Ordered this charger and received it, but haven’t fully tested yet.
But some first impressions:
USB input:
- it uses USB type-C input, is able to use QC2/9v (or regular 5v/2A). I’m testing it using QC2/9v. Comes with a USB-A to USB-C cable.
(it has the same “issue” as the LT1 lantern charging, if connect via USB-C to USB-C cable to a true USB-C power adapter, then the charger doesn’t power up)
battery length supported:
-protected 21700 battery fit the slot (I have the Rofis 5000mAh protected 21700 from Rofis MR30 and Wuben 4800mAh protected 21700 from Wuben TO50R) and they fit in the VC8 slots (but is about an exact fit with little extra room). My guess is probably 76mm length.
charger design:
- the VC8 is basically 2 chargers in 1 physical body:
channels/slots 1-4 is like “charger #1”
channels/slots 5-8 is like “charger #2”
each charger is controlled by 2 buttons (controlled separately) and also has its own LCD display ; the functions also operate independently
charger #1 (ie. slots 1-4) = has charging / grading / storage mode (all slots in ‘charger #1’ will be doing the same mode, eg all will be in ‘grading’ or ‘storage’ mode only if set to that mode)
charger #2 (ie. slots 5-8) = has charging function only
charger #1 has its own LCD display while charger #2 has its own display (controlled separately)
-it now has manual charge current selection (2A/1A/0.5A/0.25A). The 2 outermost slots (slot #1 & #8) can be set to 3A.
(each charger can be manually set to the same charging current: eg. all slots in charger #1 can be manually set to the same charging current, while all slots in charger # 2 can be manually set to a different charging current)
(I haven’t done much testing on max charge current, but the manual indicates at most (using QC2-9v): 1x 3A, 2x 2A, 4x 1A, 8x 0.5A;
thus if insert 3 batteries, than can only charge at max 1A; and charging 5 or more batteries, then at most 0.5A charge current).
“charger #1” (slots 1-4) functions:
a) normal charging mode: can switch each display to show ‘charged capacity’ / ‘real-time charging current’ / battery IR ;
battery voltage is always shown
- charging current can be manually selected (3A/2A/1A/0.5A/0.25A) and applies to all slots in “charger #1” or in “charger #2”
b) ‘grading’ mode: the manual says it discharges at 0.3A ; the display shows discharged to a low of 2.60v (LCD briefly displays 2.59v before bouncing back to a higher voltage after a discharge) ; the charging current can be manually adjusted while in ‘grading’ mode (I haven’t verified if it does follow the manually selected charging current though)
c) in ‘storage’ mode, nothing can be changed (except to change to the other function modes) ; only displays the battery voltage
“charger #2” (slots 5-8) only has the (a) normal charging function.
LCD display backlight will automatically dim after several seconds, but can be manually turned off separately for charger #1 LCD display and charger #2 LCD display.
- doesn’t appear to have “thermal” sensor
- doesn’t have a “time” display (charging time might have been useful in knowing if it’s taking too long to charge a high-resistance old battery)
-I haven’t checked how good it is at automatically choosing the charging current, and whether it will try to charge small capacity batteries (eg. AAA) at too high charge current… but at least has manual charge current override (but cannot select individually per slot — instead it applies to all slots 1-4 or all slots 5-8)