Hello everyone,
I have (bad) news: got another overdischarged battery, this time down to 1.1V (didn’t manage to fix the stupid piece of electronics yet), so I inserted it into the Miboxer C8 and following the advice I’ve received here, I then just changed the charging current to the minimum (0.10A) and waited for it to automatically switch to “Li-Ion 4.2V” when the voltage got high enough.
Well, that never happened: I waited a full 10 minutes watching the voltage climb from the initial 1.1V all the way to 2.30V, and the charger kept identifying the battery as “NiMH/NiCd” on its display, see picture here:
NB: while waiting, I periodically double-short-pressed the [MODE] button to see whether it would allow me to change anything, to no avail; the only response from this button was when I long-pressed it right at the start to set the charging current at 0.10A.
So, it seems clear that there was no automatic switch over to the correct profile; I then turned the charger off, removed the battery and measured it with my multimeter: 2.25V, almost exactly the 2.3V reported by the charger.
I then turned the charger back on, reinserted the battery and voilá, it immediately recognized the battery as “Li-Ion 4.2V” and started charging it, showing a voltage of 2.45V and a charging current of 0.30A:
My conclusion so far: There is sadly no kind of “automatic detection” for overdischarged Li-Ion batteries in the Miboxer C8 (so forget about just inserting the batteries and leaving it to do its work), nor the possibility of manually setting the correct battery type; looks like said “smart” charger simply isn’t, and will treat such a battery as “NiMH/NiCd” even after it reaches voltages that are clearly too high for such a battery.
I’m really disappointed by the Miboxer
OTOH, at least it “allowed” me to charge the battery up to a high enough voltage and then treated it right after being turned off and back on, so I didn’t had to resort to any ‘shenanigans’ like shorting with another battery… a lot of manual work for a reportedly “smart” charger, but still better than nothing, I think.
What do you people think (besides, of course, that I should fix the overdischarging stupid piece of electronics ASAP before my batteries go to hell)?
Thanks in advance for your opinions,
— Durval