Thanks to Dale over at EPBuddy for sending me a ParaBoard to use, review and show off.

With the popularity of parallel charging increasing daily, a need for useful parallel charging accessories has arisen. First available were parallel cables and although these work well, an all-in-one solution has been wanted by many. EP Buddy has stepped up and designed an all-in-one parallel charging solution, the ParaBoard. The ParaBoard combines all parallel wiring connections on a single board. This not only greatly reduces clutter when parallel charging but also just makes it easier to use. It is available with most balance connectors including JST-XH, TP, Hyperion and Kokam, and is very reasonably priced.

First impressions
The first thing that came to mind when I pulled the ParaBoard out of the package was that it was heavier than I expected. I expected some weight from all the connectors and such, but it is far more "dense" that it looks. This is likely from the heavy circuit board used and the wide traces. That leads me into my next observation, build quality. The board is very solid and everything feels very nice. All the wire used appears to be silicone sheathed and is a nice heavy gauge, 14awg on the main leads and 20awg on the balance wires. It is also a nice length, about 8in long. The plastic surrounding the board feels a little cheap but fits very well and looks fine.

The board ships with a 7-pin (6s) balance lead that has JST-XH connectors on both ends and 5 t-plug covers to prevent shorts when packs are plugged in and they fit very snugly over the t-plug connectors. The front shows the board type silk screened on the PCB and the back shows a sticker with some basic info on it.




The circuit layout on the JST-XH board is very straight forward and well done. Effectively there is a horseshoe shaped set of traces that connects all the different balance connectors together. Then there are 2 wide traces that run down the front and back of the board to carry the current to the t-plug connectors. All the soldering looks very good.


Overall I am very impressed with the design and build quality of the board. It uses nice wire and is well laid out. Currently I only have 3 wishes/complains.

1. It would be nice if the board came with different main connectors. I use XT60s and so I will have to buy/make adapters for all the plugs I want to use.
   
2. I wish there was a 4x board available. I never charge 6 packs at once but do 4 packs regularly.
   
3. I would like to have seen some sticky rubber feet on the bottom of case in order to keep it in place. 

All these are small complains or personal wishes though and as a whole I like the board very much.