This was by far the best review of the ISDT SC-608 I've watched. I was leaning towards the Q6 as it allows adjustment of charge voltage, but knowing I can calibrate the 608 I may pickup this instead.
Firmware Sharing allows you to deploy the firmware version of one charger to another. The chargers will need to be connected together with the cable included with the SC-Linker USB dongle or with a standard male-to-male stereo jack cable. Power both chargers the standard way, then select this option and the other charger will initiate the update process automatically.
From fixit49, yes hands down the most informative video so far in En. Have purchased all of isdt's Chargers and update all firmware, have not had any problems with all three chargers at this point.
Thank you! I hope you never have issues with these. They are good chargers, the 608 has been solid after the mods... will get diggin on the 620 soon! :)
Great review. I love this charger, and bought three of them.... a couple I bought used because ISDT No longer makes them. Just found a stash of new ones and scored three more NIB. Going to build a field charging setup. Thanks!
Great video dude I have the older model and have been putting up with the occasional screen/over heating issues but I now have the confidence to carry out the fixes you have outlined. Thank you for the vid
Nice video and good tempo . I think you may have overlooked the fact that the LCD ribbon cable has a clamp bar system where it connects to the main board
might be worth a mention . I saw a so called RC quad expert guy modding a mobius camera completely destroy it. Its important to know whether its the push in/out type or hinge type
Sure... but that air needs to come from somewhere! The fan is located directly above the heatsink, and the best option would be to blow cold air from the outside directly at it, rather than suck air out... with questionable efficiency when it comes to cooling the heatsink! In any case my continued use of the charger has only confirmed that reversing the fan so it blows air at the heatsink GREATLY reduces the charger's working temperature! The air still makes it out of the charger via the rest of the openings made for that purpose! :)
Thank you for this video. Very informative and to the point. 60°C should not be a problem for the electronics but obviously cooler is always better. I would have preferred an easier way to calibrate the voltage readings than to ask a code and to input undocumented clicks into the encoder... I guess I will have to write the procedure somewhere so that I can remember it. Still better than the IMax B6 factory firmware calibration...
I am glad you found it useful! The calibration process is complicated like this in order to prevent everybody from using their cheap multimeters, that are almost certainly not accurate, to calibrate their chargers! :) I used very expensive gear to do the calibration.
You're right it's just annoying for users that know what they are doing. I will personally use a 5 1/2 digits bench multimeter to do the job (RIGOL DM3058E). I expected the factory calibration to be better. It reads a bit low and overcharges the batteries to 16.86V for my 4S batteries. Not very good.
Well... after trying to calibrate this thing I can say I'm not impressed. The ADC circuit seems less accurate than the Imax B6 original I've got. I needed to add 5-10mV to the readings per cell to prevent it from overcharging my batteries and I know my meter is accurate. Probably also because it is not temperature compensated and when you do the calibration cold it measures low when hot. But what can you expect when they are not even able to put a decent encoder and fan... The only advantage I see to this thing is the 160W input rating, the higher balancing current and the autodetection of number of cells. Otherwise an Imax B6 with Cheali firmware is more accurate and allows to select the threshold voltages.
And I guess it is probably the reason it overcharges the batteries from the factory because they do the calibration with the unit cold and when you charge a battery it heats up and reads low. It was a bit surprising they couldn't calibrate the thing properly. Now I know why.
Informative video. Unfortunately this charger has some design flaws. Its input protection is poor, and upon being connected in reverse polarity to a 1S battery it actually blew the connection between the input connector and the board. That's right, it didn't blow the fuse, it blew the connection. I'm fixing it myself because I don't want to wait for a replacement and your guide to disassembly was very helpful! I was able to disassemble the unit without entirely removing the LCD so it might not even be "warranty void" after this fix ; )
Hehe, good to know you can disassemble it without... maybe voiding the warranty! Honestly I am not too worried about reverse polarity because I make a point to always use XT60 connectors when working with this charger, and that kinda makes it hard to mess it up!
Well I messed up with the XT60 on this cell, it was a 4S that had 2 swollen cells but the other two were fine, so I destroyed the swollen ones and soldered wires onto the single cells. Unfortunately the leads weren't marked so I soldered red to negative and black to positive. The rest is predictable.
I see. That is why when I solder connectors on, I ALWAYS have something around me with an XT60 on, so I can verify polarity! Sadly I know all too well what can happen when you plug in reversed and do my best to avoid making that mistake! :) So, did you after all manage to fix it?
With the latest update, do I still need to ask isdt for the calibration code? Because in all honesty I don't trust a company to answer my emails since I have emailed them asking them the same question and they havent replied at all. Also... This was an awesome video. I'm glad you made it :)
Thanks! Not sure which update is the latest... I haven't updated the charger since I made this video, because... you know... if it works, why break it?! :D
Being a smart balance charger it would be nice to measure how much capacity per cell after charge to keep a eye on individual cells .do you know if this is possible with software or if there is a balance charger out there ? cheers Brett Great video also
If it was charigng via only the balance cable maybe it would be able to monitor capacity per each cell, but when charging via the main leads... it is not entirely certain how much power goes in each cell! I don't think I've seen a charger to do that, unless you are charging separate cells.
hi, thanx for the vid (its verry helpfull) why i have to calibrate my isdt sc-608? How i exectly calibrate the isdt sc-608? i have already the unlock code..
Hmmm... I can't say for sure to be honest... I know from experience the iCharger does, but I don't think I've ever reversed the polarity here... sorry to hear yours is not working! It may be easy to repair it though, take it to a cell phone repair shop.
Hi Nikola, first of all - brilliant job. I'm really considering to buy one for my e-bike. What I think is to add an additional aluminium heat sink over the copper one in order to improve the cooling. Of course it will be tiny and low profile. How do you think - is there enough space for it ?
Sounds like a solid plan, but I can't say for sure, didn't really pay attention about this when I opened it. There may be enough space for a low profile one, but what would be the purpose of an additional heatsink, if you rotate the fan is blows inside of the charger right at the copper one?
As far as I know the copper have a better thermal conductivity than the aluminium, but aluminium have a better heat dissipation in the air because it`s surface is not as flat as the copper but full with little dents and bumps. IMHO additional aluminium heat sink will increase the cooling even better.
That's fair. If you want to, do it. :) Just make sure there is enough room for one. Look at the fan from the outside I can't really tell how much space there is between it and the coppter heatsink sadly!
A nice charger but i just do not understand why these things are not calibrated from the factory.By accident i charged my lipo on the wrong power setting HV and overcharged it.
Hm... are you certain you didn't short anything out while making this mod? Perhaps also soldering another pad in addition to the ones of the resistor? Or perhaps the wrong resistor??
Adjusting the voltage calibration using a $3 Banggood volt meter is ill advised. The Q version allow access to voltage calibration without a special access code.
Happens when the charger overheats and a resistor burns out in the charger! That was a problem only on the first SC-608 units. ISDT have confirmed that they have fixed the problem on later versions of the charger.
On this one you will not be able to set the discharge so low, the 620 allows for that, but it is not balance discharging, just regular discharging. However, it will take forever for this charger to discharge a descent sized pack, especially a 6S one, so I would suggest you plug the pack to be discharged in as a source, and charge another battery. That way you can discharge the LiIon pack much faster. You can set custom voltage cut off for the input so you can discharge it to any voltage you want.
ok understand , was planing for testing recovered laptop cells but ive found that all these smart charger aren’t that clever to do some auto balance discharge to pre set volts. maybe there is a open source charger ? cheers Brett
For recycled laptop cells I use this charger: goo.gl/m6Li8D It will charge, discharge, and automatically cycle the cells a set amount and will show capacity, internal resistance, etc. It is SUPER useful and I have been using it a lot lately!
Hi, the link is in the video description, but here it is again: www.banggood.com/ISDT-SC-608-150W-8A-MINI-Smart-LCD-Battery-Balance-Charger-p-1057271.html?p=6L1818635832201406F2
great video. I have problem with the fan and I'm thinking about replacing it with a maglev one. Do you know the dimensions? And what is the procedure of calibration? Do you need to have the 6s lipo to calibrate it? I was thinking about using some voltage reference IC to calibrate it.
I am not sure of the exact fan measurements, but if you want to replace it anyway, I say open the charger and take down the measurements! As for the calibration, you don't need a 6S battery, but since I had one it was an easy way to make sure I've calibrated all cell points at the same time, since they are calibrated separately.
I still have the option to return it so I don't want to open it but from what I can see through the vent holes it looks like it is 30x30x10mm fan. About the calibration. What is the process itself? Do you connect some voltage to the connectors and change the wrong values or is it automatic? Is it one point calibration? Does it have to be some specified value of voltage (4.2V for ex.)?
Watch the video and at the end you will see the calibration process! Yuo just need to have a battery connected to the balance pins and the power connector, go into the calibration menu, and manually adjust the values on each cell and the total battery voltage to the correct ones, IF you know for sure the current measurements are not correct, and have a sure way to measure correct battery voltage with the proper gear.
I changed the fan yesterday for Sunon MC30101V2-000U-A99 with maglev bearing. The original one was total garbage. The current draw was about 200mA because of defective bearing and the fan itself overheated and stopped. The Sunon draws about 40mA and works. I changed the orientation of the fan to blow inside the charger. Thanks for the video it definitely helped with disassembly.
Discharging is not the same as charging! During discharge I think the max this unit can do is 10 or 15W, and depending on battery voltage, that can easily be 0.3Amps. If you want a faster discharge, you may need to get a more powerful charger, like the iCharger 308DUO (goo.gl/HsdSu8) for instance, or create some dummy load to discharge the battery faster. The PSU will help while charger, not while discharging.
It depends on what version yours came with! In any case the voltage calibration needs to ONLY be done it absolutely necessary and you have confirmed for certain that it is needed. Otherwise you may ruin your batteries.
is that standard 40mm fan? id replace it with a noctua. they have well balance blades, its dead silent, and has slightly better cooling efficiency. that's stupid that they put the fan in backwards. do they put their shoes on the wrong foot too? lol
Not sure of the exact sizing at this time, but good tip on those fans! The reason why they mount it that way is so it wouldn't push in dust into the components... but it really lowers the cooling efficiency! I would rather clean it up from time to time rather than have to listen to the fan all the time!
that's true but air coming from the sides of chips would still carry dust not as much would stick but cooling would be less effective. i wouldn't mind cleaning it either. i try to clean the dust out of my pc regularly anyway. anyway thanks for showing it. i'm defiantly interested the hobbymate elite i recently bought wont charge a 3 cell lipo but it charges 2 4-6 cell because the 3 cell port wore out after 10 uses... this one inst much more
china metals? the 3s port on my hobbymate elite will read any given 2 cells at any voltage and say its over voltage because the total is over what a 2s holds. while taking to the seller about it it read 4.99v on one cell. I think that would make the battery pop if it got that high. I had just received the battery in the mail and check it with a cell checker and it read ~3.5v ea... every other port works and they seem to be all connected in the PCB from what i can tell. (all pin ones connected, all pin twos, etc) if the poets wear out that quickly its going to be useless pretty fast.
Weird... not sure I've ever encountered a problem quite like this! Any chance you can open it up and see if anything has been severed on the inside for that pin?
I have a problem with my charger just like in the film how to solve this problem ISDT 620 charger My software version 2.1.0.8 Shows me a 4.20 volt charger and after checking with another voltmeter shows me 4.14 volts I understood that you could make a calibrate Thanks in advance Alex
Yes, when you go to the system information tab, you need to send the serial number to ISDT and they will send you back an unlock code so you can calibrate it. HOWEVER, and this is VERY important, you need to calibrate by verifying the voltage of the battery with a high quality and expensive multimeter or other equipment. The cheap ones are not accurate, and it is entirely possible that your charger is spot on, but your voltage meter is not super accurate.
Thank you very much dear friend for the speed you returned to me I would be very happy if you could make a video just for this matter And thank you very much
I am not certain what connector the Fatshark has. If you can make an adapter for the battery it should work without a problem, the Fatshark is a 2S LiIon pack if I remember correctly, this charger has a program for LiIon cells.
ArxangelRC mine is li-po 1000mah 7.4 2S. And i have an adapter. So if select lipo4.20v and set my charger to 2s at 1amp. I can charge properly without the balance lead?
Yes, you don't have to have a balance lead connected. The charger will ask you if you want to charge without a balance, you confirm YES, and it will charge it.
If you have a multimeter you could open it up and measure the plug of the fan if it has voltage going to it... but in order for voltage to appear there you will either connect battery and measure while it is doing the start up tests, or you will need to find a way to bring the charger's temperature up to 60 degrees, so it would spin up the fan. Somebody in the comments here mentioned some replacement fan that they have installed, have a look through them and see if you can find it.
Mine is on 1.0.2.0 so it is possible that the screen going dark when it overheats has been fixed, but I am pretty sure the fan is still blowing air out of the charger, and in some cases may come a little unbalanced! :)
Hello, I have this charger and in the first test I checked that a lipo 3s the charger gave me as well loaded and balanced but with safelipo I have checked that each cell gives a different value. Can this be calibrated? According to the charger the external temperature was 50 degrees Celsius but the fan was not started in no time. When you plug in the charger does turn on the fan a few seconds, so discard that it is defective.
Look to the end of the video and you will see the requirements for the calibration procedure: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-B4R5a_FRzHg.htmlm57s As for the fan, the charger actually shows internal temperature, and it will turn on only when that reaches 59-60 degrees.
my q6 will only discharge at .4 amps no matter what setting you put in here. It started this on only the second time I used it. Anyone else have this problem?
i was trying to go to 15.4v storage from 16.2 I believe. a single Turnigy Graphene 4S 1300mah 65C. The chargers manual says it can discharge anywhere from 0.1A to 3.0A
The max discharge of the Q6 is 8W, and 16.2v x 0.4A equals roughly 6.5W, which is pretty close to its max rating, so I would say it is working within specification! If you were to discharge a 1S battery, you would probably get around 2A discharge.
Just my 2c, the term FTDI is over used. Any USB -> Serial chip will do, FTDI is just an overpriced and dodgy brand of these kind of chips, i'd keep well clear of them. The term "USB to Serial" should be used in place of "FTDI" Some of you even have native serial ports in your PC's still (believe it or not!) and can do without the USB to serial chip.
