777PlusII
Thanks Tony & Dave
Curmudgeon said:I did a Goggle search and couldn't find any info on this brand / model. Is there a website for Maha chargers?
777PlusII
TNX
JR
EDIT - I did eventually Goggle up a bunch of sites that have Specs for Maha 777 Plus II (Gotta put them spaces in 
)
Nice looking charger. A bit pricey, but definitely flexible.
Looks just like my 777 Plus, they added a reset button. On mine, you have to disconnect power to reset it. It happens when the charge is confused about battery polarity or it cannot sense the proper voltage to charge.
Don’t consider it pricey, a good charger costs a lot more than the simple-minded chargers you pick up at Wall Mart. Considering that you usually have way more invested in batteries than the charger, I think it’s priced well. I’ve been using a Maha since they first came out. It understands the difference between nicads and nickle metal hydrides, most don’t.
Regards, Greg
Compared to a Triton which requires a separate power supply, these are downright cheap.
I’ve sold a whole lot of them.
A whole lot.
Thanks guys. I’ll add it to my wish list.
TOC - Does the 777 Plus II have a 12V input for mobile use?
I have a really cheap and dirty Radio Shack 12V charger I use in the car to charge NiMh camera batteries, or at work with a 12V wall wart. I’ve never trusted it. It works, but I have no idea what it’s doing to my batteries. Replacing the mobile camera charger would bring a purchase like the Maha higher up my list.
JR
Yes, and the lighter adaptor.
I am not near one right now, but if I recall, the charge rate using the lighter is less than the 110VAC input, but it still does it’s thing.
There is an adjustable clip to charge about any shape of battery.
Jon Radder said:
Thanks guys. I'll add it to my wish list.TOC - Does the 777 Plus II have a 12V input for mobile use?
I have a really cheap and dirty Radio Shack 12V charger I use in the car to charge NiMh camera batteries, or at work with a 12V wall wart. I’ve never trusted it. It works, but I have no idea what it’s doing to my batteries. Replacing the mobile camera charger would bring a purchase like the Maha higher up my list.
JR
Jon,
I have the Maha 777 Plus II and it does have a 12 volt input for the charger. But I’ve tried it in my van and it won’t charge a single 7.2 volt NiCad. It gets a lack of power error. I like the charger, but I haven’t figured the value of the 12 volt charging option for what we use it for.
Well Ric -
When in doubt RTFM. I found the manual on-line at nimhbattery.com and it sez… Input voltage of 12-13.8V (vehicle) supports charging NiCD and NiMH packs from 1.2V to 4.8V.
By their own specs, this charger is of little value without at least an 18V supply, and best with 24V. At 12V it will just barely charge my 4 AA NiMH camera batteries. Forget the 7.2V packs. I’m not knocking the product, cause I know next to nothing about it, but for mobile charging of 7.2 it’s not the choice. My old Hobbyco will do that job nicely.
Now, if ya were to beef up the Van’s electrical system with a second battery and switch (like on them big yachts) you could have a special cable just for the charger that put the two 12V vehicle batteries in series to drive the MAHA at 24V. Then you can cook two of your 7.2 packs at a time in the van
JR
They used to make a 24v accessory switch for cars, or at least they were available several years back. My brother had one in his car. It was very similar to the marine one (he was working in the fishing industry back then). His switch had a choice between battery 1, battery 2 or both @ 24v. The alternator charged whichever battery it was switched to. I’m not sure how this would work in today’s cars. His was old enough that it did not have all the computer crap that today’s cars have.
Warren
Jon,
As I said- 'I like the charger, but I haven’t figured the value of the 12 volt charging option for what we (or should I have said I) use it for."
Not a big deal and really not needed. But now I don’t need to carry the 12 volt charging plug with me.
I used to buy a 12v car adapter for all my gadgets, pda’s, cell phones, computers, etc.
Then I bought ONE 12v > 120v 100 watt inverter.
Now everything just plugs into my AC outlet in my car, including my MAHA, and I have spent WAY less money, I no longer have 2 charger cables for every gadget.
You can get small inverters for about $30, worth the money.
Regards, Greg
Greg,
That’s a good idea. Inverters are used on boats quite often. They do create lots of heat. 
I didn’t buy the 12 volt adapter, it just came with the charger. I only tried it because I had it. I really didn’t have a major need to even try. But I like your idea of the inverter.
We were talking about all this talk of the lithium batteries at the St. Louis Home Show this weekend. The GGRC had our modular layout set up and there was lots of time for talk as the trains just went round and round and round and round. One of the guys said that in the model airplane world, they have an explosive proof back to charge the batteries in. Now that sounds interesting, a Kevlar Ziploc baggy. A little bit like Kevlar boxer shorts.
I’ve known guys that needed those.
Would like to find out more about the “baggie”. One thing though, I believe you would want to vacuum pack the lithiums so no air for combustion. When they burn, they burn hot, that’s for sure.
If you get any links on the baggie, please share them with us.
On the inverters, the current required for our batteries, it’s not on the scale of the large inverters on boats, so 2 amps at 12 volts being only 24 watts, a small inverter like you find at the local car parts place should be sufficient, and should not generate too much heat.
Regards, Greg
If you want info on battery technology I’d really suggest you guys look at Ezone, its a forum area much like this for RC electric flying in particular.
We tax our packs much more in RC flying than in RRing with much higher voltage and amp demands than in model RRing and there’s tons of info on the latest battery technologies in this forum.
Here’s a link to the battery forum- http://www.rcgroups.com/batteries-and-chargers-129/
–Lithium polymer batteries are a big hit with RC electric fliers in that they have a high energy density and low weight. Now the precautions are that they are in a fairly fragile package (foil wrapped envelopes) and are susceptable to thermal runaways (fires!!) if mistreated. Mistreatment = crashing and damaging the pack (not too likely in RRing) and over discharging both in voltage and amps (more likely in RRing). They also require special chargers and they’re a bit pricey when going to high amp draw applications. Each cell is rated at about 3.7v and a pack must be charged at the proper voltage and amperage.
Modern Nimh batteries are great, have no memory problems, can be quick charged, don’t suffer from over discharge problems, have robust packaging. You can draw a lot of amperage from them and they can be fast charged at 3-4 times the mAh rating of the cells sepending on the cell type. My larger models fly on 3300 --Nimh’s because of the lower price and the fact that they can tolerate the heavier weight and I’m pulling 35A in a couple of applications and 40-45A in a couple of others. I chare them regularly at 5A.
–The latest on the scene are high output LiOn batteries like those found in Dewalt tool power packs. They are A123 cells. They are in aluminium cans, don’t suffer from thermal runaways, are lighter than Nimh, can be found in Dewalt 36v packs (10 cells) on Ebay for about $100-120. They do need a lithium type charger. They are capable of deliver pretty high amp outputs without over taxing them and they can be fast charged at about 1.5 times their rating. The jury is still deliberating on this technology but there are guys getting great performance out of these batteries at 40A and above.
Like I noted in the beginning, take a browse through the Ezone battery forum and ask questions. There’s tons of info on all types of batteries and you’ll probably have a response to a question within an hour or so as these forums are extremely active. If you’re interested in a couple of battery vendors I’ve used just respond to this posting and I’ll post some links.
Hope this helps all who are looking into battery power.
Dave
Dave Ottney said:
If you want info on battery technology I'd really suggest you guys look at Ezone, its a forum area much like this for RC electric flying in particular. We tax our packs much more in RC flying than in RRing with much higher voltage and amp demands than in model RRing and there's tons of info on the latest battery technologies in this forum. Here's a link to the battery forum- http://www.rcgroups.com/batteries-and-chargers-129/ --Lithium polymer batteries are a big hit with RC electric fliers in that they have a high energy density and low weight. Now the precautions are that they are in a fairly fragile package (foil wrapped envelopes) and are susceptable to thermal runaways (fires!!) if mistreated. Mistreatment = crashing and damaging the pack (not too likely in RRing) and over discharging both in voltage and amps (more likely in RRing). They also require special chargers and they're a bit pricey when going to high amp draw applications. Each cell is rated at about 3.7v and a pack must be charged at the proper voltage and amperage. Modern Nimh batteries are great, have no memory problems, can be quick charged, don't suffer from over discharge problems, have robust packaging. You can draw a lot of amperage from them and they can be fast charged at 3-4 times the mAh rating of the cells sepending on the cell type. My larger models fly on 3300 --Nimh's because of the lower price and the fact that they can tolerate the heavier weight and I'm pulling 35A in a couple of applications and 40-45A in a couple of others. I chare them regularly at 5A. --The latest on the scene are high output LiOn batteries like those found in Dewalt tool power packs. They are A123 cells. They are in aluminium cans, don't suffer from thermal runaways, are lighter than Nimh, can be found in Dewalt 36v packs (10 cells) on Ebay for about $100-120. They do need a lithium type charger. They are capable of deliver pretty high amp outputs without over taxing them and they can be fast charged at about 1.5 times their rating. The jury is still deliberating on this technology but there are guys getting great performance out of these batteries at 40A and above. Like I noted in the beginning, take a browse through the Ezone battery forum and ask questions. There's tons of info on all types of batteries and you'll probably have a response to a question within an hour or so as these forums are extremely active. If you're interested in a couple of battery vendors I've used just respond to this posting and I'll post some links.Hope this helps all who are looking into battery power.
Dave
Amazing thread drift , drifted back to the post I started this thread with!!!