Review: ML-102 Charger

Don't try charging 0.2V batteries, those are dead.

This is an awesome charger, the plastic is really tough.
Reverse polarity protection works. Resets the protection after has kick in protected cells and the voltage is 0.00V
When the battery voltage is too low cannot charge other devices, the blue light will not turn on and, the light not being on is a good thing because you have a visual representation of what's actually going on.

Thanks very much! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

Does anyone know if this can charge an IPad?

I charged my iPhone fully without it blowing up. I can’t verify that it is a recommended practice though.

No, it doesn’t.
I just tried it and the Apple says “not charging”.
It works on the Android Samsung Galaxy Tab though !

No problem charging iPhone.

Thanks for the great review (and all the other great reviews) :slight_smile:

I’ve had my ML102 for about two weeks now, and while everything works fine, it seems to be charging my 18650s to 4.16V (resting voltage after removing from the charger) - that’s not exactly a problem, but I’d be interested in knowing if this is normal - maybe it’s just normal voltage sag after removing the battery from the charger?

Of course, it might just be my cheapo multimeter…

Could be:

-inaccurate multimeter

-cells with rather high internal resistance

-powerful charging plug, at 1A charging current, it will finish at 100mA and therefore not charge the battery completely

-something else

or any combination of the above.

Hope that helps :)

It’s a good thing. Good for the life of your battery, and a sense of security that its not charging over 4.2v.

Both low quality (Ultrafire) and high quality (Panasonic 3100mAh with a PCB from HK-Equipment) cells have the same issue. I’m using a 1A charger though, so I’ll try charging from a USB port later :slight_smile:

Thanks!

The charger might be slightly below 4.20 volt (If your batteries are new) and then you have the normal voltage sag. That is perfectly fine.

Nope, you’d need something more powerful for tablets.
E.g. those 4x18650 (parallel, not 2S2P, because parallel versions are much safer) boxes from eBay, with 5V 2.5A output.
Populate it with 4 unprotected Sanyo 2600mAh cells ($22 for 4 from Kaidomain), and you have pretty much ultimate power-bank that can either fully charge 1 tablet, or fully charge 4-6 modern phones.

Got any links for these?

I found this one which seems to be good and also includes a cable with a specified current rating, which is nice since I haven’t been able to find a cable that included this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150872684370?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&\_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

I was wondering if I have 2 of this charger and say I have 1 discharged 18650 and 1 fully charged 26650, could I use the 26650 to charge the 18650 with these chargers? :smiley:

Yes, but the efficiency will not be 100%, probably more like 50%. This means you need two full batteries to charge one battery of same capacity.

I see, this just suddenly came into my mind, it was a funny question indeed, what’s the purpose to charge a 18650 w/ another 18650 x). I edited my post, 26650 charges a 18650 or vice versa makes more sense…

Has anyone tested ML-101 ? Same as 102 but without USB-out, or totally different charger?

Thanks for the great review.

Has anyone used the black ML-102 yet?