChargers do it; it almost wouldn't make sense to have a mode specific to LiPo when you could do this all along just using the DC output (power) function and just set up an input voltage minimum. Interesting charger though. I'll have to look at one myself 😎

[@NatureOne82]

Kind of funny. I use balance since years and never thought about charge…. Thought that this is safer. Thx. Joshua

[@yfellimban]

I think the xt60 output in the back is useful to run the goggles on bench.

[@P222RL]

hope they have a 8S charger soon

[@theflyingsandalrc]

HOTA F6 4-Channel is the one to get. 250Wx4, you can't beat it

[@slappomatthew]

My complaint with almost every charger is that the menu is vertical and the wheel is horizontal what the F

[@BeardieFPV]

I need this charger in my life.. Coming from a skymax b6 v2 it gets the job done, but only having a max 50 watt output AC sucks when trying to parallel charge multiple 6s lipos..

[@ignasanchezl]

I cant seem to find a 6s (ideally 8s) small charger that has an integrated USB PD input, I would like one because I always travel with a powerful USB PD multi port 65W adapter (could get an even bigger one once I get a new laptop) and I have a 160W one in my car, which would make it a very simple way to charge without carrying additional adapters and power supplies. There is the ISDT PD60, but it's very simplistic and only does 4s, same with the Toolkit M4 Pocket. I have thought of using a USB PD to straight DC board and that's what I might end up doing, might even integrate it, but I'm baffled that not many companies have thought of this. (Edit: I just realized that Toolkit makes a USB to XT-60 cable that plugs into their chargers, I think it just outputs a defined voltage it should work with any charger)

[@hobbyzonemodelismo]

Thanks for the review. Bought the Hota S6 Ultra based on this, however while dischargin 5200mah 2S lipos at 3A it will only achieve 0.7A each port and after a phew minutes it just reboot the charger. Even with only 1 battery connected it will only achieve 0.7A. Very disapoointed.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

This seems defective and I would contact the manufacturer or the store you bought from.

[@hobbyzonemodelismo]

​@@JoshuaBardwell Just to keep you posted Joshua. I contacted the manufacturer and was told the maximum discharge power is indeed 5W / 0.7A only, and just 1 channel can be used otherwised it will reboot. Either we have being deceived into belive it could go up to 3A per channel (that is what it states on the box, manual and manufactorer website) or my charger is defective and the factory does not want to honor any warranty. Would you mind to run a test please? Check the maximum discharge current you can go on lipo connected to 1 channel and both channels, with and without balance leads? Sorry to ask but I do not know anyone that had bought this charger. Sorry for my poor English. I appreciate your suppport.

[@BiecherBender]

hello @hobbyzone, I also bought this charger recently in Europe and it was constantly rebooting during charge. I found a reddit post that also talks about this problem. After sending it back to the reseller, they advised me to choose a different model because other customers have the same issue and they feared that changing it to a different unit from the same batch would not solve the problem. I also had this rebooting issue while charging a 4s Lipo with 100mA ( I choose this current setting because I did not really want to charge the battery, just charge for as long as possible to test the charger). But using such a low current was not necessary because rebooting issue started already after 1 minute. Maybe there is a problem with the current batch,I had a charger with the following revision: hw:1.0.1, ld: 1.0.1, sw 1.0.1 At the time of testing there was no software update available. There could also be a problem with the different power source in Europe, 230V 50Hz.

[@edsherrod5216]

Great video as always. After seeing this, I realize my two iCharger 106B+ and 12VDC power supply are probably more than I will ever need to charge up to 6S 5000 mah lipos (one per charger - I am a fixed wing pilot); however, I'd be tempted to try a Hota charger if I needed to replace my current setup. I had the Hobbymate "sorta clone" of the hota several years ago and the problem I saw was - there were no safety guards. So if I wanted to do something stupid on the Hobbymate - it would let me - and I got scared of it and sold it.

[@scottyd035ntknow]

I fly fixed wing as well. 650w on a 24VDC supply will charge two 5000mah batteries at 15A/3C so you can "refuel" two batteries in about 15 minutes. As far as "doing something stupid" just don't screw with the settings. Charge and storage and that's it, don't mess with anything else and you're good. Unless you mean try to charge a 2200mah pack at 15A, then I don't know what to tell you.

[@edsherrod5216]

@@scottyd035ntknow Hi Scott - nice to meet you. I have some safety sense and I've never charged any lipo battery at over a 1C level. I can't imagine having a lipo battery that required 15A to charge at a 1C level :-)

[@marcino.3361]

For my Hota D6 Pro I did cross channel calibration on 4.2V. The absolute voltage calibration is much harder task. Usually 1% of accuracy of non calibrated multimeter is very good :) No sence to do that...

[@XdewGaming]

I thought most people should not touch the end current because most people don’t read manufacturer recommended charging curve, but then I remembered batteries probably die by crash more in this hobby and so people don’t care as much about longevity, only convenience.

[@Simofly]

For me Hota is a nonono…sorry but as you said I must be confident with my charger. I bought an Hota F6 after using ISDT chargers for years with no problem at all , and after a couple of charges ( lipo charge to storage ) it just “poof” with white smoke all over my house, likely enough I was near and watching …I found a couple of others users with problems , maybe I was just unlucky that’s a shame because HOTA charger seems to be a very good balance between functionality and price 😢

[@timfredriksson3245]

😂 that is an f6 problem.

[@DoRC]

All electronic devices are going to have a certain percentage of failure. In general hota chargers are very reliable

[@16-BITFPV]

I stay away from iCharger myself had two that where bad.

[@timfredriksson3245]

@@DoRC the f6 has recurring problems with burn outs. The 4 year old d6 on the other hand has much better repetition.

[@contouraerials]

Picked up an s6. Turned it on once and then let it sit for a few weeks. Now it won’t turn on?!

[@stevearmett1565]

I can answer your question on why you would need to balance a battery before charging 😁 I run my Night Visionarie on 4s however the lights can only run on 3s so the balance plug is used to power the lights using only 3 cells so the battery is always out of balance when the lights are used. I use the HOTA H6 Pro Duo now that is a tiny charger and you can discharge into a car battery at up to 7c 😁👌

[@JoshuaBardwell]

But why not just run a charge cycle and it will balance at the end.

[@stevearmett1565]

@@JoshuaBardwell because the battery charges up and the first cell hits the max of 4.2v first then it discharges and charges for around 3 hours to balance them it does do it but takes forever !!! much easier to rebalance first then recharge try it with a battery you'll see 👍

[@manikal99]

Killer lab!

[@FlyturboKwad]

I'm enjoying my Hota F6 4 channels 250W per channel.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

But no built in PSU.

[@FlyturboKwad]

@@JoshuaBardwell Correct! I don't charge batteries out in the filed, yet.

[@Bill-dz1cm]

I have one of these and the instruction manuals says AC 400 watt,combined charging power 500 watt? Why is this

[@anonymousdrft]

I remember just dealing with that dang completion signal on repeat at full volume when I first got my d6 🤣

[@abdulr5320]

Nice but also disturbing t-shirt ... i like it .

[@arshishmaneckji9547]

No mention of the Revolectrix Powerlab chargers? They are in a league of their own... The PL8V2 is 1344Watts! And the Duo is 2688Watts!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

They went out of business in 2021.

[@rayrod9010]

Nice Video...were can I get a Load Resistor like that?

[@gus8378]

What about ISDT

[@markoerek6180]

Balance program @5:23... in one of your previous videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWjMkneaZ7yHgsU Joshua mentioned @4:35 that this feature is good for storage charging and a unique feature on the Hota D6, just set the balance voltage to the desired storage voltage (i.e.3.8 V). He told that the Storage charge program does not balance the batteries, so this Balance program would be better for long-term storage.

[@iandienviro]

can you charge 1s and 2s batterie? what about a 4s batterie? will a adapter be needed?

[@marc6r451]

Hota F6 seams to be even better choice, have 1000 watts, 4 channels 15 amps each, and is on the same price as hota d6. Just don't have an ac power supply. Would like to see video on that one.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

The F6 is great if you don't need an internal PSU. But the lack of an internal PSU is why it's not in this comparison. But frankly, if you need 1000 W, you're not going to find much if anything with an internal PSU.

[@BMLLINEAGE]

is there a way to charge 2s batteries or 1s batteries with HOTA S6???? is there any adapter ??? or does it only work with bigger lipo???

[@divyajnana]

Great review, thank you. Looks like a really great charger, saw one at the field this morning. If you're using an external resistance for faster battery discharging, does the charger monitor the battery, and shut off the discharge automatically?

[@Alluvian567]

Does not look like externa discharge is capable of balancing afterwards, that would be a little annoying.

[@Presidentialrun2028]

Where did you get the load resistor?

[@cloudpandarism2627]

i got 2 of those. pretty happy although the screen will crack if you just breathe/look funny at it. 😅

[@balkanfishing]

Thanks for the great review. It was convincing enough to make the purchase... via the affiliate link :) Banggoods :) Hope I'll get it soon. Just one question... I will use it for a LiIon battery of 58ah for fish finder. The battery is consisted of 18650 cells and it's 3S. What would be the max Amps I should charge such battery? Thanks!

[@macrokernel13]

How about the fan noise? Are these 3 all the same?

[@dimitarnaydenov90]

Can you recommend external storage discharger for fas storage in case my packs has not been used? 10x

[@sRoGoRs]

It's missing a power switch and that's really stupid, add a timer switch even. Separate pin outs for 2-6s packs or just throw a bunch of cables for converting different batteries in the kit.

[@1dirtovalracer]

If you had 2 of those units, could you piggy back them together and power one-off the other?

[@Karbonkage]

That plug… standard bloody kettle cord in Australia mate ;)

[@p1xelman]

ISDT D2 mark2 rebranded?

[@ctvxl]

In the system menu is a setting called "Continuous Mode" - But there is no mention of it in the manual. What does this setting do exactly?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Repeats the last charge cycle when you ug in a new bayyery without pressing start.

[@ctvxl]

@@JoshuaBardwell thanks!

[@rcmits]

can you use the icharger 40amp discharge resistors as a discharge resistor?

[@1Samuel1524]

It seems it is not compatible with the strix charging board. Or any charging board for that matter.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

That's totally untrue. I'm not sure why yours isn't working, but I assure you it is usable with parallel charging boards.

[@1Samuel1524]

@@JoshuaBardwell must be a bum unit (eBay). Only channel 2 works. Starting the return process and going to make sure I get a new one. It does show signs of wear.

[@mxracingunlimitedltd7784]

I always use the Balance Charge Option on a very similiar charger. Should i just be using the standard Lipo Charge Function instead if its using the balance leads and balancing them as well..? Came from your new HOTA S6 Continuous mode update option, which is really a nice feature to be able to add..

[@RebelJ550]

What does smart battery type in channel menu? Is it able to charge for example spektrum g2 smart batteries?

[@jsm99]

Just got one based on this review! There is an audible buzzing when it's plugged in (regardless of charging) and its not the fan. Only audible from a few inches. Is that normal for these integrated power supplies? Or is this going to burn my house down?

[@dirtrider88]

everybody in the comments in saying how you cant regen discharge but you can plug a battery into the dc in and charge a battery so whats the difference? also does anyone know where i can find a manual online fore this damn thing? i cant find one anywhere and it doesnt come with a manual

[@alasdair4161]

Hopefully they have better design quality than ToolkitRC. I have three Toolkit chargers that no longer work, two were severely overcharging odd cells in packs while reporting the set 4.16v/cell on the screen so they killed several packs before I discovered the cause. the third charger smoked after about a dozen charge cycles and went in the bin. I'd never ever trust them again. Pretty Shiny Happy Lucky Junk

[@MakoFPV]

p6 is also great

[@harrisaerialservices3002]

Fountain Pens for the win.

[@Rainman101x]

will the tenergy tb-6ab safely charge 6s batteries?

[@mfrfpv9079]

So it's for bigger rc cars

[@EricJuliaGarcia-ur5wy]

can you charge lipo batteries outside at the flight field with this charger without any power supply?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Yes if you have a field charging pack or some other DC power source.

[@lightbulbjim]

Needs an on/off switch.

[@but531]

The point is, it can balance charge properly the batteries, or the batteries will be out of balance like all my lipos are ? I have this problem and i can't find a solution, except if i solder a jst connector with two pin headers, and then charge all the cells separately until make them to have the exact same voltage. So this charger is smart enough to properly balance a lipo battery, or does the same job like all the others chargers ?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Of course it can balance charge. Any lipo charger should balaance charge.

[@ignasanchezl]

Joshua do you know what is the minimum voltage for external discharging is? I would like to use it to capacity test batteries up to 1s LFP/Lion (2.0~2.5) at high discharge rates, and I'm wondering if the charger uses external AC power while doing this.

[@ddreuss]

Hey Josh. I need some MASSIVE advise. I', about to purchase this charger. Actually the HOTA D6 Pro Lipo Charger AC200W DC650W 15A for LiHv Nicd NiMH Lipo Battery. I'm going to be building a 10" Long range next. Will this charger handle the different batteries needed to fly a 10"?

[@PerchEagle]

Does it do internal resistance measurements ?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Yes it does.

[@MazliAlias]

What does it meant "Combined Charging" mode (up to 500W for single battery)?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

You use a Y cable to plug the battery into both outputs.

[@MazliAlias]

@@JoshuaBardwell thanks, coz I've read the manuals between this and other models and seems it's the mode exclusive only to this model 👍

[@dirtrider88]

@@JoshuaBardwell wa wa WHAT? how do you do that with this charger? is combined charging the same as synchronous charging? i just bought this charger and its on the way.

[@jmalin77]

Hey Joshua, I'm really curious about drone flying, and specifically FPV drone flying. I'm totally green. Is there a way you'd recommend to try the hobby without spending a lot of money?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Get a controller such as RadioMaster Zorro, and then get a simulator such as Liftoff on Steam, and try it in the sim.

[@jmalin77]

@@JoshuaBardwell thank you for the reply!!

[@jmalin77]

@@JoshuaBardwell Is that something that I can then use on a real drone when I move up to that?

[@BravoNorris]

@@jmalin77 yeah, its the same controller i've bought to use on my new drone, as soon as i put 100h into the simulator.

[@jmalin77]

@@BravoNorris what's it like going fine the simulator to the real thing?

[@dirtrider88]

i just bought a hota s6 but im wondering if i should just return it before even opening it and get an ultra power up8. any insight?

[@xLiLG4]

Since it’s a two channel charger can you parallel charge some 4s and 6s at the same time??

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Yes. It's not parallel charging if they are separate channels.

[@whisps1]

Do you keep your chargers plugged in on your bench even when they aren’t being used? I noticed the S6 and D6 don’t have a power switch to turn them on and off when not being used.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

I turn off the power supply.

[@roberttruesdell6151]

Is there a difference between the Hota, Hobbymate, and Turnigy D6 Pros??

[@JoshuaBardwell]

HOTA and Hobbymate I know for sure are made in the same factory. I would assume Turnigy the same but can't be 100%.

[@roberttruesdell6151]

@@JoshuaBardwell no difference between them though to choose one over the other?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

No difference whatsoever.

[@leohcheung]

Does the S6 have the same NOISE problem as the old Hotas which turn the fan on intermittently even at idle?

[@DoRC]

In my experience no. It has a much quieter fan and it also behaves a lot better

[@AphexTwinII]

Does this charger need 24V to get the full 650W or will it run on a 12v server PSU at 650W? I have another charger rated at 300W per channel but can only get about 7A per channel on a 6S 5000mAh.

[@BigAlFPV17]

Been looking for a charger for quite a while. Unless I missed it, can you plug in a parallel charging board to one of the ports on there? Thanks much & excellent review JB!!

[@kleinbottled79]

(Most?) Parallel balance boards just plug into the regular balance port. Usually the 6s port unless you have a balance board that goes to 8s. So if it has balance ports, then yes.