Fine Print #1: Power! Need More Power!

I had a feeling building a heli from parts as opposed to getting a prebuilt model would have it's "you should have read the fine print" issues, but was somewhat hoping it wouldn't. well - it did.

For someone that has been flying helis these things may be obvious, and some may have already been addressed in previous builds, but for me as a newcomer with no experience or knowledge of what to expect these were surprising and had to be figured out, and I guess this is the downside, and the upside as well as this is my lessons.

And so, my first thought was after getting the remainder of the parts including the batteries was to charge the batteries while I focus on building the heli. This way when I am done with the build, I can plug the (now charged) batteries and test things out. So far so good except I did NOT read the fine print when I order things and the charger requires a 12VDC 5A input. I did read the 12VDC requirement when I ordered it and I figured I could use any of the extra 12VDC power adapters I have laying around. What I did not think through was the 5A requirement. The most I had was a 2A power adapter at home meaning that it would not be able to supply the charger with enough current over time. I figured I'll try to set the charger to charger slowly so it wouldn't require so much amperage, but that did not seem to work as even setting it to charge slower then possible ended up overheating the power adapter which left it useless.

bummer.

I looked at local stores such as radioshack and none had any power adapters that could handle a 5A output unless I was going to buy a $90 power adapter which I really didn't want to. I ended up searching online for what other people use to power up LiPo (Lithium Poly) battery chargers and found out that someone used their computer power adapter for it as it does provide 12VDC to the harddrives. I went home and opened up my old PC which has not been in use for the last 10 years and confirmed that it can handle 45A+ on 12VDC.

So this is how I'll charge the batteries for the time being:

A bit messy, but does the job. I may at some point reconfigure that PC for RC purposes, and set it with the configuration software for the radio transmitter, and set a pair of power connections on the chassis so that I can easily connect the charger without having to open up the PC case.

For what its worth, I found the Turnigy Accucell 6 to be calibrated properly out of the box, and it did a good job charging the batteries at 4Amps with the now powerful enough power source:

In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I should have purchased a charger that has dual inputs for DC, AND AC so that I could just plug it to a wall outlet and be done with it, at least for a 1st charger, but since I AM able to charge the batteries, I'll stick with this charger as it does work well for me (as far as I can tell)

Stay tuned for other fine prints that I missed... ;)