Looking for a portable charger for travelling, with USB Type-C interface and takes 5V as input power? Check out the iSDT URUAV PD60 LiPo charger! It takes up to 20V as input so you can power it with 4S LiPo too.
New to FPV? Check out my tutorials:
Where to Buy
Only available at BG at the moment: https://oscarliang.com/product-pecf
The iSDT URUAV PD60 LiPo charger comes with no accessories, only the charger.
Specs of PD60 Charger
- Input voltage: DC 5V-20V
- Output voltage: DC 1.0V-20V
- Max Input Current: 3A
- Max Output Current 6A
- Max Output Power 60W
- Supported Battery Types: LiFe, LiHV, LiPo, NIMH (1-12S)
- Supported Cell Count: 1S, 2S, 3S, 4S
- Support Quick-Charge: PD2.0/3.0 and QC 2.0/3.0
- Dimension: 56x85x21mm
- Weight: 87g
Why You Might Want to Get it
The PD60 is a sweet little charger for travelling. It’s extremely portable and probably one of the most light weight LiPo chargers out there.
Input Power Connector is USB-C (Type C) connector. It also acts as the data port for firmware update (by connecting charger to computer).
Output is XT60 and 5-pin balance connector.
You can charge battery using a powerbank as power supply.
Operation cannot be simpler.
Press the left button to select charging current: 1A, 2A, 3A and 6A. Long press it to change battery type: LiPo, LiHv, LiFe and NiMH.
Press the right button to start or stop charging. The display is relatively simple: charging status and completion percentage.
The PD60 charger has a beeper and it gives warning about abnormal voltage and incorrect cell count settings. However it doesn’t seem to remind users when LiPo is fully charged.
What Power Supply To Use
The iSDT URUAV PD60 LiPo charger is a very handy tool to take with you when travelling light. But with an old power bank, it’s quite slow at charging LiPo’s.
The charging speed hugely depends on the power source. If you are using a wall charger, or an old powerbank, the fact is that it’s probably going to be quite slow regardless what charging current you select.
The power sources mentioned above typically have a maximum output current of around 2A to 3A at 5V, which is about 10W to 15W. Therefore you are not using this charger to its full potential (60W).
This doesn’t matter if you are charging in the hotel room preparing for tomorrow’s flight (it’s not safe and i don’t recommend doing it though). If you are using this charger in the field, and want to charge as fast as possible, you should get a PSU or powerbank with “PD3.0” Quick Charge feature. With this feature they can supply power at 5V, up to 20V at 3A, resulting a maximum output power of 60W.
Get Powerbank with PD3.0 here: https://amzn.to/3g1nu2K
But these are not cheap, and I think it makes a lot of sense to just get a big 4S LiPo. You can use an LiPo battery as input (up to 4S) using an XT60 to USB-C adapter like this https://oscarliang.com/product-h79m
Conclusion
The iSDT URUAV PD60 LiPo charger is not for everyone, it’s designed for travellers who prefer to have USB-C interface, and the possibility of using 5V – 20V DC as power supply.
If you are just starting out, take a look at the Q6 Nano, it’s one of the cheapest chargers in my recommendations. Similar price range to the PD60, but more powerful with more features.
If you are looking for an upgrade, check out the Q6 Plus/Pro, which is my daily driver at the moment.
Limitations
Well, it’s a simple and minimalist charger.
- It doesn’t have discharge mode (you can’t discharge LiPo batteries with it
- And It doesn’t have storage mode (you can charge batteries to storage voltage, e.g 3.85V/cell)
- Doesn’t display charging current so you have no idea how fast it’s charging regardless the current selection
If these are the feature you care about, the PD60 might not be for you. However you can get a separate discharge if you want.
5 comments
Can it be usee with parallel charging?
I was looking to your post about that and if I’m taking the safety stips it could work.
Does it charge down the balance leads if you don’t plug in the xt30
Can it charge a 3S battery pack from a 5V source?
Hey Oscar, Love your content. So I am building a field charging solution and have two large Li-Ion packs. These need to be balance charged. They are the largest capacity batteries I have for this purpose, without going to some sort of flooded battery, which I would like to avoid. I’m not a fan of parallel charging, so am going to build a solution with four channels. I fly 4s 1550 most commonly, which makes this PD60 charger pretty attractive, as I can buy four of them for 64, which is only 9 more than one ISDT P10 Dual. So can the PD60 use 12v in and charge a 4s pack at 1A? If so, I can reconfigure the XT60 to USB-C adapter to split four ways and power all four chargers….
If I used a single power bank with 20v 5a capability, I can also run all four PD60s and charge four of my batteries at the same time, at 1A each. Then when I get home, just charge the powerbank via regular USB. This takes advantage of the built in charging electronics in the power bank, meaning I don’t need to figure out a better charging solution for my two Li-Ion packs, I can just use the power bank.
Thoughts?
Well it supports up to 20V input voltage, so yea should be doable! And yes you should get full output power with 4S Li-Ion (60/14.8V=4.05A, assuming your Li-Ion pack can supply 4A x 4 = 16A current).