The Hobbico Quick Field Charger MkII is a great addition to your field box. It is an easy-to-use dual charger that comes in a small package.
The unit is 6.25 x 4 x 1.5. It will fit nicely in the openings found in most field boxes. It comes with banana plugs to plug into the sockets on your box.
The controls for the Quick Field Charger are easy to use. After plugging your connectors into the “BATT” sockets on either charger one or charger two, adjust the charge rate with the red knob. The scale is from 0.2 to 2.0 amps. Connect your battery and press the yellow button to start the charge process. The Quick Field charger supports three battery types. With a NiCd battery you press the button once and the LED charge indicator will blink red then remain steady until the battery is charged. With NiMH batteries, press the yellow button twice. LED will flash yellow and then remain steady until the battery is charged. The same process is used for Lipos. With them the LED will show green. The color codes are on the face of the charger so you don’t have to remember which is which.
The charger uses the peak detection method for charging NiCd and NiMH batteries. This method gets the battery to about 98% charge status then reverts to trickle charging. For Lipos the charger uses what the instructions call a “constant current/constant voltage” method. The fast charge process stops when the charger senses a reduction in the charge current. When this happens, all charging stops.
The charger also has sockets for connecting a voltmeter.
The limits of the charger are cell counts. It takes 1 – 8 cell NiCd or NiMH batteries. You’re probably not using more. The limit comes with the Lipos. Here the charger is limited to 3. As lipo batteries and brushless motors become more powerful it is likely that you’ll want a charger that will take 4 or 5 cells. I have my ProPeak Prodigy II that handles more cells. However, since most of my lipos are 3 cell packs, the Hobbico is used often. I particularly like the dual charger feature which allows me to have a couple of packs on to charge at the same time – even different battery types.
Review the manual here.
