you must have recovered from celebrating US independence by now,
so what is your overall conclusion of this charging system?
I'm not dead yet ... really. I've been so busy with 'real world' stuff (getting married @ 16/09/2006) that I completely forgot to post my 'findings' ... sorry folks.
Anyway, here is the post you've been waiting for ... I actually started it way back in July, right after the race meeting so the wording is a bit dated ... but you'll get over it
----------------------------------------
OK, got to do a shakedown with my new ICC this weekend. I am very impressed with the quality of the unit. The basic structure of the unit I have is slightly different than what they show on the website which you can see here:
www.spintec.nl/ICC.shtml ... the one in my possession is like
the second photo posted by DirtRacer at
the top of this thread. This difference is an improvement, however. Moving the cradle lever 'inside' of the main structure is a good thing, this certainly helps protect it from damage.
Anyway on to more of my thoughts on the charger.
The unit is relatively light and compact. The display is awesome, super-bright backlight and easy to read characters. The 'SpinClick' wheel is good, but initially I found it to be somewhat imprecise with respect to spinning-and-clicking. Sometimes when I wanted a 'click' the system would register a ‘spin’, which was a bit frustrating/confusing initially. This could just be the result of it being new to me and that I am just not accustomed to the wheel. I have used a Turbo 35, and compared to its wheel interface, the SpinClick is not as good for a first time user. I do, however, assume that the sensitivity/click-detection could be tweaked in software.
(UPDATE: after a few weeks of use, I still find the 'SpinClick' to be fiddly ... I just have to be careful when choosing options/values)The only 'issue' (that really wasn't a major issue) for me was that the battery cradle is polarized with positive on the 'lower left' and negative on the 'lower right' ... the packs I wanted to use with the charger needed to have the battery bars on the ends 'flipped' so the pack would nestle properly in the cradle. If you look closely at the 'product sheet' PDF provided by Spintec [see link to ICC page listed above) [
or the first photo posted by DirtRacer] you can see the charger body has the polarity marking, locations of the battery bars and the 4 cell pack position info printed right there for handy reference. You may want to note this if considering this charger for purchase.
This polarization requirement may be the one thing that proves to be a disappointment about the charger since I think this may eliminate my X10 packs from being easily charged with this charger (have to mention that since this is the X10 board!). I didn't attempt to solve this problem during the past race weekend
(UPDATE: have not thought about it since then either) due to lack of time and the fact that I broke the X10 early in the weekend and decided not to continue racing it further. I was directing the race and trying to race two classes ... when I broke the X10 I decided to throw in the 4WD towel, therefore not needing to worry about how to charge the batteries.
Back to the features...I really like the information that the charger provides about the pack. Per-cell data is the way of the future for sure. Charge/discharge time, mAh taken/dumped, peak voltage, cell temp at peak ... and a few other bits definitely make this a useful tool for maintaining and monitoring matched packs. Future software updates in the works promise, "Lipo compatibility, Data memory, PC data logging, many more interesting functions..." which will only help to better an already outstanding product.
What has impressed me the most about the ICC is the charge/discharge quality. I'm using some GP3300 packs that are roughly 3 years old and have only been used for stock and mod offroad. To be honest, many would consider the packs I am using junk, but I've never had early-dumping problems with them so they continue to be forced to power my buggies. In the past I maintained these packs with several different types of per-cell discharge trays (most recently the Novak SmartTray) in an effort to keep them half-decent. I've been aware of one or two 'bad' cells in these packs for some time now. The past couple of race meetings, I have been thinking that these packs have started down the final mile of their usefulness and that they may need to be replaced mid-season or certainly next season. However, after this race weekend
(UPDATE: and 2 meets since), it is my opinion that the Spintec ICC may have extended these pack's usefulness another year or more. I cannot say that what the ICC has done for these aged packs is a miracle, but it certainly has proved to me that the ICC concept works.
The first run after charging on the ICC was what I would consider a 'normal' feeling from the packs. Good runtime with a fairly flat discharge. These packs are not 'punchy' anymore and haven't been for a long time.
(UPDATE: I feel the ICC has brought back some of the punch in these packs ... could be mental, but on-track I've been able to out accelerate fellow racers with much newer/better packs ... who don't own an ICC ... running 19T 2WD buggy) One other thing I took care to note was the 'match percentage' which is a measure that the charger provides giving what I assume is a derived value indicating how well the cells in the pack are matched. Initially these old packs were around 70% which doesn't seem good. After each race I use the ICC's per-cell discharge feature set @10 amps and 0.90V per cell. This is by far one of the coolest features of the ICC. Per-cell discharge followed by a per-cell charge really seems to make the most out of a battery ... even if the battery is 'junk'. Anyway, this past weekend the same packs that were in the 70% match range are now pushing 85% with each charge. A decent improvement I think.
One last caveat with this charger. It is expensive (about $380 USD) but it is certainly 'one of a kind' and it does the job better than any other charger I have owned or used. As a matter of fact, I am contemplating dumping my 'old' chargers in favor of another ICC. It is
that good!
----------------------------------------
If anyone has specific questions, I can try to answer them ... post them below.
'nuff said,
MX4
.. I look forward into your findings 
