Xtar Dragon Plus VP4 - Impressions

These batteries are beyond strange (and old) so sometimes they will charge forever without getting very hot, no idea where the energy is going, perhaps they have some kind of cold fusion reaction happening?
That said we now know what happens when you put 10,000mAh into a battery with this charger

Just like Keyser Soze… the charge is all gone…

Which bit of my comment do you not understand? You can charge at 2A, but only if you are using slots 1 and 4.

That is not unusual for older (non Eneloops) NiMH cells. If the charger cannot detect the -deltaV and the voltage does not reach the V cut off, then the charger will keep cooking the cells. I have found my DRAGON to be much better at terminating older cells than my BQ-CC16 and Lii-500.

I know this but where is the energy going, i have had cells that are overcharging or have high IR get too hot to hold at this same current, but these stay cool or sometimes get warm.

The energy should get turned to heat. If not, then maybe the laws of physics are being broken?

That was my point

My Keeppower L2 has percentage and voltage. It can stay stuck on 99%/4.19v for up to 30 minutes plus for some batteries!

Probably based on 99% capacity because of slower charging before it terminates.

Well maybe that is an extra selling point. Can’t display live voltage, but can suck up heat!

I wish, but the same batteries in my BC700 do the same thing. The temperature regulation of the Dragon does not work though, i have had other batteries get too hot to hold but still charging, the 15C max regulation they claim is nonsense.

I am considering this charger.

I am sure Those of you fine gentlemen who have this can answer these Two[2] questions:

1.Does it give your batteries a FULL charge, 4.20V? I have Two[2] chargers that can do this,only exception are some very old batteries!

2. From what I see it only displays Two[2] bays at a time?

Thanks,Wolfdog1226 AKA Capolini :wink:

i am considering this charger now too. the regulation makes it stand out over the BC700

Looks like the Temp. REGULATION stands out in a NEGATIVE way!

Thanks everyone for ALL your input. the more I read this the LESS I want this charger!

-No Voltage read out

-No current readout

- From what I see only displays 2 channels at a time on the LCD screen, 1 & 4 OR 2 & 3! WHY not 4, unless I am missing something. I have yet to see a photo of ALL four bays displayed w/ info.

-Of course the price!

-$69 was the cheapest I saw it on Fast Tech w/ BLF code [USA Power supply version]

-Ordering from China not something I have done too much. I much prefer the customer service in my country,no worries!

Those are more than enough reasons for me!

Mine does up to 4.15V, though it says 4.2V in the voltage tester, the calibration is off, and is not adjustable AFAIK. If you buy you may or may not have better luck.
Two bays is correct, there is a scroll button

Its better then the BC700 because it does LiIon in addition to NiMH and can go up to 2A, but it has no temperature regulation (or it doesn’t work)

Thanks!

That drives me nuts! My K/power L2 and Efest LUC V4 NEVER give a full charge either! they come off @ 4.15/16v. Same thing in regards to the chargers voltage meter over estimating the charge. I know 3 or 4 hundredths of a volt is no big deal,it is just that I want a full charge!Another thing is that if it is an older, it may come off at 4.14v and then settle @ 4.10/11v.

My Fenix ARE-C2 and a Trustfire 003-P4[my first charger!] are the only ones I have that give a full charge. the Trustfire takes forever [about 12 hours for a 18650 3400mAh going in at 3.60Volts! The Fenix is under 2 hours!I use the T’fire as an emergency charger or for very old batteries.I am certainly not fond of their batteries[do not have any!],but this charger is almost 5 years old. Although it takes forever, it does its job!

One thing I am not totally clear on. The mAh readout it shows while charging.That is the Capacity of the battery, Right?

The “D” Ni-MH battery they show on Xtar website is 90% full w/ 5023mAh. It obviously can NOT be charging just over 5A when 2A is the max!!!

I guess I just answered my own question!

EDIT: I just thought of something! They must be talking about the EXACT charge current because .5a/1a/2a is always displayed.

Speaking of that type of display. The Fenix ARE-C2+ has the current display, but in my mind it is useless! The charge current is ALWAYS 1Amp[bad design] so the only time you see the charge status change is when you first put the battery in and at the end of the charge before termination. Other than that it displays 1002mAh in bay 1/2 and 1004mAh in bays 3/4!! lol

the mAH reading is how much juice it has put in the battery, it counts up from zero until the battery is fully charged. Its not the capacity unless you drained the battery to zero before charging which is not a good thing for battery health to do.

Ok,thanks,that is even More useless than what I thought it meant!