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Originally Posted by Phalanx
As I have read over the X5, it actually is made up of 5 charging units and you have the choice of 3 different series.
The IC Series Industrial-Commercial 3-Stage + Desulfate. 20A to 30A
The PS Series Professional - Series 3-Stage + Desulfate. 3A to 30A
The LS Series Lineage - Consumers 3-Stage - 2.5A to 6.0A
It's obvious that the IC Series isn't applicable or suitable for usage in FIRST.
So the question is which of the other 2 series would you want and why?
LS 12/6 or the PS 12/5
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It was not a hard choice for us, the 5 amp PS charger cost about 50% more than the 6 amp LS charger, and when you put 5 of them in an X5, the money adds up. We also wanted the full six amps that FIRST allows. As a reminder to the reader, don't use a charger that supplies more than 6 amps on your robot batteries. I have seen batteries overheat doing this. This is a very dangerous thing to have happen.
Technically, the difference between the PS and the LS series is in the state of charge indicator, a battery type switch, and the desufate unit, in addition to the different current limit.
The desulfate unit is not very relevant to a gel cell that has a very low self discharge rate. Just charge the battery right after use, and always store it fully charged, and you will be rewarded with a long life. The desulfate unit is more relevant for flooded cells, and studies have shown an improved battery life in heavy use such as forklifts, but I have never seen any advantage on flooded deep cycle batteries used for sporadic trolling, but that is straying from the topic at hand. We test our batteries with a 20 amp load to 11 volts prior to every event, and our best battery is a 2004 battery at this point. This was just a good year for FIRST kit batteries, all of our batteries get good treatment.
The battery type switch changes the adsorption and float voltage between values suitable for gel and flooded batteries. This would be more important if the battery were to be left on the charger for long periods, and proper gel settings do improve charger performance, but we only leave a battery on the charger overnight, and then store the battery.
The led bar current gauge of the PS series would be nicer than the {full, >80%, <80%} indicators of the LS series, but we have not had to resort to batteries below the 80% level, so it has not mattered to us.
The extra amp at a lower cost has been our most important factor.
Eugene