RCLogger RFID battery chargers are coming!

Photo: RCLogger / RCHeliResource

As reported by Heli-Team, RCLogger has announced their new chargers with RFID capability. Whether this is a gimmick or a viable option with truly intelligent pack charging, remains to be seen, but the possibilities are endless!

Read more in English at RCHeliResource.

New regulations spelling out the end of a cheap LiPo...?

According to Infinity Hobby, new aviation regulations will prevent vendors from shipping their LiPo batteries by Air Mail... does this spell the end of an affordable LiPo?

After a quick search, I found a Bloomberg article on this subject, which outlines the ICAO proposal on battery shipments, which are suggested to be labelled as hazardous goods from 1st Jan 2013. This is due to a rather terrifying statistic of one registered cargo plane being downed by lithium battery fires in its cargo hold every other year!

Do have a read of the full article at the above link, as this may well affect an average hobbyist in the near future...

News: Cellpro PowerLab 6 Charger is out!

Revolectrix came up with a brand new, state-of-the art charger in their PowerLab series - the Cellpro PowerLab 6. It sports an impressive set of features and some insane power, too! Here is a snippet from the manufacturer's website:

Source: www.revolectrix.com

Welcome to PowerLab 6, the second offering in the amazing Cellpro PowerLab series from FMA Direct and Revolectrix. Built on the same framework as the original Cellpro PowerLab 8, this latest Battery Workstation provides a virtually identical feature-set as the original. Capable of charging, discharging, monitoring, or performing multiple cycles on any current or future battery chemistry at alarming speed, PL6 is optimized to balance the need for high power, high current operations against the need for small size and affordability. The PowerLab 6 consumes some 23% less volume (size) than the original PowerLab 8. In keeping with the PowerLab philosophy, at $0.16 per WATT, it blows the lid off the competition and represents unprecedented VALUE. But power is only one part of the equation. Read the information, and talk to people who own a PowerLab and they'll tell you why and how it out-paces any other brand on the market in terms of it's rich feature-set, ease of operation, as well as it's expandability. You will be hard pressed to find a more stream-lined user interface, or more capable, native, and free P.C. software. Add to these facts, the industry's first, well-conceived plan to support safe parallel charging of virtually any number of same-cell-count packs all at once, and you will realize that the investment in PL6 has paid for itself many times over. You no longer need more batteries. You need a battery workstation that can charge, discharge, cycle or monitor many packs faster than you can fly them to depletion!

The full specs can be found here: http://www.revolectrix.com/PL6_specs_tab.htm