Got my new Zanflare C4 today and tested the IR on a set of six Samsung 30Qs that I purchased from Obtronics in May 18. The results are listed in the table below.
1. The Difference is the Delta between the highest and lowest values for each cell.
2. The Standard Deviation is a statistical representation of the differences in the values for each cell.
While these IR values are more consistent and reasonable than those obtained with my LiitoKala Lii-500, they are not on par with those seen by HKJ above. Oh well.
Update: I added Standard Deviation to the above table and try to compare it somewhat to HKJs data. Here are HKJ's IR measurements for the Zanflare C4 as listed in his review above.
Now here is a table of values just looking at the "Battery" measurements. HKJ please forgive me if I've screwed this up somehow.
1. The Difference is the Delta between the highest and lowest values for each cell.
2. The Standard Deviation is a statistical representation of the differences in the values for each cell.
By looking at the Standard Deviations in both tables, one see that HJK got much better results with his Zanflare C4 IR measurements than I did with mine. For some reason, I felt as if I had to try to quantify this.
Just got my C4 a couple days ago . My button top 30Qs were all over the place and mostly higher than one would expect from new cells from Liionwholesale. Iām giving up on IR readings from budget chargers. Also , seems like too short of a CV stage as all came off the charger around 4.16 volts. The Miboxer charges them to 4.20 but takes longer to finish.
Tell me about it. I was agonising over which analysing charger to get, researched all the different types, etc., and ended up pretty much with 1 (or more) of each. :weary:
Just get more batteries, so you can use different chargers simultaneously. And what to do with all those batteriesā¦ well get more flashlights. Problem solved.
I guess I have to get out more. With summer here , it gets dark so late that I donāt even use my lights much. And they are like guns , no matter how many you own , you can only use one , maybe two at a time . So many lights and so little time.
Wellā¦actually, you can carry more than one or two weapons at a time. Oneās just need to use some scotch tape. :sunglasses: Every once in a while I love to see Ripley kickinā those Alien assesā¦ :smiling_imp:
Iām not even sure the IMAX style hobby charger will get you much further ahead, unless you are lucky. I have an Opus, several Lii-500, and 2x Zanflare C4, along with an Acucell-6 and Turnigy MAX80W both of which are in the same āfamilyā as the IMAX B6.
I just finished a test of small camera Li-on tests. I get results with a spread of ~ 20% between the 2 hobby chargers. Which one is right? It may be a problem of working with small capacity batteries, tiny wires (high IR), shaky connections, and only able to throttle the discharge down to 100mA. But, at least Iām comparing various cells to one another using the same equipment.
On regular 18650 the hobby chargers are reasonably close to the 4-bay chargers. I seldom use those anymore.
The other 3 4-bay chargers are close enough I donāt worry about the results much. I use what is convenient unless I have a special test to do. The Opus has more options and power, the Zanflare does IR better than the Opus, or is at least more consistent. The IR on the Lii-500 is useless. Iāve have 3, all acted the same, so it seems to be a problem with them in general. The other functions are good.
These are all consumer grade āhobbyā chargers. Iād say unless your unit is notably out of whack, you get what you pay for.
I recently got a Zanflare C4 on sale for 17.99 shipped. I donāt have 5 other chargers to compare it to, so for me it is perfect. Perhaps it reads high in capacity, but it will certainly show when the capacity is reduced, and when the IR increases. A man with one watch knows what time it is, while a man with two watches is never sure . . .
As the previous poster said, you likely get what you pay for.
as a new owner of a Zanflare C4, I've been busy cycling LSD cells that for the most part have been sitting unused for the last year or so, or employed in low-discharge devices.
HJK mentioned that the C4 would discharge his Eneloops down to 1.05 V, however, I'm seeing cells below the 1 V mark, currently staring at two cells reading 0.92 V, and one has gone down to 0.87 V.
Will the C4 keep discharging as long as the battery is capable of providing the required current of 0.5 A, regardless of the voltage?
Is this voltage realistic or an artifact?
Assuming the data is not garbage, I'm guessing a low discharge voltage does not bode well for the battery's real world usability?
Iāve tried out the ZanFlare C4 chargerās NOR Test and noticed the following:
the lowest displayed voltage (discharge portion) when using NiMh appears to be 0.87v (exactly the same as what you noticed) - it stops discharging when it hits 0.87v (what Iām not sure is that the 0.87v is probably the voltage under load? or could it be unloaded voltage?)
the lowest displayed voltage (discharge) when using Li-Ion appears to be 2.76v (after the display touches 2.76v, it will stop discharging)
HJK mentioned that the discharge curve is constant, so the voltage displayed should be under load.
Since voltage drops more under load in a cell that has higher internal resistance, I wonder if the explanation is simply that HJK's Eneloop have lower internal resistance than the cells I'm using. His NiMH IR test table shows about 100 milli Ohms, lower than most my NiMH cells, so there's that.
The charger employs fixed discharge cut-off thresholds to avoid damaging cells, maybe HJK's Eneloops could no longer provide the required current before hitting that voltage, I'm not sure.
2.75V is a common cut-off voltage for discharging LiIon, your result seems consistent with HJK's charts.
FWIW, I conducted capacity testing on four Panasonic-Sanyo NCR18650GA batteries today using my Zanflare C4 and happened to catch one (a straggler) hitting the same 2.76 v minimum value. One second the value was 2.76v and then the next it was 2.8 v and rising. Missed the other three because they were in the lead.