I’m thinking about picking up an XTAR VP2 to charge 18650 and LFP123 cells. The 18650’s are used in a first gen Klaus XT-11 and Convoy C8 with an XM-L2 T6 being driven @ 3a on high. The LFP123’s will be used with my new Elzetta Bravo. Will this charger fit my needs or is there something better?

I was just browsing around on IMR Batteries and noticed the Efest LUC Mini charger. Anyone try it yet? I see HKJ reviewed the LUC V4, but I’m hesitant to extrapolate results.

I have a XTAR VC2 Plus and usually just use a LiitoKala Lii-100 for travel. But this one has a decent looking voltage display. Would be kinda handy to have a voltage display on a travel-sized charger instead of the 25% / 50% / 75% / 100% bars.

What if I hooked up a 4056 board to a USB Step down converter charger?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/181888568212

Would it blow the 4056? Since it is a 2-3A USB? Or pull 1A, and be fine?

Would a 2A usb wall charger be the same?

How much current would the usb step down in the above link deliver to a smartphone? I’d like to do a charger for the car, but I think a miller ml102 may have fried my RAZR, so I am concerned about too much current.

Id like to charge S5, maybe 18650’s too

I need help. I’m a complete newbie. I have several flashlights that will use 14500s and one that will use 18650s. I need to find a charger or chargers for those kinds of batteries. I need cheap and I want them to be powered through a USB cable. I already have a USB to wall outlet adaptor. Eventually, I want to be able to use a solar powered system to run the rechargers. It would be great to get one charger that will recharge 18650s, 14500s, Aas, AAAs and eneloops. I have spent several hours searching this and other sites and am confident I still don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve already screwed up order one item.
Suggestions, please.
Thanks.

Since i started this flashlight obsession i’ve been wanting to gift a number of those really cool lights but have been stalled by the Li-Ion battery handling and charging aspect of them. Most people have no idea what a Li-Ion cell is and that it needs a special charger… so the only way to make the gift work is to include a battery or two and a charger – making a gift set.

So… which charger?

I know there are quite some decent options in the $15 range and that there are some sound arguments for such a charger and i understand them… But i’d like to hear about the cheapest possible single cell option without compromising safety of course.

Thanks for your input!

What’s the best way to charge 4S 18650’s in a light? Preferably with Micro USB. Any way to charge them in parallel even though they’re wired in series? Like connect separate wires to each battery and have 4 separate TP4056’s? Or is there a better way to do this?

Space shouldn’t be much of an issue, but they will be difficult to access so charging in the light would be ideal.

Hi- I am posting this because of the vast nature of BLF. I can’t keep up with all the posts. In all likelihood, I would miss some of the deals/discounts/coupons that are available, so I am reaching out to the group.

I am looking for a charger for my Mom, who uses AA and AAA NiMh batteries. It also needs to allow for charging an odd number of batteries (a “smart” charger.) Simple and reliable are musts. I have added the LiIon feature in case I am visiting and want to charge an 18650 or 16340.

The chargers I have identified are these:

Xtar vc4

Nitecore D4

Liitokala lii 500

Opus BT-C3100

What are the best deals going on these units, and are there any others in the same price range that are recommended?

Thanks!

Bob

A few days ago i got a text with one character, then another. I assumed it was spam
Today another message from the same number saying DHL and a tracking number
Just now this arrived, not a bad start to the week

I have a Sony BCG-34HLD charger that works ok, but I was interested in a charger that could “read” NiMH battery stats, refresh and discharge them, and also let me choose charging rates.

I found some models with good prices ordering from China, but I always find some info about them that I dislike, or they are not totally reliable.

The Opus BT-C700 seems to be the best regarded NiMH charger overall, but I’ve noticed that it does trickle charging after the battery is done with.

Since I only use LSD NiMH, I don’t see why I would want this feature. I want charging to be completely cut after the battery achieves full status. Even if the harm is minimal, I would rather find a model that does not do unrequired actions to my batteries.

The other models I read about usually had problems like lack of precision when reading battery stats, or sometimes they would overcharge a battery. I was hoping to get something that is pretty reliable and treat my batteries well, or I might as well stay using what I have. This Sony charger is supposed to cut charging completely after it is done with the battery, but it doesn’t work correctly if the battery is not almost empty. I tried the other day with a chinese NiMH that was at 1.3v and it kept charging to 1.44v, batteries were pretty hot. I use a multimeter since this charger lacks any display. But when I tried it with the batteries empty it would charge them very quickly (since they are only 1300 mAh) and would not stay lit for 7 hours (it is supposed to cut off all charging after 7 hours, so at 360mAh charging rate it is supposed to deal with a 2500mAh as maximum capacity). The manual of this charger claims it will always stay lit for 7 hours so I would think that it does have a voltage meter and it would trickle charge lower capacity cells until the 7 hours have passed, after they were charged. But in reality I guess it turns off completely after the voltage meter figures out the battery is done with, but it won’t work well if the battery was not empty, I guess.

That is why I wanted to try a smarter charger with more features so I can more reliably prepare cells to be good to go and not botter if I left them in the charger for more hours as I should have, or if they were half-full and I wanted to complete their charging.

So, is there a better charger than this Opus for my needs or should I accept trickle charging? I looked at some hybrid models that would also work with Li-ion, but I don’t really want to deal with Li-ion right now so I would prefer something specific for NiMH. I understand Li-ion has a lot more capacity which is great for flashlights, but LSD NiMH is safer, will last years with decent charge in them and don’t get as hot, no risk of fire, and they are also lighter and probably better for trekking around and camping at national parks.

Just found the XTAR Queen Ant MC6 charger on Battery Junction. Does anyone have this charger? Seems like a real bargain except for requiring
two USB power inputs.

http://www.batteryjunction.com/xtar-ac325001.html

The Imax B6 has a setting for the wait time between Charge and Discharge. It is defaulted to 10 minutes. But I can’t find anywhere in the manual where it tells me how to make it automatically top off a battery, wait 10 minutes, then do a discharge. It must do it because the setting is there. There are 10 customizable programs, but I can’t seem to manage to do anything useful with them at all. Anyone with some experience on this out there?

I’ve got a fancy power screwdriver, AEG, Panasonic, and Milwaukee all sell a version of it, mine is AEG with a Milwaukee charger. The chargers are made to do fast charges in a commercial setting and notorious for failing and croaking battery packs, which used to be $$$. I have an “OLD” factory battery and two different ebay clones, all say nicad 2.4v. So far my charger works on two batteries, the third fits the tool fine, not at all in the charger, so for various reasons I’d like to use my Imax B6 clone, which normally works fine, for charging and testing batteries.

Rubber band worked fine to attached the B6 clips, but the B6 was reading 4.5v before deciding the pack was charged, and during the cycle test says two of the packs only have 70 to 80 mahrs, they are rated at 1500 mahrs. I’ve tried charging at .5 amp and 1.1amp, same results. Any tips or ideas? The manual makes little sense to me.

It came last week but i got the wrong plug, Xtar was very gracious and sent me a new north america plug which arrived today

So plugged it in, it did nothing for a few seconds then sprang to life. I’m not sure if thats a first startup anomaly or thats normal, i’ll find out

I put 4 batteries at various levels of discharge and it shows percent charge and mAh put in. It has 4 bays, and you switch between them with the center display button. The sound was turned off, and the manual does not say how to turn it on, i checked online, press the record button twice. It also went into record mode, but i find it confusing so i’m not sure if its recording or not (and i don’t get what it records).

The display go into lower brightness mode after a period of not pressing buttons, any button brings it back, i’m not a fan of this feature, it may save some milliwatts but its not worth it IMO.

I also tested the voltage/internal resistance reader, its polarity sensitive (it will show zero if you reverse polarity test). It shows two decimal places of voltage (3.81V for example) and resistance in milliohms, (the battery i checked was 42 milliohm) and the results are repeatable.

I would like a voltage showing on each bay which it does not have, but the percent is actually a nicer touch, if i had to choose between voltage and percent i would not have picked percent till now that i have seen it

Edit: First battery just finished with a beep which is nice touch, and the buttons beep each time they are pressed, the beep is reminiscent of the EEG machine in a hospital, i found myself pressing the display button every second to recreate a heart monitor sound

Edit 2: With two batteries charged one screen has a charged and uncharged battery and so does the other. I think future iterations should be able to automatically put the two still charging batteries status on the same screen, and even have an option to automatically cycle through both screens when 3 or 4 batteries are being charged whether any are fully charged or not

Edit 3: It sticks at 99% for a long time, about 10-15 minutes (guesstimate, i have not timed it)

Edit 4: I forgot to mention that the probes look like they are plated with gold

Edit 5: Freshly charged battery came off at 4.15V. Second and third battery spent about 15 and 30 mins respectively after charge finished but left on charger before reading came off at 4.15 and 4.14V respectively

Edit 6: Cell number 4 also reads 4.15V. I tested this one with the built in voltage check and it says 4.19V. My multi meter was compared to several others a few years back so i do trust it but can’t be 100% sure its accurate

This is a review of the ThruNite MCC-4S charger. This charger was sent for review by Thrunite and no other compensation recieved for my review other than the charger itself.
(Links are NON affiliated)
(5% OFF Coupon Code:THRUNITE , limited time!)
Direct link to charger on ThruNite site……… http://www.thrunite.com/thrunite-charger-mcc-4s/

Amazon link for charger……….. https://www.amazon.com/ThruNite-MCC-4S-Universal-Charging-Batteries/dp/B...

This IS my first review of any charger and I do not have the equipment or the knowledge to test the circuits and outputs of the charger , so I will do my best to tell you what I can.

This charger is capable of charging a wide range of sizes and also a wide range of chemistries of cells. I have tried everything from my longest, protected 26650 cells to my shortest unprotected ones. The charger also handles the small cells well such as the 10440 and 16340. As mentioned above it handles more than just Lithium Ion cells and will automatically detect the NiMH and NiCD cells . The charger is also capable of charging LifePo cells , but you do need to press and hold the button of the slot that cell is in for 10 seconds to manually change it over for the LifePo.
I do not have any 32650 cells , but it looks as if the contacts are pretty much at thier limit with the protected 26650’s , with only a few millimeters left before hitting the end.

The charger will hold two 26650 and two 18650 cells at one time and charge all at 1000mAh rate if chosen with the selection buttons (1 second press), or it will charge at 500mAh rate (default). I have tried all sizes of the cells i have on hand in the charger and in all the formats i have on hand , which include 10440 , 16340 , 14500 , 18650 and 26650 sizes and also AAA and AA sized Ni-MH. I have some of these sizes in button top and flat top , with some of the 18650 and 26650 being protected. The charger seems to accept all of them pretty well. The only ones i had to wiggle around just a bit were the flat top 10440 to get them to seat just right on the contacts , as the POS end is about the same height as the little insulator on top of these particular cells.
The termination of the MCC-4S shows to be 4.22v on the screen , but with 2 separate multi meters that have short heavy leads on for testing (12awg copper wire 10 inches long), I was showing 4.20v and 4.21v right off the charger on all the cells tested.
The charger will charge up to 8 hours and then automatically shut itself down if the cells are not fully charged by that time and the cells must be removed and reinserted before any further charging will take place.
The charger also comes with the DC or 12v cord , that will plug into your cars 12v power supply , so it can be taken on the road pretty easily. This feature also works just fine , as I tested it in my pickup for about 45 minutes to charge a couple of cells.

This charger DOES have reverse polarity protection and shows each cell’s voltage, charging current, charging time and battery type.
The MCC-4S got fairly warm when charging the two 26650 and two 18650 cells all at the same time at the 1000mAh rate , but it never got to the point that it had me worried about anything overheating. This was sitting on a table top with NO fan or anything , just the normal air movement in the house , with the house being at or around 77 or 78 degrees fahrenheit.

I did do a few timed charges to get an idea of how long it takes for each sized cell to fully charge and did a protected and unprotected both in each size that i have both in , to get an average time.

Those times and my final opinion of this charger are at the bottom of all the pictures along with the factory listed specs.

Package

ThruNite Box

Package Contents

MCC-4S

MCC-4S beside Nitecore D4

Top

Back

Side

Contacts

Various Cells

Display

Display 2

Charge times are just an idea and of course different mAh cells and the resistance of each cell will of course play a part in the actual charge times.

Here is what i had in my test for an average………

All cells were at or around 3.6 to 3.7 volts when charging started.

26650—-1 protected / 1 unprotected (both 5200mAh) EVVA …..average time 120 mintues

18650—-1 protected / 1 unprotected (both 3500mAh) LG MJ1….average time 105 minutes

14500—-1 button top / 1 flat top .. unprotected (both 650mAh) Efest purple..average time 75 minutes

16340—-1 button top / 1 flat top….unprotected (both 700mAh) Efest V2 Red…average time 60 minutes

10440—- 2 unprotected flat top…………(both 350mAh) Efest Red/White……average time 40 minutes

Overall this is a good basic level charger in my opinion. It seems to be built solidly and should withstand a lot of duty for getting your cells charged up. The fact that it has the 12v charging cable with it makes it a little more useful than a lot of the chargers to me also.
As with most any charger , I would like to see the slots widened enough to charge four 26650 cells at the same time.

Factory Product description……………………….

ThruNite Charger MCC-4S… $31.95

Product Description

Features
•Broad spectrum of Li-ion, LiFeP04, Ni-MH, Ni-CD rechargeable cell size.
•Supporting AC charging and DC charging. MCC-4S Charger automatically identification of Li-ion/Ni-MH/Ni-CD battery, manual-select is needed for LiFeP04 battery charging.
•Four independent charging channels. Advanced protection against short circuiting, over-current, over-charging and wrong polarity direction.
•LCD display of each cell’s voltage, charging current, charging time and battery type. Intelligent saving mode power consumption less than 0.9W.

Specifications
•Input: 100-240V(AC), 50/60Hz, 600mA(Max)
•Input: 12V-24V(DC) 2000mA(Max)
•Output: 4.2V/3.65V/1.5V 500mA*4/1000mA*4
•Size: 145*104*39.5mm (Length*Width*Height)
•Weight: 260g
•Operating Temperature: 5%(0℃)-90%(40℃)
•(full load in normal working condition)

Product Ratings
•Product Rating: TUV, GS, PSE, FCC, CE, C-TICK, CB, ROHS

Instruction
•Plug the power cable into a standard AC outlet or plug the car adapter into the cigarette lighter in your vehicle. The charger automatically check the battery. If the charger stand for 30s without inserting batteries or pressing the switch button, it will start the energy-saving function as brightness of LCD screen decreased, any effective operation will wake the screen.
•Reverse insert battery or wrong operation will lead the LCD screen display “Err”. MCC-4S Charger automatically identifies Li-ion/Ni-MH/Ni-CD battery, LiFePO4 battery could be selected manually. Default current is 500mA, 1000mA is available if needed
•Button A/B/C/D corresponding to the separate charging slot. Short press 1s: Select of charging current 500mA or 1000mA . Long press 10s: Select between Li-ion and LiFeP04 charging mode.
•For safety, MCC-4S will automatically stop charging when reach 8 hours. Remove batteries and unplug the power when charging is done.

Olight OMNI-DOK 2-Cell Charger

*Olight OMNI-DOK provided for review by SkyBen.Trade on Amazon.  Link

When SkyBen sent me a couple of Olight's for review, they also threw in a little surprise with the OMNI-DOK charger.  The OMNI-DOK sells for $19.95 on SkyBen.Trade.

Not a full featured charger but it handles both Li-Ion and NiMH cells automatically.  It takes all sizes from 16340 up to 18650 cells.  NiMH cells charge at 500mA and Li-Ion charge at 1A.  The charger has dual channels and each cell gets a full 1A (500mA for NiMH).  It topped off both my test cells at exactly 4.19V and stops charging at that point.  NiMH cells stop at 1.47V.

Charge indicators display in 25% increments.  Once the cell(s) hit 100% only the full circle indicator lights up to let you know the cell is ready.  Olight claims charging current drops as the cell nears full charge and will stop charging once charging current drops below 50mA.

It has built in protection in case you install the battery backwards and will alert with 3 flashes of the LEDs.  It also alerts you if there is a short or unsupported cells are installed.  If after 8 hours the cell(s) are still not charged the OMNI-DOK will turn off automatically for safety.

Not a whole lot to say about this little charger except that it works well and doesn't look bad sitting on the desk for a quick, easy charge when you need one.  Even the wife doesn't mind it sitting out when not being used.

Drawbacks?  A couple I suppose.  The power supply doesn't use USB so the pin type plug limits it pretty much to desktop use.  If it accepted a USB input you could use it in your car when traveling via a 12V USB supply but that's nit-picking.  The other drawback is when charging smaller cells like 16340 or 14500 cells when 500mA might be a better choice for charging current.

Overall it's a great looking little charger that works well and is built well, too.  Great for a spare charger when you don't need all the bells and whistles.  I'm glad I have it because a good extra charger is always needed.

^  Packaging is typical of Olight products and is very nice.

^  The back of the box has all the important specs listed.

^  Inside the box are the OMNI-DOK, power supply, and instruction pamphlet.

^  The instruction pamphlet

^  Nice looking little charger.  Reminds me of a high-tech hockey puck.

^  Spring loaded terminals accommodate the usual range of cell sizes except for 26650 or larger.

^  Bottom of the charger.  Nice thing is it doesn't get hot like my other chargers that have built in power supplies.

^  A look at the 12V 1A power supply.  When plugged in the indictor LED on the charger glows red.

^  A look at the charging indicators at various points of charge.  The pic on the right shows the left cell at 75% charge and the cell on the right fully charged.

The Olight OMNI-DOK is a great little charger for under $20 USD.

Package of this charger.

Charger’s appearance 

Internal:
Front side of PCB

We see 4 ntc temperature sensors for battery overheat protection. 2 batteries share one sensor.

Back side of PCB

The input 12v voltage converted via a buck converter. This converter is made up by a LM393 voltage comparator and a RC circuit(RC oscillating circuit). This circuit also provides current limitation.

Every 4 slots shares one step down voltage converter. So there are 2 converters in total.

This photo shows the inductors ,capacitors and diodes of the step down convertor.

This is a group of current sense resistors. Three 150 milliohms resistors parallel to each other to make 50milliohms for the current sense of AA batteries, and another two 100milliohms resistors parallel to make up a 50milliohms, this resistors conneted in series to the current sense resistors for AA batteries to make up a 100milliohms in total. It makes the peak charging current of AAA battries are about 50% of AA battries.

Four slots share a group of current sense resistors. So two groups are required.

Battery discharge resistors. Four slots share one group.

TL431 and a triode make up a voltage regulator circuit (set to 5V output) for Microcontroller. The microcontroller is MC81F4104S manufactured by ABOV (South Korea).

Every 4 slots share one converter. Batteries are charged in turns. Charge currents are switched by N-MOSFETS . One NMOS for one slot.

CD4051 switching 4 ntc sensors to one pin of MCU.

The duty cycle of battery charging current is slightly below 25%. So that 4 batteries share the charge current in turns.

This is the result of a battery charge test. We use a non-LSD 2600mAh NiMH battery for this test. Charging from 0% to 100% takes about 25000s (6h56min40s).
We can see a minus delta V near the end of this charge. This indicates the charger use a -ΔV algorithm to determine the charging terminal.

This charger has a function called “Refresh”. It discharges a battery to 0% and then fully charges it to eliminate the “memory effect” and improve battery performance.

The ripple of the step down buck converter. It doesnt matter since it’s used only for battery charging rather than MCU’s VDD.

I’m looking for a good 4-slot charger that will charge all different LiIon Chemistries PLUS NiMH.

Doesn’t need to be very fast.

Just bought a Nitecore i4 (2016) but it seems to be defective on slots 3 and 4 and my NiMHs came off the charger scalding hot and inflated (the bottoms had rounded off), so it’s likely going back…

Any recommendations?

So I got one. Seems fine. The manual though – is not good.

Questions:

1. I thought I saw where someone had posted a clarification/translation of the instructions, where was that?

2. Does it maintain charge if you leave the batteries in all the time? (so they would always be fresh, hopefully)

3. It says something about recovering 0 volt batteries, how does that work? (especially for LiIon, which can be dangerous)

4. I guess that’s it.

thanks
wle

Did anyone else notice this abnormal behavior when charging 4 cells at once? Very high IR on outer bays.

Also why does it charge up to 4.21V and 4.22V?

This is on brand new KeepPower 18650’s 3500mAh (2nd cycle)

!!

I have three of the chargers. Tried lubing with mixed limited success. I am going to replace the fans. Tired of fooling around with them.

This is the fan I am looking at MC25101V2-000U-A99 from Sunon. They have a variety of versions. One distinguishing factor is it they are designed for 12V PWM or simple linear 12 VDC. I need to pick one.

Yes they cost 1/3 of the cost of the charger.