Angeleyes/Shan SH-168DLCD - A Quick Review

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

Angeleyes/Shan SH-168DLCD

Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Summary:

Battery Type:
 1-4 AA or AAA, Ni-MH or Ni-Cd
Modes: Charge, Discharge, Refresh
Display: mV, mA, mAh, Min
Price Paid: 16.43 GBP (26.51 USD)
From: FastTech
Date Ordered: 27 March 2013

Pros:

  • Lots of features for a great price
  • Clear, easy to read backlit screen
  • Simple to use
  • Useful manual in English (and Chinese)
  • 100-240V operation

Cons:

  • No CE mark
  • Comes with US lead only
  • No power switch

Features / Value: ★★★★★

For the price, I do not think you can get a better value, feature-rich NiMH charger. It is not the fastest charger on the market, however, this charger will charge, discharge and refresh (discharge then recharge) 1-4 of your batteries at a time whilst providing some useful information.

Design / Build Quality: ★★★★☆

White case is modern and aesthetically pleasing. Plastic housing feels robust. Charger feels quite small and quite lightweight, especially when compared to my old and heavy Uniross "dumb" wall charger. Batteries of both sizes are easy to insert and remove.

User interface is quite straightforward. There are two buttons above the screen: Mode and Display. Pressing Mode cycles through the different modes - Charge, Discharge and Refresh.

Press Display to show different information: Charge/discharge voltage (mV), Charge/discharge current (mA), Cell capacity (mAh), Time charging/discharging (Min).

Whilst charging, the last digit will blink. If there is a problem with the cell (dead, improper type, or ambient temperature too high or too low), all 4 digits will blink.

There are small risers underneath (1mm aprox). I stuck on some rubber feet to help airflow.

The manual has these guides on charging time and current:

Charge/Discharge Time

Type Capacity

Charge

 Discharge
One battery Two batteries Three batteries Four batteries One to four batteries
AA 2000mAh ~120min ~180min ~180min ~240min ~220min
AAA 700mAh ~75min ~75min ~110min ~150min ~75min


Charge/Discharge Current

Type Charge Discharge
One battery Two batteries Three batteries Four batteries One to four batteries
AA 1060mA 1060mA 710mA 530mA 550mA
AAA 630mA 630mA 410mA 320mA 550mA

What you get (charger, manual and figure-8 US cable):

The model number shown at boot up (u30 could be software revision?):

How the batteries fit:

The label on the back:

A short video demonstration:

2

thanks Chloe!!

3

Looks nice! Now if only it did Li-Ion as well. ;)

4

thanks for the review chloe, I think I’ll have to have a look at this.

5

I think I ordered mine at the same time as you did. But mine hasn’t arrived yet.

I’ve had two of these for years. And want to see the third one soon.

6

I hope yours arrives soon! The postman delivered mine today. Did you use tracked post? It will show, if it is in the UK at least.

7

Tracking with the Royal Fail is a waste of money. It might be on my desk at work. Or it might not….

8

I don’t think registered airmail costs extra (from FastTech), but it’s only good for checking parcel from HK to the UK.

The postman did ask me for a signature this morning though. Sometimes they don’t bother.

9

Added some more pictures! :slight_smile:

10

Great to see someone doing actual review of this charger, its been available for years, but so far nothing but few short snippets of information was available online, thanks Chloe!

Now, how about that other brand that they have for cheaper, perhaps one that comes with data cable :P?

11

I agree. There’re a number of nice Nimh chargers with display and “intelligence”, but why aren’t there more like those (intelligent, display, etc.) for Li batteries? The only one similar is the VP1 (I think that’s what it’s called), and even that is only a 2-bay’er.

Maybe because the market for Nimh is much larger than for Li? But, if a company was already making one for Nimh, they’re already covered most of the cost of tooling for the case, etc., so it seems like they should be able to come out with a similar charger for Li with minimal additional costs?

12

Great review, thx for sharing

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I made a short video demonstration (also added to review):

14

Thanks for the review looks like a nice charger.

15

Added video, nice. ^ _ ^

Normally I try to avoid AC electronics from chinese sites but this charger is starting to look tempting. :ghost:
Sony BCG34HRE has been on my wishlist (or Sony BCG34HLD if I had the patience for 6hr charge time :weary:).

Does it show Cell capacity (mAh) only after discharge / refresh or does it make some attempt to guess at capacity during charging?
Perhaps it does both? Displayed capacity should be a bit different from discharge vs charge then.
Also I see separate discharge, refresh modes. Discharge only discharges then stops?

By the way, your poking buttons with tweezers. Tired of people saying you have nice nails etc? :smiley:

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Hi Helios! In all modes, the charger updates all “fields” (mV, etc), so it does try to calculate mAh constantly during a new charge.

Discharge only discharges and stops. Refresh is simply discharge then charge combined.

I used the tweezers for several reasons! Partly the click sounded more true to life, also possible shadows and obscuring, with zoom level needed to see the screen. As you can tell from photos, the buttons are not as small as the tweezers might suggest in the video.

After a refresh cycle with fairly new 3rd gen Eneloops (rated minimum capacity 1900 mAh) the charger showed all cells to be ~2150 mAh (I didn’t record exact values). So it is useful if you require this data.

17

finally a picture of Chloe! hey Chloe, you’re a pretty gal…and smart too! :bigsmile:

18

That girl with the cat hat may or may not be named Chloe but shes not The Chloe.
Plus Chloe with a cat hat would be a little redundant. She is a cat. I think. =.=

@Chloe Oh yea, forgot to say thanks for that mAh info. :ghost:

19

Is this still worth buying or other options ?

20

In 8 weeks, kit will be one year since Chloe has not logged on :frowning: