I sold my VC4 recently because it charged to 4.22v. I have killed cells before charging them to 4.3v by mistake, only took once and they were all but useless after. So I now charge my cells a bit under, usually around 4.15v and don’t worry about it. There is so little energy available above 4.1V it really doesn’t matter unless you are chasing high numbers for those first few seconds.
I tend to quit using a charger that won’t put 4.22V in a good high discharge cell.
When I posted there were no pictures or details on that thread.
The C2-3000 was their latest charger, a 2 bay offering capable of 2 x 26650 at 1.5A per slot iirc.
Their next charger release was supposed to be a 4 slot, 4 x 26650, 2A charge & discharge, capacity & IR testing on all 4 slots.
I assumed that this latest charger the thread was about (prior to seeing any pics or specs) was this new 4 slot offering but it seems that it is an upgraded C2-3000, with user selectable charge rates as opposed to the automatically selected charge rates of the C2-3000 ?
They definitely do have a 4 slot, 4 x 26650, 2A per slot charger in the pipeline though as I have received several emails from them regarding it.
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On the topic of parallel charging batteries: would it be possible to charge 30Q and GA’s together? Or would the difference in capacity hold a problem?
I am looking into battery holders to make my own parallel charging system with hobby charger, but I don’t really know which ones to get. I’m thinking of charging 8 to 12 cells simultaneously, so that would mean a current of about 8A running through these holder and I’m not sure they can handle it. I’m thinking of getting a few of these holders . I like em because they are not wired yet so I can use thick cables and they have an open bottom so I can mount them on a fan for cooling. Don’t know if they can handle the current though.
When I charge 14 cells together I toss everything from laptop pulls to GA’s to 30Q’s all together and they always charge perfectly and come out perfectly balanced.
They don’t have a choice with parallel charging, they have to charge evenly.
The only thing to even consider is the starting voltage of the cells, I try to keep them within .5V before sticking them together although in tested I had no issues with even 1V of difference between the cells when the charge was started. Although it is a good idea to let the cells rest for 10-15 mins before charging them if the starting voltages are more then .1-.2V differnce.
Thanks for the quick reply. Can I ask how many amps you’re pushing through? Did you run into any problems with the battery holders? I’m afraid they would melt or something. I have been using Excellway® CH2 Quick Wire Connector Terminal Block Spring Connector to connect my opus to a LeadAcid battery but they can’t handle the power. They start to melt when I chrge 4 cells at 1A each.
Well the B6 I use maxes out at 5A but it worked fine when I use it with my DPS5015 at 15A as well. Although I did wire up the holders with 16AWG wire between the banks and don’t try to charge a single ecll with more then ~2A. So since the load is spread out over all the cells and the 16AWG can handle the power easy, I can charge them basically as fast as I want.
Although I would not try to push more ten 2-3A max to a single cell, I bet the metal tabs could start becoming an issue at that point. I generally stick to .5-!A per cell for charge rates, I just swap out cells with fresh ones and charge them slowly but I have hundreds of cells to swap around so I am rarely in a rush.
Charge rates are supposedly best at .6C, so it would be cell dependent for max rates. For example, if you’re charging a 2600mAh cell then max recommended charge rate would be 1560 mA, if a 3400mAh cell then 2040 mA and the larger 26650’s with 5000mAh capacity should be safe with a recommended 3000mA rate. Should be obvious that a 1A rate will be good for most 18650’s even if on the slow side. Slow is better than fast, over the life of the cell. Does anyone count the 500 charge cycles? Probably not. I’ve had all my cells in lights, charged and ready to go, for years. With some of the output testing I’ve done it’s probably safe to say I’ve worked some cells fairly hard. Only just now, after over 4 years, am I beginning to see some of my early 18650’s dying off. (Literally, I’ve lost 3 cells out of some 300.)
Yeah I would not charge them beyond 1.5A anyway, I find 0.75A is fast enough for me.
Thanks for the info. I just ordered the holders and I found them even cheaper @banggood.
FWIW... I use Anderson PowerPoles in all my RC stuff (including connecting 6000mAh 4s batteries to the cars, up to 100A of burst current) and have never had an issue.
Also, I'll second (third?) the upvote of Vibra-tite; have used it on everything from guns to MX motorcycles and really like it. There are few things inclined to eject hardware faster than big-bore single-cylinder offroad bikes, and Vibra-tite put those issues to bed. It's a great product. It may appear expensive, but I think I've just opened my third little bottle in maybe 12 years?
Thx for the tip, but for my setup I wil be using xt60 plugs. Maybe I’ll check into those power poles for my opus
That’s interesting. I think that my VC4 charges almost exactly to 4.2v.
OTOH, I also bought the Lii-202 because I had read people saying that it undercharges. I like “undercharging” so that I can get longer life out of my batteries too. Mine normally charges to about 4.17v. Pretty perfect but only 2 cells at a time.
Most of these chargers use 5% components, so thus they would have a 1% tolerance at best, so it makes sense that not all of them would charge the same. Most of them say they charge to 4.2v =/-1%. So that means they could charge as high as 4.242v or as low as 4.158v while still being in tolerance.
Going to smaller then 1% components vastly increases the cost and is rare to see nor really needed. A good calibration can have them very consistent and accurate even with 1% components. Most of them are not properly calibrated though due to costs.
Off topic (of chargers that is... 
), just started a new thread on NarsilM here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/45888
Nice Tom!
Hope lots of people start playing with it in other lights then the Q8 
Off-topic again from the charger discussion: camping with proto3
Here’s another beamshot of the prototype, control and beamshot not the same camera settings but it is both about what you see in reality. Nearest tree at 10 meter, campfire at 20 meter, tree in hotspot 40 meter, birch tree to the right of hotspot tree 60 meter, little building 70 meter.
We were not allowed a large fire because lf the drought and remarkably proto3 with a yellow plastic cup on top became the center of the group instead of the fire (the evenings were really warm so the fire was not needed for warmth), the next evening it was an orange+pink cup.(I’m not in the pictures :innocent: )
I do not know the drive current while serving as camping light (I chose a pleasurable setting in ramping mode) but after two nights with at least 10 hours of use, the 30Q’s were still at 4.05V.
Nice pics Djozz
That cup and brightness setting off the Q8 on that last pic gives it a fire-like look, sweet!
Nice djozz.
This thread has over 8000 posts. Its hard to stay up to date with this flashlight.
Please do not post hundreds of posts with discussions of batteries, chargers and so on. That would make it easier to follow this topic.