Review: Schulze "Next" 10.36-8 Charger
By Paul Williams.
Article posted 12th March 2008.
£380 is an eyewatering amount of money to spend on a battery charger. In fact, it's almost physically painful. I agonised over buying this charger. One minute I would persuade myself that I must be a swivel-eyed loony to even contemplate spending that kind of money on a few bits and pieces of silicon in a plastic case, the next I would be haunted by the thought of having wasted money on a charger I wouldn't have any confidence in, ending up thinking "what if", then buying a Schulze anyway.
Anyway, in a moment of of madness I asked Stephen Mettam of Modellhaus to order me one of Schulze's new range of so-called "next generation" chargers. The model I chose was the "10.36-8". This code signifies the charger can charge at 10 amps on the main output, can charge up to 36 nimhs and can balance 8 series lipos.
It's fair to say that Schulze have enjoyed an enviable reputation for supplying high quality chargers over the years. Speak to anyone who has owned a Schulze (or the black painted Graupner-badged Ultra clones) and they will almost certainly have good things to say about the brand. I've owned a Schulze 330D that I got from Graham Hancock at West London Models for more than a year now, and it's performed admirably. It's now coupled to a Schulze LipoProfiBal8 lipo balancer which I intend to review in the near future.
So, there's no doubt Schulze have a pedigree. However, £380 is a lot to pony up for a badge, or for bragging rights at the lake. No, for me to be anywhere near happy about this purchase, the 10.36-8 had better perform.
Part of the rationale for buying this charger was the integral balancer for lipo cells. Nimh cells may not be dead and buried, but the relatives are picking the hymns and the flowers. Forgotten but not gone, as they say. The future's lipo, so get with the program. And, talking of programs, the 10.36-8 has them in abundance, but that's for later.
What's In The Box
Ok, so what do we get for our money? Previous Schulze products have come packaged in shocking irridescent pink corrugated cartons. Thankfully, Schulze have toned things down a bit with the next Gen line and gone upmarket with a nicely printed, understated corrugated carton.
Opening this box reveals the charger, coiled power cables and large crocodile clips. Tucked beneath the charger in its integral fitting is a USB cable (to connect the charger to a PC), an English manual, a German manual, a selection of alternative panel stickers, a ferrite CE ring, two accessory power leads (for powering fans from the charger), a temperature sensor and a Schulze-branded USB memory stick. So far so good.
The Box - a nicely printed corrugated carton.
Contents. Charger, manuals and accessories.
The most important item in the box is the manual. If you don't take the time to study this carefully, you cannot hope to fully exploit the capabilities of this charger. You will also learn some interesting facts regarding the various cell chemistries and the best way (according to Schulze) of getting the best life and performance from your cells.
Part of the reason for buying a charger like this is to make life easier when it comes to cell maintenance. Frankly, I have neither the time nor the inclination to baby-sit recalcitrant nimh packs when there are more interesting things to do like trimming my toenails or nipping down the road to watch the traffic lights change for a few hours with some mates. No, I'd rather have a charger do the dirty work of taking a cell pack to one side and quietly asking it to behave - or else.
The 10.36-8 has a USB port, allowing you to connect the charger to a PC. Why would you want to do this? Two reasons. Firstly, the operating system of 10.36-8 (and others in the next Gen range) is user upgradeable. Schulze intend in the future to release downloadable OS updates via their website that can be applied using the USB link. Secondly, connecting the unit to a PC allows you to download charge/discharge data that can be analysed using Martin Adler's Akkusoft utility application. More on this later.
Top View.
The buttons on the 10.36-8 have a positive, tactile feel to them. Although the unit lacks the weight of the metal chassis of the 330D, it certainly feels well made. However, only time, and plenty of use, will tell. The 10.36-8 certainly leaves the 330D standing when it comes to features.
Left side.
The right hand side of the unit and the "nextConn" module, a selection of connectors including USB, fan control and temperature sensor.
The underside (someone probably wants to see it :-).
Close-up of the main panel and the balancing tap connections.
The manual (which is a goldmine of information for FE racers) tells you that for most Nickel type cells (ie., nicads and nimhs), it's best to use the fully automatic setting and let the charger make all the decisions. Music to my ears! However, for those of you who absolutely must tinker, the 10.36-8 has enough settings and parameters to play with to keep a Shuttle pilot happy.
Features
The following is a brief list of the capabilities of the 10.36-8:
- Charge at 10 amps
- Discharge at 10 amps
- Balance 8 series lipos
- Completely customisable
- Temperature probe
- Two outputs - effectively two chargers in one
The discharge capability of any charger is determined by the amount of waste heat the charger circuitry can deal with. For example, the 330D has a large finned heatsink and can discharge a 7 cell pack of nimhs at 1 amp. The 10.36-8 can discharge at 10 amps, and, if powered from a leisure battery, feeds the discharge energy back into the battery. If you power the 10.36-8 from a power supply unit, discharging is done via the 10.36-8's internal load, with the waste heat dissipated by the unit's (noisy!) fan. Discharging at such a high amp rate not only drastically reduces the time needed to cycle packs of nimhs and lipos, the higher amp rate gives a more accurate picture of the cell pack's condition.
To properly review this charger is going to take a while. I want to run some comparisons with other chargers. First impressions, however, are very positive. Check back soon for an update.
Update 1:
Ok, I've just made a couple of seven cell packs for my Hydro 1 rigger. I bought fourteen Enrich Power EP4600 sub-c cells from Modellhaus which I end-to-end soldered into a couple of packs. I linked these together and trickled charged all fourteen at 25mA for eighteen hours or so using my Schulze 330D. I then connected the fourteen cells to the 10.36-8, discharged the pack, then set a program of 3 charge/discharge cycles running.
With the 10.36-8 powered from a leisure battery, the internal fan only kicks in now and again. I was very impressed to see the 10.36-8 maintaining a constant 10 amp discharge - I had expected the discharge rate to drop well below this on the voltage of fourteen nimhs. Result: 3 charge/discharge cycles completed in a matter of hours.
When charging/discharging, pressing the "info/enter" button once or twice brings up a sub-menu showing the results of the previous charge or discharge, the pack resistance, the total amp hour drawn from the leisure battery and its voltage and a load of other stuff. Impressed - so far!
© Copyright Paul Williams and www.fastelectrics.net, 2010.
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Last modified: 08th July 2010 @ 09:06
