Thunder T6 User manual

1
Thank you for purchasing the 6Cell multi Charger. You
rapid charger/discharger with a built-in balance,
computerized with a high performance
and specialized operating software.
Please read this entire operating manual completely
and attentively as it contains a wide variety of specific
programming and safety information.
Specifications
Operating voltage range: DC 11.0—15.0 Volt
Circuit power: max. 50W for charging
max.5W for discharging
Charge/Discharge current range:0.1—6.0A/0.1—1.0A
Current drain for balancing Li-po: 300mAh/cell
NiCd/NiMH battery cell count: 1—15Cells
Lithium battery cell count:
Pb battery voltage: 2 to 20V
Special features
Optimized operating software
When charging or discharging, it has an “AUTO”
function that sets the feeding current automatically.
Especially for Lithium batteries, it can prevent the over-
charging can lead to an explosion by users fault. Every
program in the unit is controlled with mutual links and
communication for every possible error so it introduces a
maximum safety. These can be set at users option.
Dual input power
It employs the circuit that maximum output power of
50W for charging. As a result, it can charge up to 15
1—6Series
get a
which is
microprocessor

2
cells of NiCd/NiMH and 6 series of Lithium batteries with
maximum current of 5A. But there might be the limit of
feeding current to a higher voltage of battery. Please
refer to “Maximum circuit power charge”.
Individual voltage balancer for Lithium batteries
inside
It has an individual-cell-voltage balancer inside. So it
does not need any balancer separately when charging
Lithium batteries (Lilon/LiPo/LiFe) for cell voltage
balancing.
Balance individual cells on discharge
It also can monitor and balance individual cells of the
Lithium battery pack during the discharge process. If the
voltage of any one cell varies abnormally, the process
will be stopped with the error message.
Accept various types of Lithium battery
It can accept three types of Lithium batteries: Lilon,
LiPo and LiFe. They have different characteristics by
their chemistry. You can select any one of them that
you are going to process before the job. For their
specifications, refer to “Warnings and safety notes”
section.
Lithium battery “Fast” and “Storage” mode
You can charge Lithium battery for special purposes.
“Fast” charge reduces the charging time of Lithium
battery and “Storage” mode controls the nal voltage of
the battery to be suit for long time storage.
Maximum safety
Delta-peak sensitivity: The automatic charge

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termination program works on the principle of the Delta-
peak voltage detection. (NiCd/NiMH)
Auto-charge current limit: When charging NiCd or NiMH
at “AUTO” current mode, you can set the upper limit of
charge current to avoid from high current charging. This
is very useful when charging the low impedance and
small capacity NiMH battery in “AUTO” mode.
Capacity limit: The charging capacity always calculated
by multiple of the charging current and time. If the
charging capacity exceeds the limit the process will be
terminated automatically when you set the maximum
value.
Temperature limit: The temperature of the battery on
charging will rise by its internal chemical reaction. If you
set the limit of temperature the process will be expired
forcibly when the limit has reached.
Processing time limit: You can also restrain the
maximum process time to prevent from any possible
defect.
Input power monitor: To protect the car battery using
as DC input power from being damaged the voltage of
it always monitored. If it drops below the lower limit the
process will be ended automatically.
Data store/load
For users convenience it can store maximum 5 data of
different batteries. You can establish the data contains
program setting of the battery to charge or discharge
continually. These data can be called out at any time you
need and the process can be executed without program
setting.

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Cyclic charging/discharging
Perform 1 to 5 cycles of charge> discharge or
discharge> charge continually for battery refreshing and
balancing.
PC based analysis using USB communication
For technical expert, it offers PC based program can
analysis the characteristic of the battery by USB port.
It shows a graph of voltage, current, capacity and
temperature curves. It also shows the individual voltage
of each cell in the Lithium battery pack.
PC-LINK USB adaptor can be purchased separately.
Warnings and safety notes
Those warnings and safety notes are particularly
important. Please follow the instructions for a maximum
safety; otherwise the charger and the battery can be
damaged violently. And also it can cause a fire to injure a
human body or to lose the property.
1.Never leave the charger unsupervised when it is
connected to its power supply. If any malfunction is
observed immediately terminate the process and refer to
the operation manual.
2.Keep away the charger from dust, damp, rain, heat
direct sunshine and vibration. Do not drop it.
3.The circuit of this charger is designed to be powered
by a 12V DC. But do not supply both input power
simultaneously. The circuit can be damaged permanently.
4.This charger and battery to be charged and
discharged should be set up on a head-resistant, non-
inflammable and non-conductive surface. Never place
them on a car seat, carpet or similar.

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5.Keep all the inammable volatile materials well away
from operation area.
6.Be sure to understand the information of the battery
to be charged or discharged accurately. If the program is
set up incorrectly the battery can severely be damaged.
Especially Lithium battery can cause a fire or an
explosion by over-charging.
NiCd/NiMH voltage level: 1.2V/cell
allowable fast charge current: 1C—2C
depends on the performance of cell
discharge voltage cut off level: 0.85V/
cell(NiCd), 1.0V/cell(NiMH)
Lilo voltage level: 3.6V/cell
max. charge voltage: 4.1V/cell
allowable fast charge current : 1C or less
min. discharge voltage cut off level: 2.5V/
cell or higher
LiPo voltage level: 3.7V/cell
max. charge voltage: 4.2V/cell
allowable fast charge current : 1C or less
min. discharge voltage cut off level: 3.0V/
cell or higher
LiFe voltage level: 3.3V/cell
max. charge voltage: 3.6V/cell
allowable fast charge current : 4C or less
(e.g.A123M1)
min. discharge voltage cut off level: 2.0V/
cell or higher
Pb voltage level: 2.0V/cell
(Lead-acid) max. charge voltage: 2.4V/cell
allowable fast charge current : 0.4C or

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less
min. discharge voltage cut off level:
1.75V/cell or higher
7.To avoid short-circuits between the charge lead,
always connect the charge cable to the unit rst and only
then to the battery to be charged or discharged. Reverse
the sequence when disconnection.
8.Do not connect more than one battery pack to charge
at any one time.
9.Do not attempt to charge or discharge below types of
battery:
1)Battery pack, which consists of different types of cell
(including different manufacturers).
2)Battery, which is already fully charged or just slightly
discharged.
3)Non-rechargeable batteries. (Explosion hazard)
4)Batteries that require a different charge technique
from NiCd, NiMH, Lilon, LiPo, LiFe or Pb.
5)Faulty or damaged battery.
6)Battery fitted with an integral charge circuit or a
protection circuit.
7)Batteries installed in a device, or which are electrically
linked to other components.
8)Batteries that are not expressly stated by the
manufacturer to be suitable for the currents the charger
delivers during the charge process.
10.Please check below point before charge operation.
1)Select the appropriate program which is suitable for
the type of battery.
2)Set up adequate current for charging or discharging.
3)Lithium battery pack can be composed with parallel

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and series circuits mixed. You have to check the
composition of the battery pack carefully before charging.
4)Be sure all the connections firm and safe, on
intermittent contact at any point in the circuit.
General notes on operating it.
Charging
A specific quantity of electrical energy is fed into the
battery during charge process. The charge quantity
is calculated by multiplying charge current by charge
time. The maximum permissible charge current varies
according to the battery type or its performance, and
can be found in the information provided by the battery
manufacturer. It is only allowed to charge batteries at
rates higher than the standard charge current if they are
expressly stated to be capable of quick-charge.
Connect the battery to charge to output terminal of
the charger using suitable charge lead. They are red,
positive (+) and black, negative (-). Since the charger
cannot detect the difference between the internal
resistance of the battery pack, cable resistance and
connector transfer resistance, the rst requirement if the
charger to work properly is that the charge lead should
be of adequate conductor cross-section. And also high-
quality connectors (normally gold-contact type) must be
tted to both ends.
Refer to the information provided by the battery
manufacturer regarding charging methods, and verify
the recommended charge current and charge time.
Especially for Lithium batteries, you have to follow the
charge instruction provided by the manufacturer strictly.
Do not attempt to disassemble the battery pack

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arbitrarily.
You have to pay attention to verify the capacity and the
voltage of the Lithium battery pack. It may be composed
of parallel and series connection mixed. In parallel link
the capacity of the battery pack is multiplied by the
number of cells but the voltage remains same. That kind
of voltage imbalance causes a fire or explosion during
charge process. We recommend you compose the
Lithium battery pack in series only.
Discharging
The typical purpose of discharge is to determine the
residual capacity of the battery, or to lower the voltage
of battery to a defined level. When you discharge the
battery you also have to pay attention to the process
same as charging. To avoid the battery becoming deep-
discharged, set the final discharge voltage correctly.
Lithium batteries should not be deep-discharged to lower
than the minimum voltage, as this leads to a rapid loss of
capacity or a total failure. Generally, you do not need to
discharge Lithium battery voluntarily.
Some rechargeable batteries are said to have a
memory effect. If they are partly used and recharged
before the whole charge is drawn out, they “remember”
this and next time will only use that part of their capacity.
This is a “member effect”. NiCd and NiMH batteries are
said to suffer from memory effect. They prefer complete
cycles; fully charge then use until empty, do not recharge
before storage—allow them to self-discharge during
storage. NiMH batteries have less memory effect than
NiCd.
The Lithium battery prefers a partial rather than a full

9
discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided if
possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a
larger battery.
The brand-new NiCd battery pack is partially useful
with its capacity until it has been subjected to 10 or more
charge cycles in any case. The cyclic process of charge
and discharge will lead to optimize the capacity of battery
pack.

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Program ow chart

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Initial parameter set up (Users set up)
It will be operated with the default value of the essential
user settings when it is connected to a 12V battery or
a AC wall socket for the rst time. The screen displays
the following information is sequence and the user can
change the value of parameter on each screen.
When you are willing to alter the parameter value in
the program, press Start/Enter key to make it blink
then change the value with INC/DEC key. The value
will be stored by pressing Start/Enter key once.
The screen displays the
nominal voltage of Lithium
battery. There are three
kinds of Lithium battery;
LiFe(3.3V), Lilo(3.6V) or
LiPo(3.7V). this is very
important so you have to
check the battery carefully
and set it up correctly. If it is different from correct value
the battery can explode during charge process.
It recognise the cell
count of Lithium battery
automatically at the
beg in nin g of char ge or
discharge process to
avoid from erroneous
setting by user. But deeply
discharged battery can be
LiFe
V.Type 3.3V
Display
- +
DEC INC
DEC INC
LiPo/Lilo/LiFe
CHK Time 10min
Display
Display
- +
DEC INC
DEC INC

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perceived incorrectly. To prevent the error, you can set
the time term to verify the cell count by the processor.
Normally, 10 minutes are enough to perceive the cell
count correctly. For the battery of larger capacity, you
may extend the time term. But if you set the time term
too long for the battery of smaller capacity, the charge
or discharge process can be finished within the time
term with the erroneous cell count. This may cause the
fatal result. If the processor
recognizes the cell count
incorrectly at the beginning
of char ge or dis cha rg e
process, you may extend
the time. Otherwise, you
had better use with the
default value.
This shows the trigger
voltage for automatic
charge termination of
NiMH and NiCd battery.
The effective value ranges
from 5 to 20mV per cell. If
the trigger voltage is set
higher, there is a danger
of overcharging the battery; if it is set lower, there is a
possibility of premature termination. Please refer the
technical specification of the battery.
(NiCd default: 12mV, NiMH default: 7mV)
NiMH Sensitivity
D.Peak Default
Display
Display
- +
DEC INC
DEC INC
NiCd Sensitivity
D.Peak Default
Display
Display
- +
DEC INC
DEC INC

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You can set the maximum
temperature at which the
charger should allow battery
to reach during charge.
Once a battery reaches
thi s temperature during
charge, the process will be
terminated to protect the
battery.
The battery is on the
cyclic process of charge
and discharge can often
become warm after charge
or discharge period. The
program can insert a time
delay to occur after each
charge and discharge process to allow the battery
adequate time to cool down before being subjected
to the next process. The value ranges from 1 to 60
minutes.
Temp. Cut-off
ON 80C
Display
Display
- +
DEC INC
- +
DEC INC
Waste time
CHG/DCHG 5min
Display
- +
DEC INC
- +
DEC INC
Display
DEC INC
DEC INC

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When you start a charge process, the integral safety
timer automatically starts running at the same time. This
is programmed to prevent
overcharge the battery if it
proves to be faulty, or if the
termination circuit cannot
detect the battery full.
Please refer the statement
in below to calculate the
time setting.
This program sets the
maximum charge capacity
that will be supplied to
the battery during charge.
If the delta-peak voltage
is not detected nor the
safety timer expired by any
reason, this feature will
automatically stop the process at the selected capacity
value.
The beep sounds at every
time pressing the buttons
to confirm your action. The
beep or melody sounded
at various times during
operation to alert different
mode changes. These
audible sounds can be on
or off.
Key Beep ON
Buzzer ON
Display
- +
DEC INC
DEC INC
Display
Capacity Cut-Off
ON 5000mAh
Display
- +
DEC INC
- +
DEC INC
Display
DEC INC
Safety timer
ON 120min
Display
- +
DEC INC
- +
DEC INC
Display
DEC INC

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This program monitors
the voltage of input DC
battery. If the voltage drops
below the value you set the
operation forcibly terminated
to protect the input battery.
Lithium battery (Lilo/LiPo/Life) program
These programs are only suitable for charging and
discharging Lithium batteries with a nominal voltage of
3.3V, 3.6V and 3.7V per cell. These batteries need to
adopt different charge technique is termed a constant
voltage (CV) and constant current (CC) method. The
charge current varies according to the battery capacity
and performance. The nal voltage of charge process is
also very important; it should be precisely matched with
the charade voltage of the battery. They are 4.2V for
LiPo, 4.1V for Lilo, and 3.6V for LiFe. The charge current
and nominal voltage as for cell count set on the charge
program must always be correct for the battery to be
charged.
When you are willing to alter the parameter value in the
program, press Start/Enter key to make it blink then
change the value with INC or DEC key. The value will
be stored by pressing Start/Enter key once.
Charging Lithium battery
The left side of the rst line shows the type of battery
you select at the users setting. The value on the left side
of second line sets a charge current and the value on the
right side of second line sets the voltage of the battery
Input power Iow
Cut - Off 10.0V
Display
- +
DEC INC
Display

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pack.
After setting the current
and voltage press Start/
Enter key for more than 3
seconds to start the process.
(Charge current: 0.1—
5.0A, Voltage: 1—6 series)
This shows the number of cells you set up and the
processor detects. “R:” shows the number of cells
found by the charger and “S:” is the number of cells
selected by you at the previous screen. If both numbers
are identical you can start
charging by press Start/
Enter button. If not, press
Batt type/Stop button
to go back to previous
screen. Then carefully
check the number of cells of
the battery pack to charge
again.
The screen shows the
present situation during
charge process. To stop
charging press B a t t
type/Stop key once.
Charging Lithium battery at balance mode
This is for balancing the voltages of Lithium batteries
R:3 SER S:3SER
CONFIRM(ENTER)
Display
Display
Start
Enter
Li3S 2.0A 12.59V
CHG 022:43 00682
Display
Display
number
of
cells
charging
time
charge
current
battery
voltage
charged
capacity
LiPo CHARGE
2.0A 11.1V(3S)
Display
- +
DEC INC
Display
- +
DEC INC
Batt type
Stop
Start
Enter '>3 seconds'

17
of the battery pack to be charged. To do this, the battery
pack being charged should have the individual cell
connector. And connect it to the individual port at the
right side of charger with a suitable connection cable
that fits with your battery pack. And also, you need to
connect the battery output plug to the output of charger.
In this mode, the charging process will be different
from ordinary charging mode. The internal processor of
the charger will monitor the voltages of each cell of the
battery pack and controls the charging current that is
feeding to each cell to normalize the voltage.
The value on the left side
of second line sets a charge
current and the value on
the right side of second
line sets the voltage of the
battery pack.
After setting the current
and voltage press Start/
Enter key for more than 3 seconds to start the process.
This shows the number
of cells you set up and the
processor detects. “R:”
shows the number of cells
found by the charger and
“S:” is the number of cells
sel e cte d b y you a t t he
previous screen. If both numbers are identical you can
start charging by press Start/Enter button. If not,
LiPo BALANCE
2.0A 11.1V(3S)
Display
- +
DEC INC
Display
- +
DEC INC
Batt type
Stop
Start
Enter '>3 seconds'
R:3 SER S:3SER
CONFIRM(ENTER)
Display
Display
Start
Enter

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press Batt type/Stop button to go back to previous
screen. Then carefully check the number of cells of the
battery pack to charge again.
The screen shows the
present situation during
charge process. To stop
charging press B a t t
type/Stop key once.
“FAST” charging Lithium battery
The charging current is getting smaller as the process
goes to the near end term of Lithium battery charging.
To nish charging process earlier, this program eliminate
certain term of CV process. Actually, the charging
current will goes to 1/5 from the initial value to end
the process while the normal charging goes to 1/10
during CV term. The charging capacity may be a bit
smaller than normal charging but the process time will
be reduced.
Yo u c a n s e t u p t h e
charging current and the
voltage of the battery
pack being charged.
As you press Start/
Enter button the voltage
LiPo FAST CHG
2.0A 11.1V(3S)
Display
- +
DEC INC
Display
- +
DEC INC
Batt type
Stop
Start
Enter '>3 seconds'
Li3S 2.0A 12.59V
CHG 022:43 00682
Display
Display
number
of
cells
charging
time
charge
current
battery
voltage
charged
capacity

19
conrmation will be displayed. And then, if you conrm
the voltage and current, press Start/Enter button
again to start charging.
This shows the present
state of “FAST” charging.
To stop charging arbitrary,
press Batt type/Stop
key once.
“STORAGE” control Lithium battery
This is for charging or discharging Lithium battery
not to be used for the time being. The program will
determine to charge or discharge the battery to the
certain voltage depending on the voltage of the battery
at its initial stage. They are different from the type of the
battery, 3.75V for Lilo, 3.85V for LiPo and 3.3V for LiFe
per cell. If the voltage of battery at its initial stage is over
the voltage level to storage, the program will start to
discharge.
You can set up the current
and the voltage of the
battery pack to be charged.
The current will be used
for charge or discharge
the battery to reach the
“storage” level of voltage.
Li3S 2.0A 12.59V
FAS 022:43 00682
Display
Display
number
of
cells
elapsed
time
charge
current
supplied
capacity
Current
voltage of
battery
LiPo STORAGE
2.0A 11.1V(3S)
Display
- +
DEC INC
Display
- +
DEC INC
Batt type
Stop
Start
Enter '>3 seconds'

20
The screen shows the
present situation during
charge process. To stop
charging press B at t
type/Stop key once.
Discharging Lithium battery
The value of discharge current on the left side of screen
may not exceed 1C for a maximum safety and the nal
voltage on the right should
not be under the voltage
level that is recommended
by the battery manufacturer
to avoid deep discharging.
To start to discharge press
Start/Enter key for more
than 3 seconds.
This shows the present
state of discharge. To stop
discharging press Batt
type/Stop key once.
Li3S 0.4A 12.59V
DSC 022:43 00682
Display
Display
number
of
cells
elapsed
time
discharge
current
discharged
capacity
battery
voltage
Li3S 2.0A 12.59V
STO 022:43 00682
Display
Display
number
of
cells
elapsed
time
charge
current
supplied
capacity
Current
voltage of
battery
LiPo DISCHARGE
1.0A 11.1V(3S)
Display
- +
DEC INC
Display
- +
DEC INC
Batt type
Stop
Start
Enter '>3 seconds'