Test/Review of Charger LiitoKala Engineer Lii-500

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
42

Original pics:

1kOhm resistor for LCD transistor Q35 (sorry for bad soldering…):

Original coils:

Bigger coils:

Original, without heatsink:

Heatsink (It touches only schotty diodes underneath, with thermal paste. Diodes seen below doesn’t heat much):

If you want pictures bigger rez. please tell me, didn’t know how big forum allows…

43

Awesome may i ask while i am handy can you do the before and after pics or circle the spot you added to and what you did there
when i get my next 2 in i will do these mods to them
since i just ordered them can you show i parts list as i probably do not have all the parts and i will have time to order them

thanks again nice work

44

Well, I’ll better try to explain :slight_smile:

  1. Changed original coils (chokes) to better ones as you see on picture. They are bit bigger in size and actually don’t fit original places. But they fit,
    there is plenty of room under LCD. Coils can be 40…100uH (microhenry), at least I tried these values and charging curve was almost the same.
    Wire thickness is 0,8mm, they work with currents up to 4…6 amps.
  2. On LCD’s circuit board I soldered 1,2kOhm resistor between transistor’s legs. You don’t have to use tiny SMD resistor, it can be bigger in size,
    but value must be 1,0…2kOhm. It depends how bright you want your LCD after “shutting off”. If you use your charger as PowerBank (charging phone etc.)
    then you want dimmer light (1,2kOhm would be good value), because it consumes precious amps from your batteries.
    By the way…USB output cannot be used with NiMH/NiCd batteries in charger, only Li-ion.
  3. Heatsinks on big MOSFET transistors are simply pieces on copper. Have to think something better…Whole idea was to relieve thermal stress from these transistors,
    as there is very hot inside chargers case.
  4. Added 4x electrolytic capacitors 100uF/16V (blue ones near coils). Do we need these? Good if someone can measure more deeply…
  5. Big copper plate (thickness 0,5mm) touches only 5 schottky diodes undeneath. With white thermal paste. It is soldered from 4 edges to circuit board.
    As we know, tiny SMD diode use it’s legs to carry away heat. So the circuit board too gets very hot. Copper plate helps alot. This charger doesn’t have fan, remember…
45

Nice mod! What are the blue capacitors for?

Why in stock form it has the space but no components?

46

They are for some filtering I guess. Lii-260 has these electrolytes parallelled with little ceramic capacitors.
Lii-500 has only ceramic ones. Maybe manufacturer found that output voltage ripple is low enough and left them out.
Or in some versions they still do exist? Wonder if someone could measure with and without…

There are many reasons to leave cicuit partly “unpopulated”. Main reason is to cut costs if some components are not critical
and can be left out. This is very common approach in cheap electronics.

47

aliexpress uses escrow for buyer protection . works similar to paypay but anyone having credit card can use it.

now regarding it available for cheap.

i doubt this item..because my experience with aliexpress tells me if something is very cheap then its normal price (like in this case) then its a fake order.. the seller gives fake tracking id..

happened 4 times for me ..

48

I got mine a few weeks ago the charger works fine for 18650s i bought it mainly for laptop pulls which i use to build battery packs when using the internal resistance at which range shows cells in still in good condition average condition and those not so good

49

I occasionally read the chargers tests done by HKJ and I thank him very much for his work :slight_smile: .

I’ve some questions about the LiitoKala Engineer Lii-500. It’s OK for Li-ion batteries but HKJ says the termination is too quick for NimH batteries. What is the good termination for a NimH battery? If it stops at 1.45 V instead of 1.52 V (for example), do I lost a lot of power or just a little : 2400 instead of 2500 mAh for example?

2 years ago, I bought a Lacrosse RS-1020 before HKJ did a test. I was a little disappointed because it seems it’s not a good charger (too much current after termination). When I charge AA Eneloop Pro XX at 200 mA (the most convenient, I’ve nothing to do and I’m not in a hurry), it never exceed 1.49 V (I have the same tension with my multimeter) and when it stops, the tension is 1.46~1.47 V while the RS-1020 climbs to 1.52 V with 1 A on HKJ’s tests.

With AA Tronics (Lidl), when it stops, the tension is about 1.44 V.

It seems to be similar with the LiitoKala when it charges an Eneloop at 300 mAh.

What do you think? Can we hope a correction for this new charger? I don’t use a lot of electrical devices which use batteries. Then I should want to avoid to buy a lot of chargers :wink: .

Thank you :slight_smile: .

50

Nobody to help me :frowning: ? HKJ ?

51

You cannot terminate a NiMH charger on voltage, if you want a full battery. Some chargers cheats a bit and do a top-off charge after they terminate, that way it is much more likely you get a full battery.

Another way to terminate charging on NiMH is -dv/dt, this looks for a small voltage drop, before terminating. This will fill the batteries, but can miss termination in some cases (Especially with low charge current).

In my reviews I look at the temperature, when it starts raising the cell is full. A charger could also do that, but it can be a bit tricky to make reliable.

52

Ok, I know a little how do a charger but it’s not very easy to control it and I’ve red that the voltage decrease when the battery is full, that’s why I control it on the screen and I’ve seen it on my RS-1020.

Then how can I know the battery is well filled?

Does the LiitoKala misses a lot the termination : 10, 20…?

Thank you :slight_smile: .

53

Only by discharging it and measuring how much capacity is in it.

I did not see any during my test and with the voltage termination low enough it will never miss a termination.

54

Ok. I didn’t explain well what I should want to know : when you said the LiitoKala ended too quick for an Eneloop (~2000 mA), how much does it fill it : 1500? 1800? 1900 mA…?

Thank you.

55

I would expect around 1700mAh, but it will depend on ambient temperature.

56

Ok, effectively it’s too earlier :~ . I’m going to wait a little more before buying another charger.

Thank you HKJ :slight_smile: .

57

It looks like theres two versions of this charger. One has written on the back the Patent # and the other doesnt.

Does anyone know which one is newer (with the patent or without)?
And what are the differences between the two?

I am wondering if they fixed the nimh charging and it terminates properly?

58

Interesting or a copy and an original charger ?

59

.

On the back mine says:

“Patents No.: 201320736605.8”

I’m very pleased with mine, though I continue to mostly use my Nitecore D4 for just charging. - Only really wanted the LiitoKala for it’s analyzing.

I have 3 or 4 other chargers too, so I really didn’t need this one - I just wanted it;) I say 3 or 4, because three are Xtar’s and I am waiting for the fourth to arrive The LiitoKala 100 - Too cute to pass up! :wink:

I can recommend the 500.

-Chuck

60

And have you noticed the same problem as HKJ with the Night termination?

61

I now have both this and the opus 3100 v2.2 and to reply to the usual Question…. I can say That… Not considering for a moment the pulsing stuff… and prefer the opus for many reasons over the lii500