Test/Review of Charger SkyRC MC3000

Very good review as usual HKJ.
Bra jobbat!

I do not get paid for my reviews, except I keep the charger

This charger did take a lot of time and there was a lot more I would have liked to test/include, but decided not to.

Thank you for the very professional review!
(not that I will ever buy such an expensive charger - but it is good to know that it is out there)

thanks

Thanks HKJ once again for another amazing review. It took me 35 minutes to read it, I can’t imagine how long it took you to do all the testing. This is really the charger we all have been waiting for!

The thing is, to spend this much on a charger I would never think of it, until I see what HKJ has to say. Sometimes budget is buying the right thing, no matter the cost, first… If I were new to all of this, and needed a charger to grow with me… Here it is

Thanks for the details review HKJ.
Keep up the good work and Merry Christmas and happy holiday

Thanks a lot for your comprehensive review, HKJ!

I’m a bit concerned about “flat top cells can be a bit tricky go get working.”.
How tricky, or what is the trick, and after trick applied, is the contact reliable?

The long bar at the plus side may prevent flattop cells where the cell plus pole is below the surrounding from making contact. Sometimes you can just move them to the top of the slot and they will make contact, or in hard cases you might need a small magnet.

It is far from all flattop that gives problem, my usual test set did mostly work, but a Samsung ICR18650-26F did not always make contact.

As I wrote in the review the MC3000 is not for everybody, but some people can get a lot of benefits from it and I am one of those.
I have just been removing a lot of "old" charges and replaced them with two MC3000, I expect this will give me more flexibility and it do take up considerable less space.

This is, of course, very closely related to my charger testing, where I need to discharge batteries very often.



I did usual not use the 4-way hobby charger, it takes up a lot of space and has two small very noisy fans.
That means with the old setup I could usual do: 2 (6) LiIon discharge, 4 LiIon charge, 8 NiMH charge/discharge and the possibility to add 4 LiIon charge/discharge.
With the new setup I got: 8 LiIon/NiMH charge/discharge and due to the D.REDUCE I can discharge faster. The MC3000 is easier to use than hobby chargers or PowerEx (But more difficult than the Xtars).

Thanks for the review hkj. I’m pleased it benefits you a lot, you deserve it! :slight_smile:

What a masterpiece, the review itself, I mean! And In fact I liked your linked "Battery charging NiMh" article even more, very informative and thorough.

Now waiting for the charger to be available for a good price in Europe. Unfortunately I fear that could take a while.

Stanley from hkequipment told me that the next batch from skyrc will be delivered mid january 2016
but then the low price will raise to 110 to 120 USD :frowning:

If you hold an AM radio near the power supply, do you get noise?
How far away do you have to take the radio before you’re out of range of the noise?

I’m in the US, and I’m a ham radio operator, so tracking down noise sources is routine (and it’s not uncommon for serious noise hunters to find sources that radiate over several miles from ordinary household electrical equipment that’s badly made).

So any more info would be welcome.

Is there any way to identify a mislabeled power supply like the one you got (with the CE and FCC labels but not the internal electronics)?
(Other than checking for EMI)?

(it would be nice to know that they really do have 2 different labels — I hope they don’t just slap the CE and FCC label on everything, regardless of what’s inside it)

If I bought it right now from Gearbest my price would be $136.50 with tax and fee.

Testing for radio noise around here do not really work, I have way to much electronic stuff running.

If I had a place with less noise around I could have used my spectrum analyzer.

It do look like they just uses the CE label on everything.

Depends, customs do not catch everything!

hkequipment.net still sells for the promotion price of 95.95 …
can order now - but it will be shipped mid jan
HKEQUIPMENT - 照明及戶外用品

I had to order the UK version because US and EU were both out of stock and relisted as pre-sale. Since I have a dedicated 13.8v power supply for all my chargers I won’t be using the included adapter.

I also ordered 2 small fans 4.2cm wide to install the on the back of the charger, pointing to the heatsink. I hope the stock output is 5V and provides enough current to power 2 additional fans. If not I will wire them to the USB output and use a mini relay if necessary. I suspect the heat generated with 1A discharge across all 4 bays will deteriorate the components inside the charger.

USB powered fans sound good… :beer: