Review request for HKJ [Chargers]

H, I have just started playing with a charger titled “Allmaybe TC2”. It seems a worthwhile successor to my excellent Xtar VC2. It does Li and Nimh and has a useful test function that charges, reads discharge maH, and recharges. I would like to recommend it for your waiting list. Thanks.

I wrote that review some time ago, but have not published it yet.

Hope to see the review of the AllMaybe TC2 really soon… :slight_smile:

It was posted yesterday.

Dear HKJ,

I’m impressed by your battery charger reviews.
On Tue, 02/20/2018 - 07:22 you wrote that you were working on a review of the:

LiitoKala Lii-NL4

I am very curious if you have succeeded in testing it and what your findings are with the charger?

My personal experience is that NiMH batteries get rather hot to the touch in the last charging phase.

Keep up the great work.

Best of regards,

Marty

This is actually normal.

This is a property of NiMH cells that make them easy to end charge when full.

How hot, much degrees Centigrade may the batteries become? They get so hot that I almost can’t keep my hand on them for very long.

At what temperature will the NiMH batteries be harmed by heat?

40-45C, which means after some time, it does start to hurt if you touch them.
If they’re only hot for a short period of time, it should not be a problem.

60C is the threshold.

Dear HKJ,

do you have in line to review the next charges: Xtar VC4S, MiBoxer Upgrade C4-12?

Also the recently released VP4C.

Xtar has promised my some chargers for review, but I have not received anything yet.

Hello HKJ is the Nitecore F4 charger in this years list of chargers to be reviewed? Thanks

Not at the current time.

Would like to see reviews of the above chargers, and also the new Liitokala Lii-500S… But I understand they will likely take some time…

It will, but the VC4S is on the test stand at the current time.

Vapcell S4 plus on your radar?

+1 on this Vapcell S4 Plus charger (I’d think that Vapcell will be glad to send you one for testing since they’ve been sending you their batteries to test…), which looks like it has some promising specs:

- 4x 3A charging (similar to Miboxer C4-12 or SkyRC MC3000)

- discharge test at 1A (2 slots) or 0.5A (4 slots?)
=> this seems interesting since very few chargers can discharge at 1A
(SkyRC MC3000 of course can discharge 4x 1A or 1x 2A), but other chargers that discharge at 1A may be discontinued (eg. Miboxer C2-4000); and the Opus BT-C3100 can also discharge at 1A but have a problem of heating up and “pausing” the discharging, which results in incorrect/too high capacity readout.

- internal resistance (would like to know how precise it is); we understand that most chargers might not be too accurate in DC IR test, but a ‘relatively consistent’ IR reading result would be good enough for most people.

+2

Here’s a teardown on the Apple USB charger. He praised its quality highly,

If you look for teardowns of Apple chargers, you can find 3 in my USB power supply tests:
https://lygte-info.dk/review/USBpower%20Apple%2012W%20USB%20power%20adapter%20UK.html
https://lygte-info.dk/review/USBpower%20Apple%2061W%20USB-C%20Power%20Adapter%20UK.html
https://lygte-info.dk/review/USBpower%20Apple%20USB%20power%20adapter%20UK.html

I do not analyze the schematic, but I have published an article about the schematic on USB chargers:
https://lygte-info.dk/info/SMPS%20workings%20UK.html