I definitely can’t find a proper need to have this charger. Why only up to 18500? Why would I want to charge my NiMhs as singles? Why such a dedicated charger for small works, why not adding LiFe support?
Looks like a quality one, though. Ok, it’s only a USB charger, but still…
Only if I modded my SF L2m to accept a 18500, then I guess I could, but still, I have ML102 single 18650 charger. I could happily accept this one if it were a bit longer to accept 18650s too.
Great Review. Thank for the nice work.
I am currently using it. Wondering why I bought it for in the first place too. Without reading you review first.
How can the LiIon restart the charge, if there is a trickle charge of 150uA for maintaining the 4.20V? With this trickle charge, the voltage will stay 4.20V constant and never drop below 3.90V?
So Eneloops get a 10mA trickle charge after the ~1.5V termination? :)
I do not expect it will ever happen, but this not prevent me from checking it.
Generally chargers does not need a restart function, even without any leak current from the charger, the battery will last for years, before it drops below 3.9 volt.
Cottenspickers chargers with voltmeter is a different case.
Trickle charger must be under 0.1C, i.e. for a 2000mAh battery it must be below 200mA. The 0.1C is the standard charge current used for a 16 hour charge when testing capacity. 0.1C can also be used to balance battery packs with NiMH in series.
For trickle charging I would expect a range from 1mA to 50mA would be usable, the 50mA is enough to compensate for a AA that self discharges in two days or a D that self discharges in 8 days.
For chargers with a weak termination algorithm, a extra charge of one or two hours at 0.1C can be used to compensate for that.
Probably a dumb question, but would connecting the provided USB cable from the Xp1 to a 5V—1A output block (i.e. one used for iPhone charging) cause any issues? The specs say it needs 5v — .5A input.