[REVIEW] MiBoxer C4-12 4 slot Charger each 3A

I received a free sample of this charger from Miboxer to do this review

They sent me this charger with DHL express.

The charger comes in a cardbox, that is slightly damaged at an edge.



The box contains:

- Charger

- 230V EU power cable

- 12V 5A PSU

  • Manual

The manual is in English.

The UI is quite easy and good described in the manual so I don’t go further into it.

This review is long enough, for specifications look for them on their *website.
I made a time-lapse to show how the charger operates.

At 12 minutes I change the current from automatic range to 3A per cell.

The charger has a conservative automatic selected current, it does not provide too much current to any of my cells, but on some with PCB it charges very slow.
Better use manual charge current.

It charges all types of lithium batteries and NiCd/NiMh with the proper CC/CV and delta V charge curves.
Good charge characteristics for lithium and NiMh.

The charger also is capable to run as a powerbank from slot 4.

The charger design seems similar to my Nitecore D4 or my Klarus CH4S just it is bigger so it can charge 4 26650 at the same time.


It comes with a EU plug to my destination, easily to change the cable to other sockets.

The first thing was opening the charger to look inside, how well it is build.

It looks very similar to the C2-6000 that has also 3A per slot.

The charger uses rails with sliders to make contact, all contacts and rails are made of coated steel,
copper would be nicer but being steel seems not to affect the voltage readings much.

The Chargers plastic is durable and also is reinforced.
Both parts of the shell snap in as addition to the 4 screws.

The resistance measurement with the charger seems consistant, just empty cells have higher value than it shows when fully charged

First thing was to bypass the rails with 4 different wires to test this compared to the stock charger.

The display comes with a protective film that is also labeled as such, often it’s hard to see if there is a protection film on the charger
so people don’t remove it.
The overall looking is better than my Klarus CH4S charger.

The charger weights 615g with PSU so it is heavier than most other 4 slot chargers,
definitely not a travel charger.

The PSU is heavy and seems of good quality, I do not open it as it is sealed.

The SMD parts are all lined up perfectly and soldering is good.
There is one resistor that has a 2. stacked on top, soldered by hand there.

The charger board is single sided the rails are soldered well.

The springs are not soldered like in many charger so there is no risk that it gets loose.

The charger board is really clean the contacts are made of plated steel.

The battery contacts have 3 raised points to make contact to 10440, 18650 and 32650 sized cells.
The slider has 2 raised points.

The Charger uses low ESR capacitors the inductors are glued with silicone for mechanical stability.

The charger has temperature probes for each slot individually.

The microcontroller is the same than in the other Miboxer chargers.

The slots have each 2 0.068Ohms sense resistors parallel.

On the right side of the board is the USB output boost converter for slot 4.

Near the DC power socket there is a claw chip like AMC7135s.

The power socket is high quality

Display board looks good.

It is possible to charge 2 D sized cells but not really fitting.



If the side would be shallower at the battery positive side it would fit.

This was better in the C2-6000.

Conclusion

Pros:

- high quality build

- 3A each slot

- proper charge characteristic

- can charge 4 26650 at the same time

- good electrical safety

- easy UI

- slowly ramping up charge current

  • temperature control for each slot

Neutral:

  • only NiMh and 4.2V lithium batteries supported

Cons:

  • 2 D-cell sized batteries do not fit in well, a minor change in the case design could fix this

Wow, GREAT review! Very thorough, and cleanly and clearly written.

Now I know what charger to go after next, no lie! It's time for me to upgrade :)

Again, very nice review. Thanks for taking the time to do this! :THUMBS:

-Ben

Thanks Lexel, nice tidy review.

Did you test the charge characteristics or is that just the claim? Iirc HKJ found some small problems previously with older miboxer but they corrected this?

Im tempted to purchase one for the Q8, it’s that or a second Xtar rocket, the VC4 I have is rubbish and I need something to replace it.

The C2-6000 is identical to this one just half the slots, HKJ tested it to have good charge characteristics, the only downside was the powerbank function
The automatic charge current is conservative it wont charge cells with too much current like the first C4 did

The charger did TC/CC/CV for my lithium and charged with 12A without any problem

For NiMh I tested with 2 sets of batteries, 10 year old D cells and new eneloops, both batteries had different end voltages, so I am sure they also charge deltaV, there is no reason to screw up just adding 2 slots to the C2-6000

That’s good to know, I’m personally not worried about NiMh but reassuring for those that use it for that. I will be using this almost exclusively for high drain unprotected 18650, so 1.5-2A will be perfect.

The powerbank however on a charger of this size is pretty pointless imho, I kinda get it for small single cell chargers but single slot capacity on a charger this size is crazy!

I think you have confirmed this is probably the most suited charger for my Q8 and in future, GT. Will place an order on that 11/11 Ali deal.

I wondered if it will be a hassle to often configure and set it in manual mode to prevent the high current charging that happens in auto and that over time may wear the cells somewhat faster. Or will it work fine to mostly use it in auto? I eventually want to set maximum charging current for auto.
Here is the Miboxer C4-12 User manual

The auto rate selected by the charger is normally a conservative/safe one. It will work fine as long as you dont mind slightly longer charge times.

I say ‘normally’ because I’ve seen it push 0.65A into my AAA Eneloops, which I thought was a bit high. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the review!

And what was the outcome?

One more question. :slight_smile:
There is a battery capacity display, but this shows only the charged capacity (no discharge mode), right?

The analysing charger is the C2-4000 smart charger, maybe a C4-6000 smart charger will be released

The 4000 comes with 1.5A each slot and 3.2, 3.8V lithium charge
As well 1.5A per slot discharge for lithium and 1A for NiMh

One quick fix to prevent the high current charge that my appear in auto, can be to use another weaker power supply. Then according to the chargers user manual it will…

Maybe Liitokala Lii-500s power supply fits as well in Miboxer? I do not know if that high current is a real problem or if it fine can be ignored? Is it possible to easily change charging current from auto to manual ie. to. 1A for all slots at once? Or will it need to be done one slot at a time?

Same question for Zanflare C4, can the charging current be changed for all slots at once?

A weak power supply is a bad idea, it just cuts off the max current over 2A, no help if your 14500 or AAAs get charged with current close to the max charge for those cells

New white AAA eneloop have a fairly low internal resistance they are rated 800mA fast charge

Peter reported 650mA for Eneloop AAA which is well in the specifications, the charger did on all my tested batteries currents below the fast charge max currents, especially protected cells get charged slow, so there a manual charge current is good, for unprotected it did a great job

Today 11.11 on Aliexpress this charger is a steal for 32.33$
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/Mibo…ery-Charger-w-for-Li-ion-INR/32829316558.html

Thanks for the link. Ordered!

Great review,Lexel! :slight_smile: So if i understand you right, this charger does not support 18650 3,6 Volt batteries neither RCR123? What happens if one insert such batteries in the charger?

RCR123 is a 3.7/4.2V battery

Lithium iron phosphate is 3.2/3.6V this battery would get overcharged, maybe the temp sensor of the charger prevents worst case

Thorough, ,detailed, and well explained. Your use of pictures with review are beautifully integrated. Thank you, very much.

Not to mention the man took time to disassemble the product to show us the internals, which I think is more useful to many readers here in BLF and I think this practice is just fair to the sellers who deserve it. I am not going to mention names, but I see many so-called “reviewers” in this forum publish their useless reviews of products they shamelessly solicit from unsuspecting sellers. I can understand it if it is just a personal review of a product they purchased themselves. That I can respect, but those who shamelessly solicit free products in exchange for their half-ass useless review? Nope.

great review next time they are on sale i will have to get 1-2 or 3 (feel free to pm me if there is a sale)
i do not understand why only Slot #4 is the source for the Power Bank
the Lii-500 and its clones use all 4 or any 1 slot as the source for its Power Bank and it is a feature i use all the time loaded with 4 cells

and i guess i got spoiled by the discharge /analyze of the Lii-500 and it being only ~ $15-$18
but 3amp in this vs 1 amp in the Li-500 is awesome

i have 7 Li-500 and love then but still with the Li-500 or the V40 *NOT THE Fikida F4-Plus *its a cheap poor clone

BTW the C4-12 is on sale at BG until tomorrow for $30

I hate to bring back an old thread but had an “issue”.

I’ve bought two of these chargers in the past year and a half and they both leave cells at 4.15v when they come off the charger when I measure with a multimeter. All 4 of my xtar chargers leave batteries at the 4.18-19v mark when they come off.

What gives? Can it be calibrated?

Is this the same charger?

Amazon

What is the difference between the C4 and the C4S