If there is a charger with voltage increasing and decreasing mod, you can adjust the output voltage and charging current as you like, for example, increase the charging current to 4A to decrease charging time, what do you think of it?
Maybe I’m the only one, but I don’t quite understand what you are writing.
Current.
On a lot of (eg. most) chargers you can manualy set the current for (un)charging batteries.
A high current helps if you are in a hurry, a low current is better for the longevity of the battery.
If I’m not in a hurry, I use 0.5A for charging 18650 batteries.
Voltage.
Most of the BLF members own (much) more than one flashlight.
They must be stored somewhere, if they are not in some form of rotation scheme.
Charging them up to 4.2V leads to less need of topping them up on a regular base.
But is not ideal for the longevity of the battery so a lot of people keep it to 3.6V.
This can’t be done automatically so they will have to spend time just monitoring the charger.
It would be nice is there was a charger that stops charging at a pre-set voltage,
You’ll need a separate power supply but a CC/CV module could do what you want
What`s the difference between that and an ordinary Bench PSU with a couple of battery holders?
I think there`s a good reason not everyone charges their batteries like this and relies on a manufacturer to do the thinking for them to keep them safe.
I would be interested in a charge voltage setting to be able to charge to 4.1V or 4V for example in order to increase cycle life and decrease calendar ageing. As far as I know only the SkyRC MC3000 proposes this (only counting multi channel cylindrical chargers, not RC hobby chargers), this is a feature that Xtar could have implemented in their VP4+ dragon to compete with the MC3000.
This is one of the reason I was interested in the BLF charger project as it’s supposed to have this feature, and several people have mentioned interest in such a feature in the project thread.
(usually) 4 channels vs 1 channel, practicality. I have an icharger X6, as well as bench PSUs, I have used them a few times to charge cylindrical cells to the desired voltage but this nowhere as practical as a multi channel cylindrical charger.
I would love to be able to have a charger where I could pick the shutoff voltage.
I would always charge to between 4.0 to 4.1 volts to prolong the battery life.
Or something lower for storage.
Also being able to set a charge current to higher amps for faster charging of large cells. Or something milder to be easier on the battery.
Being able to specify a Discharge to a voltage for storage would be truly nice also.
Make the cell holder long and wide enough to fit ALL batteries. Perhaps at the expense of AAA-AA sized batteries. Shouldn’t everyone have enough of those chargers by now?
Is this a rebirth of the BLF charger?
All the Best,
Jeff
Yes, please.
And give it two magnetic electrodes to charge the new oversized Tesla batteries or very small batteries. See Olights magnetic charger as reference.
xtar is keeping researching and developing new chargers with higher technology. Please stay tune! 
You’re racing against the BLF charger 
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My Lii-500 is about to retire, so be quicker than the competition - the first advanced charger allowing adjustment of capacity/voltage and being flexible regarding the battery format wins 
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As of now, the BLF charger had been put on hold (The making of the BLF UC4 charger: the start of a new venture, INTEREST LIST, UPDATE 7 (Well, ramping stopped :/ ) - original post says this, since about a half year), but the design (or at least the requirements) are very accurate.
I don’t know the reasons, why a few manufacturers were considered for implementing the BLF charger, and other ones not, or how the negotiations on the charger design and manufacturing requirements went with each manufacturer, but if Xtar and BlueSwordM could renegotiate this design, maybe that could be it.
(I don’t expect anything from anybody, I am just thinking loud)
There’s this $50 limit if I’m not mistaken. Maybe not a good idea?
For me, it would need to be a properly specification matched charger (very strictly at least as good as the spec.), but I would personally not insist sharply on the $50 limit, but its price should be still reasonable (favourable for most BLF member).
There are a lot of chargers in the $25-$50 range. How do you compete?
More features for the money? But design and production costs have to be recovered.
You need to offer something they don’t. Like settable voltage cutoffs.
But will someone else offer something similar at a lower price if they can copy the design?
I think it would be better to aim at a higher price bracket.
I would pay more than $50 if the charger had enough features to warrant it.
I would really like it to have a USB connection to hook to a computer so that settings could be customized and data logged.
This would, I’m afraid, raise the price too high. There is also the problem of the software for the computer side.
Better still an Ethernet connection with an settable IP.
You could manage many of them on a network.
I could see the battery wall, cell tester guys, having a slew of these hooked to a network switch.
The charger needs to be sturdy enough for constant use with lots of durability built into the charging bays.
I have always thought that instead of trying to make an app for the external device (PC, IOS, Android).
Make the darn thing have a Web interface just like a router.
No need for alternate software for different devices.
Just log into the thing and away you go.
All the Best,
Jeff
Nice ideas, Jeff.
Xtar, please do.
Those are all great ideas, but also predicated upon the repeatable accuracy of the charger (which is where so many of them fall short and should be avoided).
A charger with an adjustable termination voltage could be quite useful. For long term storage, I keep my cells around 3.68V, which is how they arrive from the factory. Having a 4 or 8 station charger to accurately do this for me would be very convenient. Although most lithium cells are considered fully charged at 4.20V, reducing the maximum charge voltage will greatly extend the service life of the cells. For instance, NASA spacecraft typically recharge lithium cells to 60% of their rated capacity. Ive also read several times, that never charging your cell phone above 80% and never allowing it to drop below 20% will double its service life. Depending on my usage case with such an adjustable charger, Id keep several cells in a rotation that never exceeded 4.10V and possibly topping them off at 3.68V soon after use.
Another key feature for Xtar to consider, would be to allow the user to adjust the calibration of each charging slot independently of one another.
Fore instance, if charge slot 3 indicates a voltage of 3.87 when it is actually 3.89, the user could enter a firmware setting to adjust calibration +/- to correct the error. This would be appreciated on all settings (resistance measurement, volts, charge/discharge amps, termination voltage, etc.) This will hopefully make each slot accurate of one another. It would be up to Xtar to make it reliable and repeatable every time it is used.
More than you ever wanted to know about batteries: https://batteryuniversity.com/ Keep in mind that the manufacturer data sheet specific to each cell model trumps the generalities expressed.
Many risks are involved in this idea (IoT security vulnerabilities are an underestimated threat, to say the least). Also, this would make things unnecessarily complicated for the target audience.
In fact, this has potential safety hazards, such as unstable battery capacitance. Of course, this is my guess.To pay attention to safety, it is best to consult a professional.