SkyRC MC3000 Charger. Post your thoughts. Better than average?

Better than average is an understatement, this is the best charger there is for this hobby. Build a cell shaped contact holder with external leads and you have a powerful charger/analyzer for all sorts of batteries.

After getting the MC3000 you won’t even think about spending money on other chargers. I followed very closely the MC3000 development thread on CPF and was an early adopter, the details they took into account when making this charger is amazing.

Of course, it is now time for them to launch a V2, few things can be improved specially an easier UI and more efficient cooling system. But that’s the only complain I have after 1yr+ of use.

tatasal, sovereignknight, HKJ and will34

All things considered, I would like to have the SkyRC MC3000. I feel it would be beneficial to me in many ways. The UI /programming is a bit much though. If they update the charger to a more simple interface, I may consider purchasing at that time.

I just ordered two Opus BT-C3400 V3.1’s.
If I come to not like them, I’ll gift them to my kids (they’re vapers) for the flashlights I gave them for Christmas, and move on.

Thanks for responding to my post! :slight_smile:

The SkyRc is the most flexible and precise charger — I never disputed that, nor posted anything contrary to that, and at almost 3X the price of the Opus, it should be more precise.

On the other hand, my point is about the UI of the SkyRC —- the SkyRC is nowhere near, not even close, compared the Opus and the Dragon when it comes to UI. :beer:

The charger has 3 modes, two of which are simpler and easier to use. However, to unlock its full potential one must go with advance mode and manually program each charging settings to suit a specific group of batteries (it memorizes 30 settings). After the initial steep learning curve it gets relatively easy to use.

The opus is a good charger, but not for people who look for absolute accurate readings.

My MC3000 has been pleagued by all the hardware problems of the 1st generation but they have all been solved in later iterations.

My biggest pet peeve is the UI, i have nothing against UI that you have to practice and memorise (was a fan of the M43 UI) but this one is poor, i don’t think it has any internal consistency or relatedness to intuition, it’s just bizarre and clonky., i master it but i don’t like using it.

Exactly…I was at loss for the correct description, and you got it right….not intuitive, just bizarre.

No trace of the K.I.S.S. principle ( Keep It Simple, Stupid)

I have an Opus BT-C3100 v2.2 already and A SKYRC MC3000 in “packed” status on GB. I’m a newbie when it comes to batteries. Should I stick with the Opus BT-3100 or use the MC3000? I have a bunch of old eneloops that have been used in my solar lights for years that I want to refresh but I also have a bunch of 18650 batteries. I read from HKJ’s review that the Opus uses pulse charging and I’m afraid that might not be good for the batteries.

Good question, too bad nobody answered it. I want to buy a new charger too but still on the fence about which one. If a simple charger can help me identify fakes by letting me know the capacity of a battery, I would be happy. I think it would be too much to ask for if a charger could check and verify protection circuits on protected batteries as well, but that would be really nice.

I’m really happy with my mc3000.
I didn’t program the charger itself, but have set al different charge and discharge settings i have on my phone.
So yust put in the battery, select what i want to do on my phone and of it goes.

I’ve had the Opus v2.2 for a few years, and has always served me well, and the fan never bothered me. However, I was always looking for a way to discharge or “store” batteries. I have close to (60) 18650, 350’s, 340’s, 26650’s & 14500’s. Was going to buy the MC3000 because of this function. Then decided to just use 2 Miboxer C4-12’s, and dedicate the Opus to discharge cells for storage. Set the switch on the bottom of the Opus to 3.7v. Discharge the cells, then charge. They stop at 3.67v which is perfect for long term storage.

I do it all the time no problem. In dummy mode the MC3000 is just as easy as the Opus which I also own but have no reason to use any more. If you are satisfied with the preloaded charging amps value then its a one button start. The Opus is beaten by the MC in every single aspect but the price. I can afford $85 so quality and features won over value and I’m very satisfied.

I am about to buy a second MC3000, as this is the first charger I encountered, which can be set to NOT cook my NiMH batteries (I use them in many of my devices, but a considerable majority are with li ion batteries).

I’ve got several chargers now: Xtar VC4, SkyRC MC3000, Opus BT-C3100 v2.2, Miboxer C4-12, Lii-500.

For place-and-forget, I think the Miboxer C4-12 wins for ease of use. (just place the battery in the charger, and it charges automatically based on the battery’s internal resistance (so VTC6 and 30Q will charge very fast, most of the time, when at least half-discharged, the Miboxer will auto-select a 3.0A charge current — not sure if this would be bad for battery cycle lfe for the VTC6/30Q though.)

But for other analyzing and precision tuning stuff, then the MC3000 is simply the best (can adjust charge current and discharge currents in 0.01A increments), can also specify at which voltage to stop charging, and I think this is the only charger which can be configured to stop charging when battery temperature reaches a user-specified temperature.

I’m not sure if any other chargers has temperature sensor, other than the MC3000 and the Miboxer C4-12 (I don’t see temperature sensor on the Opus BT-C3100 and certainly not on the Lii-500/Zanflare C4/XTar VC4).
For the Miboxer C4-12 — it shows battery temperature, but I’m not sure at which temperature it will pause charging (I’ve seen around 50 deg C battery temperature when charging VTC6/30Q at 3.0A charging current).

As I’m sort of a control freak, I like the fine tuning of the MC3000, even though basic charging does require a few more steps (ie. select the pre-programmed number), plus the graphs (that can output to PC) also tell me something about the batteries charging behavior (not that these are needed for casual charging; but useful when comparing different batteries performance). Some features of the MC3000 can be hidden or not easy to access, after owning the MC3000 for a few months now, I just recently discovered how to do an internal resistance check for all batteries (previously, I had to do a charge or discharge and scroll down to see the “Battery IR”) — by pressing the Up and Down arrow keys simultanenously, it shows the IR of all batteries (when the batteries are idle and not “charging/discharging” states), which is very handy (equivalent to the “Quick Test” of the Opus BT-C3100.)

I recently bought the MiBoxer C4-12 at Amazon. The UI is kept very simple as there is just one single button you can press. Unfortunately, my C4-12 indicated unreasonable IR values on all of my tested batteries (Enerciq TN14500HP with 180 mOhm, Keeppower 14500 840mAh with 280 mOhm, Samsung 30Q Button Top between 770 and 999 mOhm), causing the device to charge with less than 0.5A. Slot 4 of the C4-12 mistook my 30Qs @ 3.67V with NiMH instead of Li-Ion. I cleaned all contact surfaces but it did not improve anything. With a heavy heart, I sent it back to Amazon as I still believe that the C4-12 is a very good charger (when working correctly).

I will have a look onto the MC3000 (Model 2018 with 2 cooling fans) now as I am enthusiastic about all those features many other charges do not have. There were only some minor complaints about too loose retaining clips with the updated 2018 version. For the time being, my Enova Gyrfalcon All-44 will remain the “insert battery and forget” charger.

What is happening is that these chargers are not laboratory-grade devices that can accurately provide the IR to last milliohm, and in fact, their manuals give such disclaimer about it. Nevertheless these chargers can at best approximate the IR of any given battery, features that we neglect and even consider before the advent of these chargers.

The C4-12 has very sensitive IR feedback that its auto-mode may err on the safe side than the other way around, automatically selecting a leisurely rate of .3A and thereabouts.

Choosing its Manual mode is actually like what we are used to experience when we used the ‘old’ chargers that don’t have digital displays nor gives out IR readings but just keep on pumping 1A regardless of the cell’s IR, but we are just not aware of it then. That’s the reason why with these dumb chargers, high IR cells will just heat up rapidly and dangerously and yet continue to charge it…while the C4-12 will never allow that if it is in ‘Auto’ mode, in my experience, some cell’s IR when charged at a very low starting voltage (like my numerous brand-new Samsung INR-18650G that arrived to me at a very low .72v) of about 230 to 260 milliohms, started at .3A but when the voltages started to rise in the 2.5 to 3v range, the IR started to go down and the charging rate started to go up, some as high as 1.80A, though some of those cells of mine never recovered.

Low voltage do not necessary have anything to do with IR, many chargers will implement a low volt charging mode with low current.

That’s my experience…have you ever used or charged using the C4-12, put in a .72v Samsung INR-18650G that stayed in that state for months? You can’t argue with my first-hand observation, regardless of what your high-end instruments tell you with your brand-new cells.

I did not say anything about your cells IR, just that many chargers would have used a low current, because they do that at low voltage. It has nothing to do with high or low IR.

Well, I am talking about MY cells, and the IR showed by the C4-12, and will select low current when in Auto mode but my Xtar VP2, (charging the same cell/s with high IR based on the c4-12’s) will nevertheless charge it will at 1A. How do I know it charged it at one amp? I took note of the time it reached full-charge.

Why is noone talking about the GyrFalcon All-44 (Enova)? I’m using HKJ’s site as reference and this seems like a very good deal for the price?