The new Venom Pro Charger 2 comes with an internal power supply and is capable of charging at up to 6 amps. Some of its other features include- can charge up to 6S Lipo, on-board balance block, fan cooled, five memory profiles, and comes with 9 of the most popular charge leads. The part number is #677, the street price is $69, and it is expect to hit hobby shop shelves in mid-May.

Also new from Venom is their PS 600 Power Supply. This is a dual output unit that is constructed out of stamped steel. For power, the PS 600 is good for up to 40 amps (600 watts max) and it has an adjustable output of zero to twenty volts. A backlit LED screen makes it easy to read while a fan helps it to keep its cool. The part number is #0673, the street price is $199, and it has an expected release date of late May.

For more information on all of the fine products from Venom Group hit up THIS LINK.

Brian is doing his happy dance around the office today and that means only one thing, it’s Friday! How about a TGIF Mystery Link?

The CUBE200 is a DC only charger and can charge at up to 6 amps on each of its 4 ports. If you race a lot of classes, or simply bring a half dozen cars to the local bash spot, one 4 port charger goes a long ways towards saving space while still keeping all your packs charged.

The Racers Edge CUBE200 can charge up to a 6S Lithium pack and has a maximum discharge rate of 1 amp. It also comes with a blue backlit LCD display, a 5v 1 amp USB output, and a 5 year warranty.

Looking for more information on battery chargers? If so, check out THIS LINK right here on BigSquidRC.

In addition to servo’s, Hitec was showing off their latest transmitters and battery chargers. The new Hitec Aurora 9X transmitter features ultra fast response and 9 channels for use on your airplane. For chargers, the new Hitec X1 Touch was on display. The new X1 has a touch screen, charges all popular chemistries, and can charge at up to 7 amps.

For more information on all of the fine products from Hitec HERE is the link to their website, for more Hitec news right here on BigSquidRC check out THIS link.

Some of the primary features of the EcoPower include- AC/DC, charge rates up to 10 amps, and charges Lipo, LiFe, and NiMH. The 610 is a 200 watt charger that can charge up to 6S Lipo or 18 cell NiMH.

Part number for the Electron 610 is #ECP-1002 and it has a street price of $99. HERE is the link that takes you directly to the Electron 610 on A Main’s website.

We’ve made it through yet another work week, why not check out a BigSquidRC TGIF Mystery Link?

We reviewed the iMaxRC X200 a few weeks ago, hit up THIS link to read the full review.

The battery charger wars have been raging hard lately and one of the hottest new chargers on the market is the Venom Medion Dual 10 amp. The Medion comes not only with all the “standard” features that a high end charger would include, but it “one-ups” the pack by having built in speakers. Are the speakers just a gimmick? Does the Venom provide a quality charge to your battery? And most importantly, is it worth your hard earned cash? Let’s find out shall we…

From: Venom
Direct Link: Medion Dual Charger

Review By: Cubby
Pics By: Cubby

Street Price: $199

Specs:

Input Voltage: 11.0-18.0V
Circuit Power: 200W max charge x 2, 25W max discharge x 2
Charge Current: 0.1-10.0A x 2
Discharge Current: 0.1-5.0A x 2
Cell Balancing: Yes
Current Drain for LiPo Balance: 200mAh/cell
Alarm Voltage: Lower than 10V or grerater than 18V
Weight: 3lbs 10oz
Dimensions: 11.8 x 5.9 x 3.35″
Max Cell Ni-MH: 18
Max Cell Lithium: 6S
USB: Yes
Fan: Yes
Temp probe: Included
Requires: 11-18V DC Power Supply (300 watt or greater recommended)
Warranty: “Venom warrants this product to be free of material and workmanship defects when new. Venom will at its sole discretion repair or replace components free of charge within 90 days from date of purchase or within 30 days for all electronic components.”

Primary Competition: Hitec Ultima X2, TrakPower VR-1, Hyperion 720iDUO3

What’s In The Box: Charger, LED light, audio cable, balance boards, various wiring, instructions

Build Quality: The chassis of the Medion is constructed out of metal and feels rock solid. Wiring looked to be of good quality.

Testers: Cubby, Brian, Tim, and Iron Mike

Set-up Notes: We used the Venom Medion off a TrakPower DPS power supply and charged a variety of Pro-Match and TrakPower Lipo batteries with it.

Ease of Use: We did not have to crack out the manual to use the Venom. Yes, it took a few minutes to get acquainted with the menu, but for the most part it was easy sailing.

Power: 200 watts x two channels is quite robust. No, that is not the most power available on the market, but having the ability to charge two packs at 10 amps each is quite respectable.

On track: To test how packs charged on the Venom felt on the track we used our Castle powered Pro-Line Pro-2 truck. Some of the packs were Trakpower, while others were Pro-Match, and we only used the balance mode on the Venom. We also charged the packs on our reference charger for comparison purposes. Driving the Lipo’s after they were charged on the Venom proved that it does indeed provide very high quality charges. Low end snap was very robust and the voltage on the top-end seemed top notch. To boil it down, packs charged on the Venom felt downright awesome when used in our test truck.

Broken Parts/Issues: We submitted the Medion to our normal thrashing- meaning we purposely dropped it, stood on it, etc, and it still works fine today.

As far as “issues” go, the audio cable that came with the Medion did not work properly. The supplied cable would only yield left channel audio when pushed all the way in, but would do stereo if left about half way out. When we used one of our own audio cables there was no issue.

During our “2C fast charge” testing we saw inconsistent results. Meaning? Our reference charger would roughly take the same amount of time to charge a pack and then the pack would yield roughly the same results under a load. On fast charge with the Venom the differences in charge times would vary up to 10 minutes in length, and the packs performance under load would vary up to 600 mah. This is a wider spread than we’ve seen in our previous testing. We did not notice this issue when balance charging with the Venom.

Performance/Quality of charge testing- All performance bench testing was done with a Pro-Match 2S 5000 mah Lipo. We compared the Venom against our “reference” charger, a Hyperion 720iNet3. For complete testing criteria just shoot us an email or read one of our recent charger reviews.

Quality Of 2C Fast Charge

Speed of 2C Fast Charge (time to charge up a pack)-

Reference Charger: Run #1- 40 minutes 44 seconds, Run #3- 40 minutes 31 seconds
Venom Medion: Run #2- 57 minutes 48 seconds, Run #4- 60 minutes 58 seconds

Output voltage-

Reference Charger (run #1, tested 4662 mah, 9:21 runtime)

2 minutes- 7.343 volts
4 minutes- 7.136 v
6 minutes- 7.005 v
8 minutes- 6.879 v

Venom Medion (run #2, tested 4561 mah, 9:10 runtime)

2 minutes- 7.312 volts
4 minutes- 7.117 v
6 minutes- 6.996 v
8 minutes- 6.853 v

Reference Charger (run #3, tested 4687 mah, 9:25 runtime)

2 minutes- 7.363 volts
4 minutes- 7.152 v
6 minutes- 7.020 v
8 minutes- 6.899 v

Venom Medion (run #4, tested 4637 mah, 9:18 runtime)

2 minutes- 7.286 volts
4 minutes- 7.100 v
6 minutes- 6.981 v
8 minutes- 6.855 v

Conclusions 2C Fast Charge- As I always note- our sample size is extremely small and therefore not scientific. From our limited amount of data it would appear that the Venom takes much longer to do a “fast 2C” charge, up to 20 minutes longer, and even though it took longer to charge, the quality of charge was not as good as our reference. Voltage was lower on the pack when charged by the Venom and the runtime was shorter. Based on our limited data it would appear our reference battery charger produced a faster and higher quality 2C fast charge.

Quality of 2C Balance Charge

Speed of 2C Balance Charge (time to charge up a pack)-

Reference Charger: Run #1- 35 minutes 46 seconds, Run #3- 35 minutes 53 seconds
Venom Medion: Run #2- 48 minutes 52 seconds, Run #4- 52 minutes 55 seconds

Reference Charger (run #1, tested 4712 mah, 9:27 runtime)

2 minutes- 7.333 volts
4 minutes- 7.125 v
6 minutes- 6.993 v
8 minutes- 6.878 v

Venom Medion (run #2, tested 4879 mah, 9:47 runtime)

2 minutes- 7.405 volts
4 minutes- 7.174 v
6 minutes- 7.025 v
8 minutes- 6.923 v

Reference Charger (run #3, tested 4595 mah, 9:13 runtime)

2 minutes- 7.287 volts
4 minutes- 7.094 v
6 minutes- 6.975 v
8 minutes- 6.839 v

Venom Medion (run #4, tested 4870 mah, 9:46 runtime)

2 minutes- 7.366 volts
4 minutes- 7.142 v
6 minutes- 6.999 v
8 minutes- 6.896 v

Conclusions 2C Balance Charge- The Venom Medion took longer to perform a 2C balance charge (by roughly 15 minutes), but it appeared to give a higher quality charge than our reference. The pack provided both longer runtimes and higher voltages after being 2C balance charged on the Venom.

Misc Notes:

Some of our testers really liked the included USB/LED light, but I didn’t think it provided enough light. I’m an old fart who needs a ton of light to see anything very well so I preferred using a higher powered pit light. However, I must say the provided LED is much better than nothing in a pinch, and it takes up virtually no space on your pit table or in your pit box.

Everyone at the track thought the Venom looked pretty cool, it drew a lot of attention.

The audio quality of the included speakers was about the same as those in a laptop computer, but the Medion could provide more volume. Are the speakers worth having in the battery charger? One of our testers lugs around this huge boombox when he goes bashing or to a track. This particular tester really liked having speakers in the Venom charger, it saved him time, space and energy. Personally, I think having them is very convenient.

The tilted display on the Venom was easy to read and showed all the pertinent info you need.

The Medion yielded some of the highest quality balance charges we’ve seen compared to our reference charger, very impressive. You could literally have a tenth of of a volt more juice on tap simply by using the Medion charger. To some people this may not matter, but to others a tenth of a volt under load is a huge deal.

Downsides:

We would have liked to have seen a volume control on the charger. It would just be more convenient that way.

We would have liked to have seen a second USB output. The Medion comes with one, but if you have the LED light plugged in you’ll need another one to charge your cell phone with.

A 2C non-balance fast charge time of over 60 minutes is simply too long, and yielded poor voltage and runtime numbers compared to our reference. What does this mean to you? Don’t use the “fast charge” mode unless you have to.

Summary:

Time To Bash: C The Venom comes with a plethora of wires to help get you going on nearly any type of charge duty, but it takes a while getting used to the menu and charge times were on the slow side.

Car Show Rating: B The Venom Medion definitely turned heads in the pits. The red anodized chassis and speakers make for a cool looking charger.

Bash-A-Bility: A We beat on the Medion and ran it full tilt on both channels without letting out any of the magic smoke.

Power: B At 200 watts per channel the Medion is no lightweight.

Value: B The Medion has built in speakers and even comes with an LED pit light adding to its value rating.

BigSquid Rating: B The Venom Medion gets a rock solid B for an overall rating. The Medion is capable of very high quality charges (in balance mode) which should make it a top pick for people looking to get the very best performance out of their Lipo packs. For others, it’s a nice unit because it saves so much space- you get a dual charger, speakers, and a pit light in a relatively small package.

Pictured to the left is the new Traxxas XH Balance Board for making sure your Lipo batteries get an optimal charge. The part number is #2947 and it has a retail price of $10.

Pictured below are the Traxxas #2946 charge lead, retail price $6 and the new Traxxas Temp Sensor. Part number for the temp sensor is #2928 and it has a retail price of $11.

For more information on these and other fine Traxxas products hit up their official Website.

Looking for more Traxxas news? We have loads more right HERE.

If you are into the rc hobby to stay there are a few items that you use all the time where spending the extra money on a high end item is worth it. For example, a good transmitter will last for years and be worth every extra penny. On that same note, if you are a serious hobbyist you need a good 12 volt power supply. A good power supply is well worth the extra cash as the years pass by.

When TrakPower introduced their new VR-1 Battery Charger they also introduced a mating power supply called the DPS 12v 25 amp. When we reviewed the VR-1 the DPS worked as a perfect mate for it, since then we’ve been running the tar out of it on a variety of other battery chargers to see how it stacks up. Let’s get on to the review shall we?

From: TrakPower
Direct Link: DPS Power Supply

Review By: Cubby
Pics By: Cubby

Specs-

Input Voltage: AC 100V-240V, 50-60Hz
DC Output Voltage: 12V
DC Output Current: 25A maximum
USB Output: 5V, 500mA
Power Control: Rear-mounted illuminated rocker switch
Cooling: 40 x 40 x 20mm fan
Output Connections: 3 sets of 4mm banana output jacks
Overload Protection: built-in current limiter
Case Size: 6.0 x 7.0 x 2.0 in
Weight: 38.8 oz
Warranty: 1 year limited
Part #TKPP5505
Street Price: $99

Primary Competition: Venom PS350, Hitec ePowerBox 30, LRP Competition 20 amp, and multiple others.

What’s In The Box: Power supply, power cord, manual and wire with banana plugs.

Build Quality: Solid metal case, large, nicely done on/off switch, very nice all around.

Testers: Cubby, Brian, Tim, and Iron Mike

Set-up Notes: While we primarily used the DPS with the TrakPower VR-1 battery charger, we also used it with a Radient Origin, a pair of Hyperion 720iNet3′s and a pair of Duratrax ICE’s.

Ease of Use: Super easy, plug the DPS into a wall outlet then plug in your battery charger (or chargers) via 4mm banana plugs. The DPS also easily mounts right below the TrakPower VR-1 Race Charger.

Power: The DPS is rated for 25 amps maximum, but we pushed it much farther than that on multiple occasions. If you are planning on using the DPS only with the TrakPower VR-1 you are dialed, it has more than enough yank. The 25 amps the DPS provides is more than enough for most applications, but if you do a lot of very high current or high cell count charging the DPS might not have enough power for those applications.

Broken Parts/Issues: The DPS got our usual drop test from our pit table, about a 27″ drop, to concrete with no issues afterwards. Ok, it did have a slight dent on the corner, but worked to perfection.

We also stress tested the DPS by putting a pair of Hyperion chargers on it, each charging a 2S Lipo at 15 amps (about a 252 watt load). The DPS handled the pair of Hyperions at 15 amp each with no issue. We measured a maximum case temp of 95 degrees Fahrenheit (67 ambient) and the lowest we saw the voltage drop was 11.7. Very impressive, rock solid power supply. We’ve seen other “25 amp” power supplies shut down (even burn up) on that load.

Misc Notes:

The UBS port comes in amazingly handy, we used it on a bunch of different electronics.

The output lights are neat and function properly.

The DPS looks very trick, definitely not a run of the mill power supply.

The DPS has 3 pairs of outputs, which is much nicer than most power supplies that have just one or two.

The way the TrakPower VR-1 charger mates to the DPS is very sano.

Downsides:

While the fan wasn’t the loudest we’ve heard (far from it), it wasn’t the quietest either. If we could make one improvement on the DPS it would be a quieter fan.

SUMMARY

Time To Bash: A It doesn’t get any faster than this, plug it into the wall, plug your charger in, flip the switch and you are dialed. It takes about a minute to hook it up, that’s pretty fast for anything in the rc world.

Car Show Rating: A The TrakPower DPS has the distinction of being the best looking power supply on the market. From it’s black “murdered out” paint to its variable output lights, it’s very trick.

Bash-A-Bility: A We dropped it off a pit table to concrete and rocked it with a pair of chargers at 15 amps with absolutely no issues afterwards.

Power: B At 25 amps the DPS is no lightweight, but there are units on the market with more raw power.

Value: B It looks great, it has three pairs of 4mm bullet outputs, it has output lights, and it has a very handy USB output, all for about $100. When looking around at its competition the DPS typically has more features and/or more power, thus making it a good value in our eyes.

Big Squid Rating: A- Good power, great features, and very trick looking, if you want the best 25 amp power supply on the market the TrakPower DPS is it.

Every day more and more people make the jump into the wonderful world of hobby grade rc’s. Most of these people end up walking out the hobby shop door with a RTR and low-end Ni-MH battery. New people to the hobby don’t really need some high-zoot uber charger, they need a charger that is easy to use with enough power to get the job done. Today we are taking a closer look at such a charger, the Radient Origin. Is the Origin easy for a noob to use? Can it stand up to the day-to-day beating of a basher? Most importantly, is it worth the cash? Read on and find out…

From: Radient
Direct Link: Origin Battery Charger

Review By: Cubby
Pics By: Cubby

Specs-

AC Input: 100-240v
DC Input: 12-15v
Battery Type: Ni-MH and NiCd
Max charge rate: 4 amps
Charge rates: 1, 2, 3, or 4 amps
Maximum cell count: 8 cells
Interal Power Supply: 35 watts
Connectors: Tamiya, mini/micro adapter
Dimensions: 150x70x40mm
Weight: 300 grams
Street Price: $35

Primary Competition: Duratrax Onyx 100 and Dynamite Prophet Plus II

What’s In The Box: The Charger, mini-micro adapter, and instruction manual.

Build Quality: The case is constructed entirely out of plastic but had a decent feel to it.

Testers: Cubby, Brian, Iron Mike

Set-up Notes: As we didn’t have any packs laying around with Tamiya connectors still on them, we ended up using a Tamiya to Traxxas adapter. While the Origin can be run off AC power we elected to power it DC style off a TrakPower DPS 25 amp power supply.

Ease of Use: Exceptionally easy. None of our testers had to refer to the manual to perform a successful charge, however, if you are truly a noob I would highly recommend reading the instructions from front to back. The Origin has one light on the front and just one button. The instructions in brief are printed right by the button. Press once for a 1 amp charge, again for a 2 amp, etc. To start the charge simply hold the button down. The light is red while charging, green when finished, thus making it very easy to use.

Power: 4 amps is the maximum charge rate of the Origin. That might not sound like much at all, but when used in context that is a decent charge rate. For example, the only Ni-MH batteries we had laying around the office were some RTR batteries from ECX. These were 1800 mah 6 cell Ni-MH packs. A 2 amp charge rate was just above a 1C rate, giving us slightly under 1 hour charge times. Had we elected to turn up the charge rate to 4 amps that would have resulted in charge times of less than 30 minutes (just above 2C). I would not recommend you charging RTR Ni-MH packs faster than 1C, but the moral of the story is that Origin has more than enough power for most low-end RTR batteries.

Broken Parts/Issues: We put Iron Mike in charge of beating on the Origin and he did a great job. He dropped it from the drivers stand, stood on top of it (Mike weighs around 180 lbs) and would throw it at us when we least expected it, giving us no chance to actually catch it before it crashed to the ground. The Origin still lives today, working just fine. It looks much rougher around the edges, but proved quite durable for us.

Perhaps the biggest thing that kills chargers is time/heat. We have used the Origin for roughly 50 charges thus far with no issues.

Misc Notes:

The instruction manual was easy to understand and well written with the noob in mind.

The Origin has two foam strips on its top. The manual states this area can be used as a “storage tray” when the charger is not in use. We used it as rather handy parts tray all the time.

The Origin is quite small, which we REALLY like. It fits easy in a toolbox and takes up very little space on your table or tailgate.

Downsides:

We would like to have seen more options for connectors included in the box. Yes, the stock Tamiya connector is the best choice for this particular application, but having more choices in the box would be even better.

SUMMARY

Time To Bash: C If you are using Tamiya connectors you are dialed, if not get ready to do some soldering or to buy an adapter.

Car Show Rating: C Clean but very basic look.

Bash-A-Bility: A We went above and beyond to destroy the Origin and it still works fine today.

Power: C More than enough power to quickly charge low-end Ni-MH batteries, but the exact same power as its direct competition.

Value: B The Origin is a few bucks more than the Duratrax, a few bucks less than the Dynamite, and all have similar specs. It earns a B here because of its form factor and storage tray, offering a little bit more for the money.

Big Squid Rating: B- If you are looking for a reliable and simple to use Ni-MH charger the Radient Origin is a solid choice.

* DC Input: 12-18 volts
* Max Charge Power: 2 x 200 watts (up to 10 amps)
* Max. Discharge Power: 2 x 25 watts (up to 5 amps)
* Current Drain For Balancing: 200mA/cell
* NiCd/NiMH Battery Cell Count: 1 – 15cells
* LiPo/LiFe/LiIon Cell Count: 1 – 6cells
* Pb Battery Voltage: 2-20volts
* USB Port: 5volts – 1amp
* Display: Blue Backlit LCD
* Net Weight: 3.08 lbs
* Dimensions: 195mm x 92mm x 140mm
* Warranty: 5 year Manufacture Defect
* Part #RCESC2200

Expect a street price of $180 for the Twin400 and you can get more information at THIS link on the Racers Edge website.

Want to learn more about Racers Edge? Try THIS link right here on BigSquidRC.