Fake NITECORE Chargers [2016]

Basically the charger shouldn’t cook the cells, too much heat kills them.

I charged my Duracell AA's on my new fake D4 and the cells didn't get overly warm, the termination voltage was just around 1.56v, the charging has finished and the 4 cells are now at 1.5/1.5/1.51/1.5v

Curiosity got the better of me and I opened my D4 up, I found my "NITE COKE"

Some weird white power all over the board and all the capacitors are stamped NITECORE, so there goes that.

Also I confirmed via a Google search that only the battery negative should be magnetic, the contact rail should not.

Here are some pics of my NITE COKE's main board:

Here are some more views:

The eBay seller that sold me the charger is here:

http://www.ebay.com/usr/ornahouse

454000 ratings and still not clued up enough to not know when they are selling fakes?

I think not.

eBay dispute is open, this may get sticky but then again the validation code is wrong so there's no way the seller can get around that.

The fake is so thorough that a lay person would find it hard to notice it is fake, "But it says Nitecore on the plug/power cable etc"

You have to really nitpick and even then if I hadn't had this forum and google to help I doubt I'd be able to make a conclusive decision.

I had to go as far as opening it up to see "NITE COKE" before I was totally sure.

Helpful.

Did you try identifying the white powder?

Hmmm, fill the fake electronics with banned substances, ship them across national borders, carefully vacuum them out, sell the white powder one place and the fake electronics on eBay …. a business plan? Nah, that would be too much trouble.

Can you give us the link for this info?

LOL fake charger with PCB being half cocaine

Hahaha, maybe the guy that made them had a sense of humour and a cocaine habit

:D

Those that are clued up with eBay, this D4 charger took forever to arrive so I had to open an item not received dispute, that's still open and I have communicated to the seller via that case that the charger is fake but it would appear the correct thing is to close that dispute and then open an item not as described?

But I know from past experience to be careful though because eBay is a right pita when you do things incorrectly, I'm worried that seeing the item is well passed its estimated delivery time if I close this dispute I may not be able to open another item not as described dispute and then not be able to get a refund - that would make me mad as a snake!!!

I escalated the same item not received dispute and explained the charger had arrived but it was fake, I got a full refund shortly thereafter.

Here's some more handy info in regard to Nitrecore fakes, the video especially shows the difference between fake and genuine, my fake charger was identical to the one in the video:

Real vs Fake Nitecore Digicharger D4 - YouTube

Fake Nitecore I2:

The comparison video’s helpful. Lots of fakes documented on videos.

To clone the electronics of the D4, I'm assuming they copy the board trace and then try and work out all the component values and also attempt to dump any custom programming off the chips to mimic the originals operation incl LCD display. They'll clone as close as possible but undoubtedly making a few dodgy calls either on undecipherable component values/programming or just by using rubbish quality parts?

Mine is cloned so well that even the hidden long press low current charging mode for small batteries and nocturnal mode that switches the lcd back light off both work. They've really dived deep to copy the device, the sophistication is quite remarkable, they've basically tried to do a perfect clone, not just in looks but also operation.

The earlier D4 clones(the earlier version with the WORLDWIDE spelt with a C on the box) from all reports were pretty rubbish, they overheated and didn't work very well for their intended use as battery chargers. The current clone(looks like they have been in the market for the last year or so) seems decent enough compared to say crappy Trustfire type chargers.

I should probably just throw it in the bin straight away but I'm probably too damn thrifty for my own good, I've tested mine with some AA and AAA NIMH and my experience thus far is that the charger works as I expect a decent charger to work, the charge time/cell temps and terminating voltage seem within spec. Granted its early days and I'm hesitant to try 18650 cells in it but seems useful for old/junk AA or AAA NIMH with higher internal resistance that are often neigh impossible to charge on home use chargers.

On the newer D4 on the power socket, does it still say Nitecore?

From my research they do, so does my clone, the older genuine D4's didn't.

The first page show the real D4 with Nitecore on the power socket but on Nitecore website show it doesn’t have it.

I'd watch the video I posted above, it shows all the differences between genuine and fake:

If anyone wants to compare the charger rates and terminating voltages of their fake D4 to the real thing here's a comprehensive review of that info + some more pics of what the genuine item looks like including inside on the board:

Just keep in mind this review was in 2014, the current Genuine D4 has a few cosmetic changes

Despite being unequivocally fake my fong kong D4 charger seems to work well enough, has anyone else put there's to everyday test?

I have been testing it with old 18650 cells pulled from a laptop battery and they charge fine, cells don't overheat and the only issue is it shows as terminating at 4.20v but measuring with a Fluke meter its actually 4.16v. This is perhaps not a huge drawback because according to some sources a slight undercharge, ie not going all the way to 4.2v, may prolong the life of the cells.

So, I think this thread has made me more confused as to whether or not my D2 is fake than it has done to help me verify anything. There’s so much contradictory information between what’s displayed/said here compared to even just the Nitecore website, I don’t know what to trust. I’ve been using this D2 since 11/24/14, and the only issue I’ve ever noticed is that recently a AAA eneloop was pretty warm when coming off a charge cycle. None of my other batteries have given an issue, or have even gotten warm to the touch. Granted, I’m quite paranoid when it comes to charging Li-Ion batteries, and I always make sure I’m around/in the room while they are charging.

Found this thread from reading about another users suddenly-exploding charger on another forum, and have spent 2 hours trying to sort things out. So here goes my story:

I bought this charger a few years ago from a seller on Amazon for $19 from the vendor EASTSHINE while it was on sale for the holidays. Came with the AC plug and car charger.

Box Information:
Box has no verification sticker anywhere on it
The aren’t really spelling typos on the box that I can see, however on the back there are MANY spacing typos in the description, chaulking up to Engrish for now
The “(RCR123)” spacing seems to be “legit” like the genuine examples given
While my unit DID come with the car charger, the option is NOT checked off on the side of the box

Charger Cable Information:
The AC cable has the NITECORE markings on each end, however I cannot find any markings at all on the car charger

Charger Information:
Finish is rather smooth, not rough as described for the genuine unit
May have raised battery symbols in battery area, unknown, nothing to compare to/hard to compare from pictures given
Has thicker fins/vents similar to the genuine unit
Only Neg. terminal is magnetic, rails and Pos. terminal are NOT
Rectangle yellow power socket, not branded NITECORE as on newer models
PCB is blue, clean, and marked NITECORE on side without components(back)
All capacitors sleeved in black/gold NITECORE heat shrink, and one in brown/silver NITECORE heat shrink
Transformer windings wrapped in yellow, as is the core, with NITECORE sticker on cores side
Slide rails and Neg. terminal seem to have black flecks/corrosion on them where hidden by case. Upon further inspection it seems to be some type of gunk with dirt or dust sticking to it, scraped off by fingernail. Possibly just extra flux/grease from assembly

I think that’s covered everything I’ve come across so far…

Now, I really would like to say that this charger is a legit unit, as it has given me excellent service for 2+ years. But now that I’ve read these threads, posts, watched the videos, and even seen the information given from NITECORE themselves, I worry about the actual state of my Li-Ion cells. Never mind that I will have this on my mind when using this thin until I can straighten this out, or replace it. I also do not enjoy the fact that the only US LISTED VENDORS FOR NITECORE CHARGERS PER THEIR SITE ARE VAPE SHOPS. Seriously, what the eff NITECORE.

Nitecore did changes in their chargers over the years, so there are different revisions

Just for the early date of manufactoring I bet its original without valididation sticker

the early clones had cheap looking electronics inside, the Nitecore are clean and look more professional

Hey, addiction is a marketing tool.