TEST BENCH
The Latest Products Tested & Evaluated
Text & Photos by Kevin Hetmanski
No matter what class of vehicle you get into, you need to have a charger and one company that’s on top of that scene is Dynamite. They have many offerings to take care of your needs including dual chargers, NIMH specific chargers, wall chargers and more. The one shown here is the Dynamite Passport Ultra 2 and it’s ready to charge up two packs (of any type used in RC) at the same time and each port can do it with 100 watts of power. There’s also a little twist to this story; dynamite threw in Bluetooth connectivity so you can connect it to any mobile device and operate various functions through the Dynamite Dashboard. Let’s see what else the Dynamite Passport Ultra 2 has to offer.
FEATURES
The Passport Ultra 2’s compact 6 x 5.5-inch size makes it a great choice for small pit spaces or work benches. The components that make the charger function are housed in an attractive plastic housing. Multiple vents and holes in the case allow for maximum airflow over the electronics and a large fan on the right side is used to pull air through those openings. Dynamite provides two balance boards, two charge leads with EC3 connectors, two charge leads with no connector (for the one of your choice), two EC3 to EC5 connectors and two EC5 to
XT90 connectors. The banana plugs of the leads are attached to an injection molded spacer that aligns them perfectly with the charger and it gives you something to hold onto while removing the plugs. The banana plugs and balance ports plug into the side of the charger that faces you. Also included there are ports for separately sold temp sensors, a micro USB plug and a standard USB plug. The top of the charger is angled down slightly and five buttons on it are used to move through the functions. There’s a button to select different channels all the
way to the left, the next one over is for programming and stopping the charger, next are the increase and decrease buttons then there’s the start button. An LCD display shows you what is happening with the charger and it’s angled slightly to make it easier to read but if you can’t read it, that’s ok because a voice built into the charger will help you find your way through the menus.
SETUP AND TESTING
I don’t have a lot of room on my workbench so the small size of the Passport Ultra 2 was welcome; it fit perfectly out of the way in the corner. I plugged in the charger and I was happy to see that the LCD display is backlit but I was surprised to hear a voice say “Welcome I am ready”. That was something I missed on the feature list when looking over the charger and it’s a nice edition for those times when you’re not fully paying attention while setting up the charger. The information for each port is displayed at the same time and accessing each one is very easy. I skipped the manual and tried to find my way through the charger menus without it and I was able to figure it out right away. Before charging, I downloaded
-
None the Dynamite Dashboard app, opened it on my phone and clicked on the charger name to connected to it through Bluetooth; it couldn’t have been easier to set the charger up while using the app. I scrolled through a few menus, selected the settings I wanted and before I knew it the charger was charging a battery.
Then I tried the QR code reader and used it to scan the QR code on my Dynamite batteries. It quickly gathered the information needed to properly charge the battery, set the charger automatically and it started charging immediately. During testing I used the charger on several types of batteries in various modes and the Passport Ultra 2 performed flawlessly.
FINAL WORD
The Dynamite Passport Ultra 2 charger is a pretty impressive product. It has a lot of bells and whistles that make it more user friendly than most chargers on the market. I like that it talks to you, I like that you can make you way through the menu without having to overuse your brain and I really like the Dashboard app. Of course I can’t forget about its compact size that makes it fit just about anywhere you need to use it.