Uh-oh, looks like there’s going to be a fight for that one, if it happens
The unequivocally positive “reviews” given to the C4-12 charger by some people sometimes bother me, until I remember that I have about 130 batteries that would lead me to the same conclusion, IF that’s all I had. Unfortunately, I have about 70 batteries that drive my C4-12 nuts, and they happen to be among my most robust, reliable and frequently used batteries. My C4-12 absolutely loves the “average” and few crap batteries I have, exhibiting few if any problems with them, even in slot #3.
Although I’d prefer the full manual approach specified by teacher, I’d probably settle for just being able to override a low charge rate on my C4-12 and have it stick. I wonder if they have addressed that problem in later versions of the C4-12 , or if the people who don’t seem to understand that particular issue just don’t have any of the batteries that cause it to show up?
I initially thought the internal resistance display capability of these chargers would be a good way of keeping track of battery ageing, but I’ve been put off a bit after reinserting the SAME battery 10 times within ~3 minutes and seeing readings from 999 to 30 mOhms. Like may other things though, the truth is in there somewhere, and you just have to learn to filter out the obvious crap readings.
I don’t need an analysis feature. I don’t think I need the new voltage settings either.
We were actually talking earlier about removing features from the C4-12 in order to make it more reliable. We all like the high powered charging and all of the 11 or 12 different charge rates, but certain batteries, like button top 18650, seem to read unusually high internal resistance. This can make the charger software act funny. I like the idea of removing the automatic charge rate feature and just setting the charge rates manually. I pretty much set them manually anyway.
Or they can upgrade the firmware to not be too sensitive to high IR from protected cells so as not become too conservative in selecting the auto charging rates.
So far the C4-12’s over-sensitivity in Auto mode to high IR’ed cells is the only main concern of this otherwise superb charger, IMO.
I for one personally like this “Auto” feature very much, specially if the bugs are ironed out ( I only have 5 protecteds, btw, and all high in IR!).
Hey guys, I got Mike’s 30Q’s in and they are reading inconsistently. They are mostly under 100 milli ohms, but one is a bit more erratic. I took off the extra wrapper and I ran into a problem.
It seems Mtn Elec button top 30Q are spot welded in 4 points. This should be the most reliable method of attaching a button top and give the least amount of extra resistance, but appearantly it’s not.
Now I’m trying to figure out the best way to remove it without damaging the factory wrapper.
Hey, I found the problem! It looks like the spot welds did not penetrate enough. I was able to take a micro screwdriver and pry underneath the tab and it popped right off. That would definitely explain the extra resistance. Now let’s hope the other three cells are just as easy. (EDIT, they were not)
Okay, after cleaning off both ends of each battery I tested them out in my own C4-12 charger three times each and they all read very consistently with low internal resistance and they all automatically switched to the 3 amp charge rate.
35 47 27
27 34 44
39 43 32
31 33 39
27 to 47 might seem like a big swing, but for this charger I’d say it’s more than fine.
Now to do the solder blobs. I don’t expect the resistance to change any but I’ll test each cell multiple times afterwards just to confirm.
All you have to do is make sure they are taller than the wrapper. I plan to go a bit taller than usual above the wrapper just in case they wear down a little due to rubbing the brass ring on the Q8.
we got many flashlights with build in charger already
