Test/Review of Charger LiitoKala Engineer Lii-500

Nice mod! What are the blue capacitors for?

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

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 withoutā€¦

There are many reasons to leave cicuit partly ā€œunpopulatedā€. 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.

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 ..

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

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

Iā€™ve some questions about the LiitoKala Engineer Lii-500. Itā€™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 itā€™s not a good charger (too much current after termination). When I charge AA Eneloop Pro XX at 200 mA (the most convenient, Iā€™ve nothing to do and Iā€™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 HKJā€™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 donā€™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: .

Nobody to help me :frowning: ? HKJ ?

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.

Ok, I know a little how do a charger but itā€™s not very easy to control it and Iā€™ve red that the voltage decrease when the battery is full, thatā€™s why I control it on the screen and Iā€™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, 20ā€¦?

Thank you :slight_smile: .

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.

Ok. I didnā€™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 mAā€¦?

Thank you.

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

Ok, effectively itā€™s too earlier :~ . Iā€™m going to wait a little more before buying another charger.

Thank you HKJ :slight_smile: .

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?

Interesting or a copy and an original charger ?

.

On the back mine says:

ā€œPatents No.: 201320736605.8ā€

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

I have 3 or 4 other chargers too, so I really didnā€™t need this one - I just wanted it;) I say 3 or 4, because three are Xtarā€™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

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

I now have both this and the opus 3100 v2.2 and to reply to the usual Questionā€¦. I can say Thatā€¦ Not considering for a moment the pulsing stuffā€¦ and prefer the opus for many reasons over the lii500

And you can explain why?

Mine has the patent number on the back.

3100 has a far better explained manual, i normally donā€™t read manuals but in this case the Lii500 is by far more confused and usually contradictory sometimes in a line it says it detects capacity while charging sometimes it says in the following line it does discharging.
In the manual NOR test and QUICK test are explained as the same test, and usually lines are copy/paste even if they shouldnā€™t. Also never head of a charger having fever :stuck_out_tongue:
the 3100 manual itā€™s far more consistent and understendable even if there are some english errors.

Anyway, forgiving the manual

3100 has thermal sensors (clearly stated in the manual) and even the fan actuating temperature is described 40Ā°C IIRC( more precise data is a plus for me, meaning they actually have numbers and have really thought about it while projecting)
3100 has a self restarting charging if VOltage drops
Lii500 has no clear discharging function
3100 always display mAh even live while charging/discharging

3100 IR test sadly has to be made manually while Lii500 has them automatically made upon 3sec of inserting the batery (but lii500 value are not stantdart Ohm values)
3100 has a fan which could be annoying if you charging in your room like me while watching tv, anyway i like it has it gives me a more safe feeling about temps
3100 has no Powerbank, even if i will not using it certainly having it is a plus, undoubtely
3100 has a more precise Voltmeter in my opinion and chargin is always Spot on I always found batteries at about 4.17-4.19V even after 30min pulled out of the charger
3100 has live ammeter (precise or not) if you set lets say 1000mA current you can see the current be 997mA or 1002 mA ā€¦just saying, also on termination you can see the current decresing livelyā€¦. 111mA, 99maā€¦.etcā€¦ 22mA ā€¦ā€¦on lii500 thereā€™s just a still symbol for the selected current
3100 can go down to 200mA in chargin current (yeah, pulsating :frowning: ) while lii has 300mA
3100 can go up to 2x 2A charging , lii500 can just do 4x1A
DIscharging currents are max 500mA x4 in lii500 while 3100 can do 2000mA x2. 3100 gives you a more wide selection of current in every situation
the 3100 UI is worse esthetically but far more easy to use IMHO

also being more manual in its charging/discharging phases I like it moreā€¦.as it will give you more control, letā€™s say you just want to see the discharged capacity, the lii 500 has to go through one of those cycling tests

This list could contain errors as Iā€™ve not tested in parallel trying to do the same thing at the same moment but so far it is what i remeber feel free to correct me