Nitecore's new Intellicharger D4

D4 is as low as $25 at AliExpress now.

Username is poster? 1st post, links? Maybe or maybe not aff links.

SPAM! I could be wrong but I doubt it.

a time, I must be only one who cares less about high charge rate. I care more about termination voltage so .5 amp is fine for overnight charge. With laptop pulls I can afford to keep four in light while second set in charger. This is for peace time use mind you!

But, certainly understand the lure of a killer light that takes all night to discharge and 1 hour to recharge…or do I have that backwards…

I bought 2 of them as I also don’t care about charge times. Even if I am only topping up 2 batteries I put em on the same channel so they only get 375 and then remove them from the charger when I wake up the next day. Slow charging is only good for the batteries.

As I said earlier, now that is has smooth sliders and can charge at 150 for 10440’s, that’s good enough for me.

good for the batteries. Yep, my error 375 on same channel…

I didn’t realize the d4 would drop in price so fast. I regret buying my d2 since the d2 only charges at 500mah whether you charge 1 or 2 cells simultaneously.

Lol

I finally received a set of 4 cells, so I can finally test my D4 charger! Here’s my initial thoughts on using this charger,

1) The led backlight can be switched off so it can truly work as an overnight charger, brilliant as charging at such low currents can take a very long time.
2) When filling all 4 slots is it’s very hard to take the cells out (probably the same issue with the i4). I have very long cells (69mm length) so it just barely fits with about 1~2 mm gap. The sliders feel very well made, and inserting the cells is such an easy task.
3) I did notice when charging that a high pitched noise can be heard. This only occurs when powering using the ac cable, it’s completely silent when using an ac adaptor and using the dc input. Maybe the built in ac to dc unit is causing this noise?
4) The lcd screen displays more information; voltage, time elapsed, current. But it’s a bummer that they couldn’t add features such as how much capacity has been put into the cells.

For the $30 I paid, this was definitely a good deal and (in my opinion) well worth the extra $10 on top of the i4.

Photo update: check this out guys, I found the perfect power adaptor for this charger. It came from a very ubiquitous walkera charger (12v 1a, I think the dc plug has dimensions 5.5x2.1mm, I have no clue how to accurately measure this)

What advantages do you get out of the new power adaptor? My 2 just came with an AU plug and it works fine.

There’s 3 benefits I can think of;

1) No power supply hiss? It’s a very periodic high frequency pulse if you power it directly using the supplied ac cable. It’s not a cable problem, I tried a different cable and still get the hiss. I have 2 units and both experience this. It’s rather annoying especially if your room is silent and this ac adaptor seems to solve the problem.

2) Charger runs cooler. Since we’re supplying the charger with a dc source, the ac transformer in the charger is de-activated. As we all know ac->dc conversion is not 100% efficient so releases heat. Naturally by using an ac adaptor this would reduce the heat in the charger. Now I don’t know what benefit this has as this is a “low power” device. That being said I did however notice that it ran warmer whilst charging nimh cells compared to lithium cells. My theory is the charger dissipates the excess power (nimh is 1.2v and li-ion is 3.7v)

3) Aesthetics, the dc cable to the device is thinner making looking ‘cleaner’. Because the cable is very flexible I can place this on a table next to a right next to a wall and have the cables ‘under control’.

Thanks for the great review!

You could easily do a full review.

The i4 was the best of its kind before, now the D4 does everything like i4. And even more!

Maybe that's the best charger!!!

From nitecore brand.

@tempo Thanks, I’ll look into doing a more in-depth review but it will take time. I’ll try collecting data using my multi-meter, it has a data logging feature but it’s battery operated so I’m yet to figure how to run it for an extended duration without draining the battery.

For anyone still interested, banggood has it at 29.96 if you use the code D25F.

So is the new Xtar a better charger?

The spec says 350mA*4 or 750mA*2. In reality 750mA is only for one battery. It takes forever to charge just 2*18650 3100mAh. And basically wait to bore to charge 2*26650 5200mAh.

Tried charge one 26650 cell from 3.6v need around 4.5hours to get 4.18v and completed on 6 hours. Very long in CV mode.

Not quite so. First 2 slots on the left is one bank and the other 2 slots is another bank. If you put 2 batteries in the same bank, that is 1st and 2nd slots OR 3rd and 4th, it will charge each battery at 750mA. If you put 2 batteries one battery in each bank that is one in 1st, another in 3rd or 4th OR one in 2nd and another in 3th or 4th then they will be ballanced charged at 350mA each. I hope I am clear enough. If nothing works, you can always re-read the manual.

I tested again, apparently I was wrong. Mine, slot 1 & 4 is 1 channel. That’s why i saw only 350mA when charging 2*26650.
Do you notice the display become colorized when charging for long period and after the heat built up?

I do not have any 26650s. And my batteries have small capacities. So the charging does not last long. However once I put the charger on the carpet and realized it was getting hot so I had to prop it up to let it run cooler. I did not see any color change. You can turn tne back llight off so the discoloration would not be visible to you :slight_smile: .How do you charge 26650s anyways? With jumper cables?

Later on I turn off the display. It back to normal once the charger cool enough.
Slot 1 & 4 can fit the 26650. In my case, I need to rotate the battery to find contact point between the positive pole in battery and charger. I use efest IMR purple, btw.

Ah! Yours must be a newer version. When it first came out, it was advertised as if it could charge 26650s. Even the box says so. But we got a charger with 18650 slots. Who says early bird gets the worm. Sometime it gets a bug. I guess the designers did not know the intensions of the producers huh.

Yours can’t fit 26650 at all at any slot?
Hmm.I can’t tell if it is due to newer batch or other reason. All i can say is that the authenticity code can’t be validated, LOL.