I’ve been eyeballing Progressive RC’s charging cases for years, but I kept putting it off. Fast forward to Spring ‘21 when I finally decided to contact them for one of their partial Signature Case builds as I already had an iCharger 406 and a TDK Lambda HWS1500-24 power supply.
Unfortunately, when I went to look for the specific Signature build in the Nomad (XL) case I saw that it was discontinued. I contacted them and Yarden started working with me to initially recreate then ultimately design and build a custom deck for me complete with my last name. Yarden even took the time to tidy up the component placement so the deck looked clean without me having to ask; this workmanship and thoughtfulness are so hard to find these days!
When I received the case I lifted the deck to inspect the wiring job and was very pleased with the work. I’m admittedly OCD when it comes to anything I work on and the components were installed and wired like I would’ve done it.
I did end up installing two additional components into the case in the name of longevity. I run my PS at 30V and the case has two 60mm 24V exhaust fans mounted in a pull configuration. Yarden advised me that the fans would be spinning a bit faster at 30V and may have a slight decrease in life, but it would be fine. I ended up installing a stepdown voltage reducer with a 24V output. I’m not sure what the panel mounted USB charger/voltage display’s max voltage input is, but it’s showing a steady 24V.
The other item that I installed is a small centrifugal (radial) fan. I tested the whole rig by running a pair of 6,500 mAh 4S LiPos through a storage to 100% charge at a conservative 2C, discharge at 40A to LVC through an external resistor at ~600W, back to 100% charge at 2C, discharge down to LVC, and back to storage. Ambient temps were 75°F. The iCharger was showing a max of 129°F at some points. I was guessing that the air just in front of the front face of the iCharger was stagnant so that’s why I added the radial fan. I ran the same charging cycle and only saw 118°F. Nice!
My only regret is not working with the awesome crew at PRC and investing in a case sooner!