May I make a suggestion that you change the name of your review to something like:
Mini review of the Liitokala Lii-500 18650 Analyzing Charger ?
I'm afraid that people are just skimming over it and thinking not to click on it because it is nothing that they recognize and haven't a clue as to what it is.
I have a Nitecore D4 right now and while it is a good charger, it tells me little about whether or not a cell may be Fake. - Lots of Fakes going around, ya know:-(
Just an Idea - Thanks again for posting your review!
well i think some of you on the side lines should wait for the main even here from HKJ it should be what everyone is waiting for in the meantime i will report my findings
i have seen it tossed around before and i can totally say that mR AKA IR (internal resistance) matters in terms of the time to charge clearly on my laptop pulls (good ones) the lower the mR the faster the charge even at the same rate
2nd week in and i have only nice thing to say about it at ~$24 compared to to others its a bargain (never tried the OPUS just a little rich for my taste) and the Nitecore i4 V2 is now way to slow with only 500mAh MAX per cell and with quality cells like we have today even laptop pulls i have no problem charging at 1amp (let in be known i use a laptop cooling pad on ALL my chargers imo the Lii-500 runs cooler at 1 amp then the Nitecore does at 500mAh need more cycles)
BTW can i upload pictures here or only links to some other image host
Nice info to know on the charger, I’ve been deciding on the opus and this LL500 for a minute now. $24 for it seems like a crazy good deal and I may have to jump on it before full reviews come out. Would you care to give out the link of the AliExpress vendor? Thanks.
it does have an mR function (admittedly) technically not an iR function but for me it does seem to give useful info.
if I prop it up (cable up in the air a bit) it does run cooler.
true it does not give info on multiple cells concurrently, all you have to do is push one button for the cell of intrest and all the info is there, (not a big deal in my book)
as an old pro i can tell you that if you are looking for the LOWE$T price you need to look for the Lii500 and not the Lii-500 you can save $0.21 Ali E. is funny like that
I was thinking about paying a little bit more and having the extra protection of eBay. - I don’t like the idea that Ali doesn’t take PayPal, and am hesitant to send my card number to them.
These guys don’t understand English, so no telling what is meant by the word “Seconds” in their header. - I asked them on eBay questions, but no answer from them yet. - It is the weekend, so no big deal.
In another of their ads for the 300 they claim to actually be the Factory:
“Is the charger factory, we need to email agent or wholesale customers can contact us: liitokala@126.com.”
Any thoughts on this, or where the Safest place to buy one might be, even though I might have to pay a bit more?
Does anyone have a pdf or link to the manual for this charger? Mine arrived without one from an eBay seller and all I can get out of it when I turn it on is the usb sign. Appears to be a bad AC adapter. Works great in my truck with the DC adapter.
Also, how does a charger maintain 1 amp per slot on 4 slots with an AC adapter that has a max output of 2A?
With the eBay-Seller poster+chuckhov linked it is possible to use “Best Offer” and get a price almost at the AE level. I’ve bought mine for $25. And there is the Car plug included. At AE it is not shown, maybe there is a cheaper version with only the mains adapter?
And reg. the missing manual: scroll down at the eBay text and you will find a complete description!
$25 is a good price with the car plug (if you need it) and the plus of paypal
but i will add that after more then 5 years on Ali E. i have never had a problem with their dispute system (just as fair IMO as eBay
sadly i have had to use them at both places for the same type of crap
but so far the Lii-500 if one of the better items and the Sanyo NCR18650BF cells are real (at least the 12 i got)
i did find 1 of my my old AA Rayovac 4.0 NiMH that i (bought in 2009) 4 pack for $4 at Frys) will not stop charging in the in the Lii-500 but the cell still performs (i only charge AA at 300mAh and the Default is 500mAh) so i need to do some more checking
i still want to know if and how much the cells will discharge if left in the charger after they are done
and i do not think there is a restart charge feature if the voltage drops below say 3.9v while sitting in the charger like the XTAR VC4 (sometimes $25 at BG / and ~$28 at eBay)
The Opus is to expensive and it seems like there is a new revision coming out all the time to fix bugs. If the Opus comes out with its next revision and its regular price drops to below $30, I’ll consider buying one.