*2016-09-01* New Charger: XTAR DRAGON VP4 Plus

90$ for a facelifted Li500? Xtar obviously lost its mind

$37 is the maximum I would pay for it.

Edit: Oops, where are the buttons for individual bay?

Me too. We need a group similar to A.A. to support each other in difficult moments, so no one budges and buys it for more than $37 :slight_smile:

+1

For that price $75 U.S. or less you buy two XTAR VP2 chargers.

I’d pay $50 maximum if it turns out to be a great charger with more bells and whistles than my pair of VP2’s .

I was waiting for this charger for some time. Price turned me off. Got the regular VP4 for a third of the price. Charging four 30Qs right now. This thing is sexy :wink: But why is the power cord so dang short……?

Perfect charger for my needs… but not for $90. I’ll be watching out for coupons/sales/group buys and using my VP2 until I eventually cave in.

Exactly, eventually we all cave in…

I’m already weak….$$…………lol

I won’t for $90 I can get a very nice hobby charger with all the extra’s I would need…

Luke, someday you too will join the dark side and spend too much on this charger…

It sounds expensive and compare to a MC3000 it probably is, but the user interface is very different. The VP4 can be used by everyone, but the MC3000 requires some knowledge to use.
I prefer the MC3000, but that does not make it the correct choice for everybody and the VP4 looks fairly competent (Until now I have done about 30 batteries on it, but I have not looked on the results yet).

Shouldn’tthat be the light side :stuck_out_tongue: with all those battery bays. I think I’ll stay at the dark side of the moon (for now)

I’m hoping they have a sale one day soon. If it’s a good charger then its better IR measurement feature will be something that more chargers might try to implement to stay feature competitive. I’ve been strong enough to hold off on the MC3000 since some of the features I values the most (UI, Wireless, robustness) have been and ongoing challenge. The one feature I would really like (constant power- discharge test) is not available. So I can wait and check out other things as they work out the kinks. I was an early adopter of the NC2500 so I learned that SkyRC is not always that careful with QC or usability testing. They do better in their core market of Hobby Chargers I think. They have hopefully got enough interest on the MC3000 to keep investing in it which I think the latest software update release indicates, but how long until the next one is now an open question again.

The XTAR chargers I think have been dropping a bit in quality as they try to compete on price with some of the cheap junk out there. Since they are an OEM for chargers they likely even manufacture the chargers for some of their competitors, but they have to meet a much lower price point to make it economical to OEM them.

Yeah - but I already have two VP2s…and 4 VC2 Plus, 2 SV2s,2 VC4s, and…well, you get the picture.

The Dragon would be the most elaborate of the chargers I've ever purchased.

I finally bit the bullet and picked up an VP4 Plus Dragon. What an amazing unit! It’s so feature-filled, and came with a bunch of accessories (12-volt power cable, test leads, for built-in multi-meter, nylon carry case, etc. It’s probably the most high-end charger I own, to date. It definitely takes up the most real estate of any of my chargers, on my desk. This thing is huge! It’s the largest charger I own, thus far.

Banks 1 and 4 can charge at 2 Amps/Hr max, or 1 Amp/Hr x 4. Banks 2 and 3 will charge at .5 Amp/hr. or 1 Amp/Hr x 2.

All four slots are wide enough to accommodate 4 26650 batteries side-by-side, with the only limitation being charging at a rate of 1 Amp/Hr x 4 (as opposed to 2 Amp/Hr x 2, using slots 1 and 4 only). I can live with that.

It’s going to take me a while to really use all of the features, to be able to comment on all of them; but off the bat, I noticed that the display is really huge. You get status for two banks at a time, much like the VC4 units.

I kind of wish they had made the display half the size, and made a way to show status of all four banks simultaneously, rather tan just Banks 1 and 4, or 2 and 3 (as with the VC4). This thing is gigantic! I thought my VC4 s were big lol.

The built-in multi-meter (with the included probes) works beautifully, displaying battery voltage and resistance. Very nice . All you do is cross the leads, and it goes into multi-meter mode. Double pressing the Display button brings you back to whatever mode you were in (usually charge, for me).

I’ll have to take some pictures in the near future.

Has anyone had any luck with SkyRC products? Everything I’ve ever bought from them fails one way or another in short order. Either USB ports fail, or they just don’t act right. Usually less than one year. Then when you need support………“crickets”….
And I always paid the extra to make certain I got authentic SkyRC with the hologram labels on them.

Has anyone ever actually gotten warranty support from SkyRC ?

I just can’t buy anymore SkyRC stuff for that reason. I like the features of the MC3000 but I don’t trust the build quality (or lack of)

I wish the Xstar Dragon had a PC interface like the MC3000. That would do it for me.

I haven’t had my SkyRc 3000 for that long but the new production version has the bugs worked out and the build quality suits me. The options and accuracy will keep me from going back to lesser chargers,

Check out this video where the accuracy of the 3000 and VP4 Plus Dragon are compared:

I’ve just posted a review of the XTAR DRAGON VP4 Plus:

You are wise. I had some issues with an earlier SkyRC product so I waited on the MC3000. I’m so glad I did. There have been lots of issues between hardware, software, service, expensive replacement parts, and Smartphone Apps that hardly work (yet they advertise they have all these features). The latest versions do have a lot of fixes, but now it’s too late to fix the UI conceptual issues or the different views between the built-in programs and those created on a PC. Most owners though are more to less happy with it now, even some that have gone through a couple of units.

If you want too use the Smartphone App interface I think you probably won’t be happy.

If you just want to use DEX you might be happy if it does not have any show stoppers for you. The last firmware update broke some things, but did manage to get some basic operational improvements in there. If you want to just use it standalone you might curse the interface sometimes, but if it does what you want you will likely be happy. Like I said most users are more or less happy.

Making sue you get the latest version though of the hardware is still a bit tricky. Not too hard though finally. Remember the squirrel is behind some of the concepts and the QA/QC testing or lack there of. Luckily a lot of customers have stepped up to do a lot of the QC/QA so the latest version is better, and someone is now re-writing the manual so it does not contain squirrel-talk and rude, sarcastic baby-talk.

It does a lot, but it’s not as advanced as one might think, especially when it comes to analysis functions. You can read all about it in Kreisler’s (Kreisl, aka The Squirrel) thread on CPF and decide if you need the features it offers.

While officially only Windows XT is supported for firmware updates and control, but some have managed to get Windows 7 and Windows 10 to work, others have not.