Thanks HKJ! What kind of retail price are we seeing on this? Is this charger worth using to measure capacity of Li-Ions? Is the capacity reported close enough to "true" capacity? I realize this won't give us capacity at high discharge currents (i.e. 3A or 5A), but would the stated capacity be similar to a 1A discharge rate capacity?
If you look at my curves, you will see the same, when using USB power the final voltage is slightly lower. My guess is that it is due to voltage, i.e. the difference 0.8 volt between 4.2 and 5 volt is just at the of the charge.
For price, try searching (DX is $17.40). For LiIon the measured is fairly good, for the AW18350-IMR the display showed 804mAh and for PA18650-34 on USB it showed 3325mAh, you can compare that to where the blue and yellow line crosses in my charts.
You cannot really compare it to the discharge rate, if you discharge at 5A and then charge the battery, the display will show how many mAh you did use (Within a few %).
I do have a table with supported battery sizes, the 14500/16340/18350/10440 are all to small for it, except IMR types.
Thanks alot, HKJ, for another quality review ;)!
Im looking at this as a cheap and portable, no clutter Li battery capacity tester, I know hobby charger would be more versatile and with better accuracy and option, but it will cost more and take up much more space with all the wires and caddies, so Im not sure why would someone who needs only simple testing to make sure their batteries are within manufacturers specifications choose something more complicated and expensive.
that’s nice to know, I bought one thanks to your review to use it to charge NiHM cells with a 4 18650 box that gets power from a solar panel. Would be nice if I could hook it directly to my solar panel though, I’ll post back results when it arrives.
Do you have any way to test that? Because if it charges when conecting to a 500mA USB source, but at a lower rate than 1000mA, I will buy it on Sunday or Monday….