On Mon, Jun 02, 2008 at 11:59:45AM -0400, JAMES EALY wrote: | You can not beat the ALPHA 4 (charger/discharger/maintainance)
Of course you can. Other chargers can charge at higher rates. Other chargers can charge more cells (granted, not such a big issue for a charger that can only do one amp total between all it's outputs.) Other chargers can do more chemistries (i.e. LiPo.) Other chargers are a lot cheaper (Originally $300, then $259 right at the end.) Other chargers you can actually buy! (I don't think any Alpha 4s have been made since 2005, and even then you had to jump through hoops to get one.) Other chargers are supported! (I've no idea if the Alpha 4 still is or not. The fact that several of the pages on their web site have been blanked out, such as the home page, the ordering page and the `contact us' page, but not some others, is a very bad sign.) As of 2008, the only really special features that the Alpha 4 has is that 1) it can charge 4 packs at once and 2) it's got that 1970s retro look, if you're into that. And feature #1 isn't even that special any more. Perhaps in the past the Alpha 4 was king, but it hasn't been for years. Personally, when I need to charge multiple RX or TX packs slowly, I use my $30 Hobbico R/C mlti-charger (LXL331) with four outputs. No peak charging, granted, but occasional slow chargings without peak detection are a good thing. It beats four wall-warts anyways. And for fast charging and cycling and such, I use my GP Triton. -- Doug McLaren, [EMAIL PROTECTED] A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something ... RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
