This is a very quick test to see what my cheap 18650 chargers are sending into the batteries. I did this after I noticed that the charging time is way too long than what 1A should be.
First, let’s check the voltage.
A nice 4.23v, good for topping up the batteries. Now, the real test, current. It claims 2x1A. Or is that 1A divided by 2?
Aaaand… i honestly don’t know why I was expecting anything else:
:~
So, only a quarter of what it claims. The strange thing is that the current stays the same even if only one battery is plugged in. And I don’t think this has individual output per bank.
I don’t really mind this because this is a very steady current to soft-charge my units, it would take about 10-12h for one of those 2400mAh Trustfires. I’m never in a hurry to charge them, because I already have backups. :bigsmile: I just thought that some would consider these when buying one. They range to about $3-5 on eBay.
Otherwise, the build quality is ok for this price, the batteries fit nicely and they seem securely clamped once in.
Well, I really thought the amps were real when I bought it. There are a lot of chinese nice deals out there, especially in electronics. Step-up / Step-down modules, nice quality and at giveaway prices… I even have a 220v > 12v 2A converter that I drew 2.5A out of. Thanks god these are cheap and you can say “lesson learned” without having to stop eating for a week.
Should I even test my even cheaper, 600mA charger?
I have one of these chargers. I just put a drained cell in it and the charge current is 700ma.
I’m draining another battery now to see if it can maintain 700ma each into 2 cells.
Put a battery in slot 1, charge current into the battery = 700ma.
Put a second battery in slot 2, charge current of battery one goes negative! Battery 1 is discharging into battery 2.
This charger just went in the garbage.
@Pulsar13 I emptied out a pair of the same genuine Trustfire 2400mAh and put them to charge. Initial current when they were completely dried out, 0.4A… and dropping rapidly! Like 5mA/second. So I said hey, let’s measure again in ~5mins after it’s stabilized.
Well, surprize surprize!
Or not.
0.24A again in both slots.
There must be different kind of chargers out there, because mine will never ever put out 0.7A like TexasToasted one does… or used to? :laughing:
At least mine does charge them individually and steady, without discharging one into the other.
M4D M4X I will! As soon as I get a bit of breathing time I’ll put them to the test. And guess what, I found an even cheaper, one slot charger that claims 320mA @ 3.6V. One of these universal “charge’em all” thingies. This will be fun.
Looking closer at mine, it looks exactly the same, except mine has a different model number- HXY-042v2000a
It still has the DX sticker on it- 3006105
Opened it up and took a look inside. Nothing obviously bad, but the AC power is wired directly to a set of 4 diodes in a bridge rectifier. There is a spot labeled on the board for an input fuse, but they saved the penny for a fuse and bypassed it.
I didn’t get it from DX, just got the cheapest of those models from eBay. So this confirms it, there are different chargers, all looking the same.
One that has a snail’s pace charging rate, one that discharges one battery into another and… who knows how others perform, maybe someone else will tell us about theirs.
Pulsar13, could you please check your model number and if you can, maybe measure the currents in both slots?
