The charger does have an inductor for each slot and I assume it does some sort of buck regulation, but it is not doing a good job.
One detail is that the input current pulse is about 10ms, but the charger pulse is closer to 20ms, i.e. the charger has to use double input current.
Thanks for the great review HKJ.
Is the EU plug of higher quality or i still need to replace it in order to achieve best results? thanks.
As you can see in my first review the EU supply did also have problems, but I did not analyze it as careful as I have done this time.
I understand. This is indeed a very bad design. If they bothered to include an inductor then it should not be that hard to make a nicer solution. Or even simpler they could change the phase of pulsing by 90° for each slot to avoid pulling all the current at the same time.
If I understand correctly, the charger sends a PWM current with 3A amplitude and changes the duty cycle according to the desired charge current. Isn’t that bad for a small AAA cell? 3A is way beyond a safe charging current.
Yes, using four phases would be a good solution, but I doubt the hardware supports it.
Due to the pulsing speed it will average out, but generate more heat than a constant current. Double current generates four times the heat and only having it on half the time will only reduce the heat to half.
I do wonder how much peak current the small cells can take, but all analyzing charger for NiMH batteries works this way.
Interesting. Thanks.
You have two icharger 208B? Are you a RC hobbyist? I would like to hear more about your setup. You should do some reviews about these hobby chargers, batteries, etc.
Yes and no. I bought the iChargers after my first battery test and was planning to use them for the next one. But a couple of trial runs showed me that they where not suitable for it.
Instead I upgraded to electronic load and lab power supply, both controlled from a computer.
I do have a lot of equipment: Power supplies, electronic loads, DMM's, oscilloscopes, waveform generator, component testers/analyzers, etc.. A lot of it can be computer controlled.
At the bottom of most of my reviews, you can find a link showing what equipment I uses for that test. The listed equipment is not always 100% correct and often substitute with another unit that has the same function.
Maybe one day, hobby charger do take a long time to analyze and test.
I did read your page about your equipments but I’m always keen to hear more about that. 
So you are not using your ichargers any more? I’m thinking about buying the turnigy reaktor from hobbyking which is apparently a clone of the icharger 206B. For 65USD it seems to be a really good deal.
I already have a 50W hobby charger (accucel 6) but it’s just not powerful enough. Plus I damaged it by touching the red Banana plug with a chassis screw, effectively shorting the big Lipo that was charging through the charger’s ground plane. Big sparks!
Your reviews are priceless for me. Please keep them coming! BTW, do you have a youtube channel? I’m sure you would make great videos!
iChargers are not suitable for battery tests? Are they maybe too inaccurate equipment? :)
So about 350 people jumped the boat too early?...I'm sure less people would have bought this if they would have read this review.
Nonetheless, this is a unique charger and does a good job in certain ways! I kinda like the charger.
Interested to see people's comment to justify there purchase now.. because these were some of the issues people complained about with the first version, and held off buying. But still bought the 2nd version without waiting for the review.
I agree with some people that it's a nice charger as long as you don't try to use it in its max setting with li ions. I don't mind using this charger, even version 1. Within its limits.
There is at least 3 pages.
I am using them all the time to discharge batteries for my charger tests. For charging I usual uses Xtar chargers today.
No, I do not speak a very good English.
Yes and not 4 terminal either.
Wasn’t the main issue on v1 the pulsing on the battery voltage and this causing a too early chargingstop, resulting in not fully charged batteries.
So I took from this that you can sort the main problems out by getting a better power supply, correct? In that case, what specs should they be?
IMHO I don’t think so, as it still leaves the high pulsing current.
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Regards,
Roberta 0:)
Dammit I bought this less than 24 hours ago too aaarrrggghhhh |(
I’m after a very good charger not one with problems. As a laymen I just want to know that it doesn’t have problems working within its specifications. Shouldn’t have to run it at lower current just to get the proper charge!
Wasn't the group buy supposed to wait for HKJ's updated review? I said I was going to wait for a positive update from HKJ before buying, and risked missing the group buy pricing, and I'm very glad I had the patience to stick to that.
@HKJ, thank you for saving me some money. That money is looking like it'll go towards another hobby charger.
I thought I read in the giant group buy thread something along the lines of 'everything wrong with v1 is fixed in v2)', but I may be mistaken.
Anyway, I too am glad I waited. $40 is a lot to spend on something with this many issues.
So what is the general consensus regarding these faults. Does it make this charger poor value for $40 or are the faults excusable? This is my only charger I’m ever going to buy so I’d prefer it to be perfect and ‘work as described’. In Australia, if a product doesn’t work as intended/described or is unfit for purpose, you can return for a refund. I think this will fall into that category although I do not fully fathom the extent of the technical faults.
The BT-C3100 2.0 might not meet the expectations of those who demand a very good to perfect Charger/Discharger/Analyzer.
Personally, for me this is the best value-for-money $39 item I have so far bought. I own an iCharger, Pila IBC and a Maha C9000, used it for years, so I know how this BT-C3100’s performance compares against them.
It might not give the desired CHARGE figures as some people wanted it to have, but hey, it does everything else decently like the chargers I own. I am happy with it.
So go figure it out! Smile
Thanks HKJ. As always.
No, but any time a question was raised, or concerns etc, a member would pop in saying its all OK, buy buy buy… The questions and concerns over the lack of a positive review were drowned out… IN the beginning there were demands that any dissenters should delete their posts and leave the thread alone for those interested.
That thread felt like a market stall in Thailand.