Overview of LiitoKala Engineer Lii-300

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

Hello everyone!

This is just an overview to fill the gap before HKJ has done a proper review of this analysing charger. He has this charger on the way and he ordered it some hours after me from the same seller.

Thanks to HKJ for his excellent in-depth reviews which take a tremendous amount of time to do and write with all the graphs and photos!
Thanks to user luminarium iaculator and his review of previous model Engineer Lii-260 from which I’ve taken most of the layout and thoughts.
Thanks to all the users in this forum who have contributed and shared their work and knowledge to make this such an excellent place to be!

My initial thoughts are that LiitoKala Engineer Lii-300 is good analysing charger for me, but it possibly overcharges Li-ion batteries to ~4,23V.

PLUSES:

  • Charges/discharges both Li-ion and Ni-Mh batteries (improvement over Lii-260)
  • Total length of batteries supported: 72 mm (improvement over Lii-260)
  • USB 5V output from one or both Li-ion batteries (improvement over Lii-260)
  • Battery voltage detection
  • Battery internal resistance detection called mR (but results vary for the same battery, depending on the manner they are inserted)
  • Battery capacity detection
  • Battery charging/discharging time
  • Dual completely independent charging channels
  • Dual independent displays
  • Real time data (display instantly shows charging/discharging progress)
  • Capacity, time, resistance, charging current remains on screen after charging/discharging has finished
  • It can simultaneously charge in one channel while discharging in other
  • Heat dissipation from charger is excellent.
  • You can choose 500mA/1000mA charging current (in both charging/discharging mode)
  • Discharge is always done at 500 mA
  • Before analysing it tops up the battery
  • After analysing the battery is automatically recharged
  • While charging, shows the capacity charged into the battery
  • Judging from the display, it discharges Li-ion batteries to ~2,7V
  • Seems to do a good job on charging/analysing Ni-Mh batteries
  • Easy to use
  • Very nice led display

MINUSES:

  • Display does not give 100% accuracy in readings so readings from this charger should be considered as approximate readings which are still good for a charger.
  • It shows voltage as a rounded value and only one digit after the comma. It would be much better if there were two digits after the comma.
  • It overcharges Li-ion batteries to ~4,23-4,24V
  • Refuses to discharge some crappy Trustfire batteries (could very well be due to battery problem, whose protection circuit is cutting in)
  • Does not support Li-Po batteries (not a minus for me as I don`t have any)

How does charging work? Very simple… You put battery in and it will automatically start in a charge mode. 500mAh will blink for few seconds on display… In blink mode you can press “mode“ switch which will turn on 1000mAh charging current mode. If you don’t touch anything it will start charging in default 500mAh mode.

It is very safe… When charging process is over it will write “FULL”,“charge end” on display and it will instantly terminate charging process leaving you all relevant data on display.

When charging process is finished charger will cool down instantly.

However charging it is not perfect… Charger overcharges to ~4,23-4,24V… (It will show you 4,2 on displays but multimeter will say something like 4,22-4,23 after resting)

Battery internal resistance, voltage detection, charging time, charging current, mah readings while charging/discharging. This is all shown on 2 completely independent displays in real time, and you can reach any data at any time while charging/discharging without any fear you will mess something up.

How does discharging/capacity testing works? Very simple… Once you put it in desired channel and wait few seconds while it tests internal resistance… When 500mAh charge blinking display appears press and hold mode button for 3-4 seconds, and then it will go to “discharge 500mAh blinking mode” in which with one more click you can turn to 1000mAh charge mode (it applies only to charging current before and after discharging). Discharging is always done in 500 mAh mode.
It will start discharging and it will give you real time readings. The most interesting part here is when it discharges battery it will instantly start charging process again. What does that mean? That means that you can put any battery in and charger will top it up, then discharge/test cell capacity and it will automatically charge it. So put your batteries in discharge mode and go to sleep and in the morning you will have freshly charged batteries with tested capacity.

Judging from the display it discharges battery to ~2,7V (under load), but after taking it out as soon it has stopped discharging, without a load battery reads as ~3,06V (this conclusion is based only on one battery).

I have been playing with this charger almost non-stop since December 23rd and it seems well built (haven`t looked inside), dissipating heat very fast and silently doing his job in the background. This is OK charger whose main plus for me is its ability to detect battery capacities and display of real time data.

I ordered this charger from Aliexpress. It came in a non-labeled box with a charger, power supply (12V/1,5A) and car power supply (no labels whatsoever).


2

For example I got some readings from these batteries (voltage reading was taken after full charge):

Li-ion
Panasonic NCR18650B 3400 mAh (New)
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|3252|4,211|46|
|2|3250|4,207|80|
|3|3270|4,220|70|
|4|3270|4,216|65|

XTAR 18700 Protected 2400 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|2454|4,236|178|
|2|2497|4,235|99|

SANYO blue-tops UR18650FM (originally rated 2600 mAh) - these are used, pulled from laptop battery packs which I bought very cheaply from 18sixfifty:
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|2356|4,229|95|
|2|2144|4,216|153|
|3|2360|4,222|80|
|4|2170|4,211|119|
|5|2178|4,220|99|
|6|2250|4,223|104|
|7|2188||41|
|8|2161||60|
|9|2313||85|
|10|2284||65|

Noname IMR 14500 600 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|519||178|
|2|504||178|

Cheap *Fire`s (bought when I didn`t know better):
Trustfire flames 18650 300 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|NULL - charger refused to discharge||255|
|2|NULL - charger refused to discharge||255|

Trustfire flames 14500 900 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|677||231|
|2|NULL - charger refused to discharge||255|

Ultrafire 18650 Protected 3600 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|936||255|
|2|1192||255|

Ultrafire 18650 Protected 4000 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|1655||255|

Ultrafire 18650 Protected 2600 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|1138||255|

Ni-Mh
Eneloop AAA HR4-UTGA 800 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|766|1,450|236|
|2|767|1,431|31|
|3|810|1,425|118|
|4|822|1,421|138|

Eneloop AA HR3-UTGA 2000 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|2024|1,426|255|

Really cheap batteries, totally not worth the money:
BTY AAA 800 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|67||255|
|2|61||245|

BTY AA 2500 mAh
table(table#posts).
|Nr|Capacity|Voltage|mR|
|1|59|1,383|255|
|2|132|1,370|99|
|3|138|1,375|192|
|4|194||231|

(discharging – charging was very fast with these cells and that is proof how crappy they are)

3

The question is....will this be the next charger to use instead of the XTAR VP2? Granted this charger does a few things the VP2 does not do. Time will tell.

4

Am interested in it, but the overcharging doesn’t sound so nice.

5

XTAR VP2 is more advanced charger, with more charging options and has a very good rating from HKJ so I would guess that VP2 would be the preferred choice for a charger.
Lii-300 on the other hand, is analysing charger, that`s the main trump of it.

I`m more interested to know how Lii-300 stacks up against Opus BT-C3100 V2.1

6

Capacity, internal resistance, display and two bays, looks like a great charger

7

If you run down the batteries that showed “Null” and would not discharge in the device,
charge them in another charger and then use them in a flashlight for half an hour, for example, to get them to 4.0v or thereabouts
what happens when you put them in the 300 charger? Do they charge up? and do they then go “Null” after that?

I’m curious because I have some older AW protected cells that charge fine, but when they are fully charged show “Null” in a Liitokala 260 — so they also won’t discharge as they “don’t exist” to the charger.
Yet when they’re put in needing some charge, they charge fine — and when they’re fully charged the display shows “Null” — again I’m describing the Liitokala 260.

Very curious if the 300 works the same way, on some cells, and if so which kinds of cells and what you think it’s doing.

8

it's a winner

9

I do not see any evidence of overcharging in your graphs. The charger must apply a higher voltage than the battery voltage in order to increase the charge in the battery.

I have the Liitokala Lii260 and have found that if you add 10% to the capacity measurement to make up for losses than you get a much closer measurement of mAh.

Thanks for the review, looks like another charger I will be purchasing for the added ability of analyzing Ni-Mh batteries.

10

I`m getting the feeling that Lii-300 behaves the same way that you have observed on Lii-260.
I have discovered 3 batteries that are not discharging in Lii-300 and show up as NULL.

They are:
2 Trustfire “Flames” 18650 Protected 3000mAh
1 Trustfire “Flames” 14500 Protected 900mAh

At first my second Trustfire “Flames” 14500 900mAh didn`t want to discharge as well but after some reinsertion cycles it managed to discharge and showed 677 mAh and 235 mR.

Yesterday I tried your suggestion and discharged 18650 “Flames” in flashlights down to 4,06V and 3,8V. Put them in Lii-300, the internal resistance measured was around 180 mR (but I don`t trust these measurements because they can vary greatly, depending on the way the battery is inserted).
Put them in discharge mode and Lii-300 started charging with 1000 mAh and I went to sleep. This morning both showed NULL. Took them out and measured voltage - 4,18V and 4,17V respectively.
Put them back in, internal resistance for both was 255mR (the maximum Lii can measure).
First (4,18V) showed NULL shortly after resistance test, even before charging started. The other one (4,17V) started to charge but after some seconds it showed NULL too. Repeatedly tried reinserting them back in but the observations were the same.

My guess is that protection circuit is cutting in for these cells and it could be like HKJ suggested.

My other cells which I have measured include both unprotected and protected (including my first cheap Ultrafires with protection) and Lii-300 happily accepts them. The only problems so far have been with discharging protected Trustfire “Flames”. If they are not fully charged then Lii charges them without problems to about 4,17V-4,18V.

I agree that charger must apply higher voltage to charge the batteries, but voltage measurements of batteries were taken some time after they had stopped charging.

Oh, now I see a flaw in my methodology, because I tested them right after I took them out of a charger (but charging had stopped minutes/hours before). I retested some of them after 2-3 days of resting period in my shelf and they consistently showed about a little more than 4,206V. If that`s OK and is not considered as overcharging (albeit a slight one), I will be very happy to hear that.

11

[quote=Dzy]

I have an adjustable buck/power supply that I have used for over 3 years to charge Li-ions to 4.24v, set and verified by 3 DMM’s and my batteries are holding up well, so no adverse effects caused by 4.24v.

I originally set it at that voltage due to major manufacturers like Samsung, Sanyo, etc. recommending 4.20 ± 0.05 V. I don’t see the + or - 0.05v very often anymore, but I have no doubt that it’s still there and with leeway beyond that.

I think what’s important is what the battery settles at after being removed from the charger, to me it looks like the Lii-300 is doing a good job and I appreciate a manufacturer made charger able to be this accurate. Heck I may even retire the buck power supply/charger if the Lii-300 is as accurate as your graphs suggest.

Thanks again for your review, I had no idea that this charger was available.

12

Two quick questions on the USB out:
1 - Does USB out work with the unit plugged in to 12V supply or does if have to be unplugged like the VP2?
2 - You mention “USB 5V output from one or both Li-ion batteries (improvement over Lii-260)” does this mean it discharges them in parallel or switches from one to the other?

Thanks!

I have a pretty good collection of 18650 laptop pulls and would like to sort them a bit. I have been discharging them in a ML-102 and then charging in a Soshine SC-S7 to get a rough capacity measure, but it’s a slow process. :slight_smile:
I almost pulled the trigger on the Lii-260 but the added benefit of NiMH could be handy in weeding out some old AA/AAA’s

UPDATE: From the broken english of the manf, it appears it needs to be unplugged from 12V source for USB to operate. Still a bit unclear on #2, but I went ahead and ordered one off ebay for $26…

13

liitokala lii-300 LCD 18650/26650/18500 3.7V/1.2V Battery Charger

$26

or less see obo

http://www.ebay.com/itm/liitokala-lii-300-LCD-18650-26650-18500-3-7V-1-2V-Battery-Charger-with-screen-5V-/261701609964#ht_2670wt_1378

14

No the USB output does not work with the unit plugged in to 12V supply, it needs to be unplugged for USB out to work

I did not test it, if it discharges batteries in parallel, but with two batteries inserted I started USB charging, after a while took out one battery, charging continued. Reinserted the battery and took out the other one and charging didn`t interrupt

Sorry for the delay, I`m extremely busy with school and work at the moment

15

Thanks Dzy! Mine should be here this week. :slight_smile:
Very interesting that it will use either slot for the USB output. Parallel would be very nice - easier on the cells.
I’m really looking forward to this as an analyzer.

16

Well, I’ve been playing with mine for a few days now - must have run about 10 discharge tests.
It’s working pretty well, but the termination voltage is high enough that I cannot test my protected cells.
It appears to be terminating at 4.25V and since it must charge before running a discharge test, there is no way to test protected cells as the overvoltage protection kicks in stopping the entire process.
Other than this, it’s been working well - been sorting my cells by capacity.
So far I think I like it enough to tear it apart and see if I can reverse engineer the charging circuit enough to get the term voltage down enough that I can test my protected cells.
Thanks for pointing this analyzer out! :slight_smile:

17

I got my Lii-300 from aliexpress 2 days ago and had the same problems. So I searched for a hidden menue or something like that.
Here is my finding: Unpower the Lii-300, press the left mode-button and hold it, power the Lii-300, release mode-button
Then you can choose the discharge-mode without charging!
Normal mode: Unpower the Lii-300, press the right mode-button and hold it, power the Lii-300, release mode-button

The usb-out of my Lii-300 doesnt work :frowning:

18

I tested mostly old 18650 cells (mAh/mR):

Sony US 18650GR (2007/10)
1(1864/109), 2(1877/119), 3(1796/109), 4(1822/114), 5(1827/104), 6(1792/125)

CGR18650D N 4306
1(1301/099), 2(1462/099), 3(0819/125), 4(0795/114), 5(0728/125), 6(0829/124)

Panasonic I 4306
1(def./125), 2(1351/124), 3(1152/125), 4(1266/109), 5(1166/125), 6(1422/125)

Sony Energytec STG US18650S H2 (1997/08)
1(1078/125), 2(1153/125), 3(1103/125), 4(1138/125), 5(1255/119), 6(0294/125), 7(0318/125), 8(1025/125)

TrustFire 2400
1(1888/125)

UltraFire 3000
1(1266/125)

My max. mR reading is 125.