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.
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.
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.
So I commend Gearbest for keeping the group buy open long enough for us to benefit from the results of HKJ's test even if that meant we wouldn't buy. I also commend Opus for adding "v2.0" to the display, but that doesn't make up for still having a faulty charger. Maybe they'll get it right on the next version.
I didn't see the posts requesting censorship. Fortunately I stopped paying attention to the thread. I figured it would be a bunch of nonsense until HKJ posted his results.
Since this is a gb thread, I suggested this: (it is in the OP until now, unedited)
*
In order to preserve the essence of this thread, may I respectfully suggest to those members who do not intend to join this Group Buy to make another thread where they can discuss their concerns (positive or negative) about this item?*
For the record, there was no demand for any dissenter to delete their posts.
There was a issue with oscillations (Current going up and down), that made the charger terminate premature. This is completely fixed.
The charger can both charge and analyze capacity. If you do laptop pulls you can easily analyze the batteries. I will say that the charger fulfills its main purpose.
My main reason for buying the charger was that I wanted to be able to easily test Li-Ion batteries, like I can test NiMH. With this charger, I can. I think the GB-thread made it rather obvious that there still was some problems with the charger.
I may use a bigger PSU, if I happen to stumble over one, and mod the fan solution, that will improve the performance of the charger even more. But I can use the charger as it is, just fine.
The charger will charge fully and the battery will smooth it out, remember the current pulses is 20 times each second, but I cannot answer how much the smoothing helps.
The spikes are always at full current, even at 200mA charge current, but full current will vary with the battery voltage and the internal resistance of the battery. Maximum is probably around 3.5A to 4A.
Ok so do I have this right ?
It does not show the capacity accurately when
charging at higher current. ??
Does it show correct capacity with a better power supply ?
Or when charging at lower current ?