Opus BT-C3100 vs LiitoKala Lii-500

I also have a Nitecore D4 as well as the Opus & Liitokala.
The D4 is fine as a basic charger, just a little slow when charging multiple cells which is not a problem really.
Of the 3 chargers the Liitokala is my favourite.

@gyzmo2002

In my post above wherein I quoted a 2.5v cut-out voltage, it was done with the iCharger, not the Opus, and the cell used was a Panasonic NCR18650PF. as shown in the link.

With Opus you can charge up to 4.35V (but you have to open it to get to the switch). You have the refresh program for NiMh batteries, you can charge up to 2000mAh on bay 1 and 4 with only two batteries. On the negative side, you have the noisy fan.
So I have two Opus BT C3100 V2.2 and two Lii 500 chargers. If I need to test or charge in the night, I use Lii 500, on the day Opus.

go for the Opus, its voltage are spot on, on my 2 DMMs my Liitokala 500 overcharges to 4.22V

and since this question has been asked many times, (it was something i wondered myself for a long time, until I bought both), i will paste here what I already written on 12/21/2015 - 07:24 in the Lii500 review topic Test/Review of Charger LiitoKala Engineer Lii-500 - #64 by TheBo

QUOTE: 1) The Opus uses pulse charging (HKJ would prefer it didn’t) and that the LiitoKala slightly undercharges NiMHs.” (quoting like this as quote button on OP is missing since site upgrade).

I saw a link posted some time ago (by tatasal maybe?) about tests showing that pulse charging is not an issue. I couldn’t find the link though. Has this changed?

“go for the Opus, its voltage are spot on, on my 2 DMMs my Liitokala 500 overcharges to 4.22V”.
Accepted charging voltage for 4.2v cells is +/- .05v so 4.22v is absolutely fine.
Immediately off the Lii 500 my DMM (Amprobe) shows cells at 4.19v.
“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”
Surely for the voltage to be up to 4.19v 30 minutes after charging dosen”t that show that the Opus is also charging over 4.20v ?
Not arguing just curious ?
At the end of the day I have both chargers & they are both fine chargers IMO I just prefer the Liitokala.

I own both chargers. OPUS is much “friendlier” for day to day usage.

Curious in what way ?
If you mean friendlier to the cells then the D4 is even friendlier as it only charges to about 4.18v in my experience.

I demonstrated that Opus provides a higher measure regarding the capacity because you affirmed the opposite in your first post and this is not the first time. All I ask you is not to make this statement anymore because it is false and this will induce member wrong.

If you need some help with the MC3000, you have my mail. An advice, don’t bother you with the dummy mode, go straight in advanced mode and you will learn a lot about parameters to charge batteries.

Here are the results of Discharge Capacities of my Opus BT-C3100 v2.1 and v2.2:
Cells used: Brand-new Samsung 30Q flat-top, brand-new Sanyo UR14500P 840mah and a slightly-used Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mah
Charger used to charge the Sanyo 14500 is the Opus itself.
18650 cells were charge at 1A, 14500 was charge at 700ma. Straight discharge mode was used in the two Opus chargers.

The photos below will show that the Opus does not read high as you believe it does, and is just as accurate as the MC3000, discharge-capacity wise:
The O ma pic just shows that discharging has stopped:
!!

You said you got 3252mah on your MC3000, well I got 3254mah from my Opus v2.2 (not bad at 2mah difference huh)

!!

!!

!!

!!

I can’t seem to straighten up the pics, can somebody please do it for me? Thanks

Do a charge test. Nothing prove me with your test that your battery was full at the beginning. I could take one at 4.10 and do a discharge to have an accurate result as the one you are. On a charge test, the charger will charge to full, discharge to 2.80 and charge again.

Edit: At the end, I need to see charge test on your display.

@gyzmo2002

I have nothing to gain if I purposely ‘undercharge’ as you maliciously suspect it to be. The cells were charged full, I’ll be crazy not to and just ‘approximate’ it to get the discharge capacities?

It’s now just past midnight…goodnight!

It is the only way for me to see that your batterie were full at the beginning.

Goodnight, we are 11:50am in Montreal.

@Tatassal

I have think to that again. All my tests were done on a charge test. (C>D>C) and yours on a discharge only. I think there is a possibility of another “flaw” with the Opus.

I never did a test only with a discharge only to 2.80v to test it. What I think with your results is they could be different between these two test. An accurate charger must give the same results like the MC3000 does.

Could you try a discharge test as I asked before with the same cell you did it? I am 99.9% sure that your results will be higher than the discharge only you did above.

I can’t do this test for now, only in the next weekend.

@members

For the others testers who have the Opus BT3100 v2.2 or the Liitokala and want to try it, it would be useful to see your results. The Liitokala could be more accurate than the Opus to measure cells capacity.

I don’t do the ‘test’ mode since it takes a very long time to finish it without a break, and, call it a flaw or whatever, but the Opus, and I remember it now as I have not used the ‘test’ mode’ because of it, I get confused with the figures shown. IIRC, the numbers shown after the Discharge portion are actually the Charge numbers (that is why you are seeing a higher reading), and I think you have to wait for the last numbers to show to know the discharge numbers, and that is after the second Charge portion.

I have pointed this out the to this charger’s designer. I have made an example of the simplicity of my Maha C9000 that clearly shows ‘available capacity’ after a Test session.

This is the reason why I use the ‘Discharge’ mode only to get the capacity for I will be certain the numbers shown are surely the discharge capacity, and I can take a break between modes, or give the cell a longer break, etc.

If you have time, take the Discharge test and compare it to your MC3000, and I’m sure you will see a much closer result.

At 1A rate, my opus showed 3,450mAh after discharging a set of Sanyo GA down to 2.7V, and the same set of batteries in the MC3000 with discharge current reduction (similar to CC/CV but for discharge) of 50mA and down to 2.5V I only got 3,350mAh. But the numbers from the MC3000 were actually closer to various results from members with sophisticated testing equipment.

Maybe this doesn’t happen with every unit, But at less than 5% variation I don’t think it is an issue at all, if one isn’t looking for the ultimate accuracy.

The opus is actually much friendlier to use for basic tasks, doesn’t require too many button presses to get it working.

Yes.

I just try it with the same discharge >D you did on my 18650b. My result is 3520mah at 2.80v. The charge test C>D>C I did before with this cell was 3502mah.(posted on cpf). On the charge test C>D>C at the end, you always have the discharge capacity because when it charges, the number doesn’t change. On the MC3000 v1.02, at the end of the C>D>C, you have the discharge at the end but you can see the capacity during the charge. At the last second, the display switch to the discharge capacity. To have the charge capacity, you must use the application for ios that shows only the charge capacity. This flaw in corrected in FW1.04. We will have the charge abd disccharge capacity at the end. We all waiting to update our mc3000.

I have near the same result in the Opus, on a C>D>C or a discharge >D only. 3520vs3502.
These results are too high as I said before.

I will try to post the photo of my >D test I just did.

We are at the same point as 12 hours ago.

The discharge >D I just did
http://s19.postimg.org/jy65m6283/image.jpg

The discharge test C>D>C I did 2 months ago
http://s19.postimg.org/63rdz3poj/image.jpg

IIRC, the numbers shown after the Discharge portion are actually the Charge numbers (that is why you are seeing a higher reading), and I think you have to wait for the last numbers to show to know the discharge numbers, and that is after the second Charge portion.

No your wrong. After the discharge, you are at 2.80. The capacity displayed is the discharge capacity.

Now, I will charge this cell with the charge and will see what we have at the end. I will take 3:20.

Edit: I try to have an accurate result but I can’t with the Opus.

On the MC3000, discharge, charge, CDC…all the results are the same and lower than the Opus ( discharge or a CDC) and on the specs of the cell.

Does it read high in all your cells, or only in that NCR-B so far?

Perhaps your specific Opus does read high indeed, as I have owned and used 5 (2 x v2.0, 2 x v2.1 and the v2.2) of them and never had a problem like yours.

I hope other members could chime in their experiences. The Opus has been already around with us for at least 2 years already and so far no complaints here in BLF on abnormally high discharge capacity reading.