Cheaping my way into Anton Bauers....
 

I'd like to run my monitor in the field off Anton Bauers, and someday convert my XL2 to run off a brick as well. The battery prices are almost tolerable, sort of, but it looks like chargers are $4-500!!!

Question: can I use my RC-car charger to charge AB packs?
And I know what you are saying, 'no, you can't use the charger for your toy car to fill a $300++ battery'. But without going into a lot of detail, my charger (Supernova) is very high end; I can enter the type of cells, how many, capacity of battery and max charging amps and it will discharge/charge on it's own.

Plus, I have two of them.
Cost to charge two bricks with my equipment: $0
Cost to charge two bricks with new charger(s): $1000

I figure if a brick has any electronics in it though then a non-AB charger is out. Any ideas? I'm very new to the whole brick experience. Thanks!

Cost to replace two bricks and ultimately buy the proper charger (including the cost of the damaged equipment-$2,000.00

Kicking yourself in the ass over the period of a year or so for saving a nickle while spending a dollar-PRICELESS!

The AB bricks have built in electronics that communicate with the smart chargers. Use the AB chargers, you'll be happy you did.

RB

Just as I feared - the Super can charge anything that has real positive/negative terminals, but if a pack has brains in there then it's sunk. Oh well, back to the Yuasa's....

I recommend calling Anton Bauer in Connecticut, and inquire about purchasing b-stock gear. They regularly have demo units and lightly used batteries and chargers for up to 20% off. I just bought a whole set of Dionics and two chargers.

Thanks for the tip. I notice BH also has used stock. Hm.,

Buy factory fresh batteries. No telling what you will get with used batteries. Buying a used charger shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps the Anton Bauer B-stock batteries are okay, maybe not.

Used chargers should be okay, as long as they haven't been abused. Be sure they can charge your particular batteries.

ab on the cheap way
 

you also might look for a used set that came with the panasonic supercam. Its basically a lifesaver dual charger and 2 digital trimpacs and if you look you might find some at a good price.

the mounting plate will still cost you some but getting a/b s is worth it if you shoot at night at all for the ability to put a real light on the cam. And just a fyi if you can find any halfway decent ebay seller the a/b even at say 70% of lifespan is going to give you hours of use and the counterbalance on the camera is great...

M

The only reason I advocate buying b-stock from AB is that they test the batteries thoroughly and include a printout with the discharge curve for each battery--plus, with some of the models the charger will actually indicate how many cycles have been run. And of course, with lithium you don't have the memory issue of NiCads, so the useage style is not as important.