Review: HXY-18650-2A dual-bay charger

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

I didn’t have high expectations with this charger. It seemed like yet another anonymous charger with no branding. So I decided to crack it open just to see how crappy it was :stuck_out_tongue:

Very simple PCB with very few components. I immediately recognized the chips marked “57b7” as the TP4057 also found in the excellent ML-102 charger/powerbank. I thought that if this charger performed anything like the ML-102 then it would be a pretty good charger! So I decided to dig deeper…

Note that the jaggies in the graph are due to my very loose sampling intervals :stuck_out_tongue:

Test cell is the Sanyo UR18650FM 2600mah. Not a perfect CC/CV but still pretty good! The CC part is in fact flatter than the ML-102, but then again this operates at lower current.

Termination current is most likely 50ma. Again my loose sampling interval probably missed it.

This particular sample terminates at 4.21v, still within tolerable limits.

Well I’m not HKJ but I think it’s safe to say that this charger is pretty good 8)

2

Less than 0.5A charge current with 1A claimed… that’s not very good. :frowning:

3

oh yeah i noticed that too. if you’ve been around this stuff you’ll learn not to take these labels literally :bigsmile:

this charger is about as slow as the intellicharger i2 so i’m not really complaining. fact is this charger has a proper charge controller chip for each channel and the graph proves it.

4

Thanks very much for the review! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

5

For some time ago, I opened a couple of these generic 2-bay charger.
Just to look, if there´s anything that would be about to short the charger…

Did not find anything too suspicious and I´m yet to have a failure with these, so I´m continuing a cautious usage as work / secondary chargers.

6

Use this charger and cheap batteries safely inside this :slight_smile:

7

Does this charger charge both cells in parrallel? a lot of these cheap chargers do, making the current even lower for two cells.

8

Nope, it has separate channels.

9

i have one of these as well.

sometimes when i charge a battery the led won’t turn red, so there’s some bad connection at the non-springy side i guess. might look into it later.

10

i did some tests with my HXY charger. hmm.. the 18650 cells leave the charger at exactly 4.226-4.229V (Sanyo 2600). If we round this number, it is a straight 4.23V.

My i4 V2 charger terminates at exactly 4.200V (same cell, Sanyo 2600). I like that. An exact 4.20V.

Is 4.23V a little too much or still within the green tolerance band of a charger's duty? i dont know much about cells and stuff to be honest :D

Thanks for some info/advice!

11

What is the Voltage 1-4 hrs later?

12

the cell's voltage is then 4.250V .. and they're a bit warm. They never get warm when i charge them with any of my other chargers (Ultrafire, Nitecore). At that point i take the cells out and dont feel like testing it longer.

When the charger shows "GREEN", the cell is at 4.228V and that's already 0.028V higher than my Nitecore's perfect 4.200V. Time to take them out.

I dont like the HXY charger. it's cheap ****.

13

dude that sucks. does the circuit board look like the one i posted above? i’ve had several other “HXY” chargers with completely different internals

14

i've already posted it dad is given away to someone else to have it hehe free of charge tho. out of my possession. i am advising the new user to keep an eye on the status LED and as soon as it turns GREEN to remove the 18650.

i never opened the gadget to look inside or else.

sollie.

15

4.250 after 4hrs is not good. Worse is the Overheating. I would not Gift this charger. I would gut out the electronics & make a battery holder out of it. Do these cheap chargers have a voltage adjustment inside? How is the voltage set?

16

ah so that could’ve been a completely different charger :bigsmile:

i’ve got about a dozen of these “HXY” chargers with the TP4057 chips. all are good

17

as i said there are lots of other chargers with similar body shell but totally different internals

18

I actually particularly like this charger as it is able to charge up cells from 0V too :slight_smile:

It seems like there is now a V2 version of this, anyone had a chance to test one of those yet?

19

Overclocker… how were you able to determine that the chip marked “57b7” is a TP4057?

The other chip, I found out through google that it is a;

AX2535-High Precision CC/CV Primary-Side PWM Power Switch

I don’t know how it was used in that charger circuit, but if the “HXY-18650-2A dual-bay charger” charger followed proper cc/cv charging procedure then it is a good charger along with its price.

I hope the single bay version also use the TP4057 chip.

20

How would I recognize this V2 version from the V1? Any mark on the case that differ from the old one?