Test/Review of Charger LiitoKala Engineer Lii-260

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

Charger LiitoKala Engineer Lii-260

Due to a accident I had to get another copy of the charger during the review.





Somebody pointed me to this charger on Aliexpress, it looked interesting and I ordered one.



It arrived in a nondescript cardboard box.





Or in a retail box.



The box (Either one) contained the charger, power adapter, car power adapter and a manual in Chinese (I supposed) and English (more or less).
The supplied power adapter is a universal voltage (100-240VAC 50/60Hz) with 12V 1.5A output (In the retail box the power adapter has US plug).



The charger has a DC power input, for the mains adapter and the car adapter.



The display has two sections one for each battery. The two buttons is also one for each batteries.

Each time a battery is put into the charger it will measure the internal resistance of the battery. Then start flashing with 500.
A short press on the corresponding button will change between 500/1000mA charge current, a long press will select discharge. The charge current for the final charge must still be selected. I.e. the charger can charge with 500 or 1000mA, but only discharge with 500mA.
When the button is not pressed for some seconds, that slot will start working.

During charge it is possible to toggle the display between mA, mAh, h (Charge time in minutes), mR (Internal resistance) with the button, voltage is always shown.

The display has background light, but it turns off rather fast.



The slots uses the classical slider construction and it works fine.

The slots can work from 29 mm to 68mm. This means that not all protected 18650 batteries will fit in the slots.







The charger can handle 68 mm long batteries including flat top cells.



Measurements

  • When not connected to power it will discharges with up to 0.5mA.
  • When power is connected with a full battery, the charger will charge with 0.15mA
  • When reporting battery full it will not restart charging, if the voltage drops.
  • Animation on display changes direction depending on charge/discharge function.
  • It will restart charging on reinsertion of the battery or power cycling.
  • The charger will detect a battery at 2 volt and start charging with full current.
  • Voltmeter will not update when display shows full or null.
  • Voltmeter can show from below 1 volt to 4.3 volt, the reading is within 0.1 volt.



Charge



This is a good CC/CV charge curve, but the termination current is on the high side.
The display says the charger used 5:53 and charged 2870mAh into the cell.



The display says 6:22 and 3117mAh.



The display says 3:23 and 2958mAh.



The display says 3:27 and 2983mAh.



With a 14500 cell the termination current means that the cell is a bit below full charge.





The charger can handle my old 16340 cell.



There is no problem charging two batteries.



This is also possible with an external 12 volt supply.



M1: 38,1°C, M2: 37,8°C, M3: 44,2°C, M4: 41,6°C, HS1: 60,7°C

All the heat generating electronic is below the display (It is a good idea to keep it away from the batteries).





This charger uses a constant charge current.



Discharge & charge

A long press on the button when charge current is flashing will select discharge.



The charger discharges to about 2.8 volt. The discharge function includes a charge after the discharge.





When discharging two batteries it does generate some heat.



M1: 47,1°C, M2: 45,4°C, M3: 42,6°C, M4: 43,8°C, M5: 44,7°C, M6: 58,0°C, HS1: 66,2°C

Especially the top of the batteries get warm, because the charger dissipates all the heat close to that.
I would have preferred if the discharge resistors had been placed farther away from the batteries i.e. just below the buttons.



Discharge is also done with constant current.



Internal resistance

The charger measures the internal resistance of the battery each time a new battery is put into the charger.
All tests are done with the same battery.

First test with battery only:
Channel #1: 65, 65, 63, 63, 65
Channel #2: 62, 63, 60, 64, 63

The variation is surprising small.

Test with a resistance box, I do not remove the battery during this test, i.e. the contact resistance is fairly constant.



Channel #1:
Resistance box shorted: 70, 71, 70, 70, 70
With 20mOhm extra: 79, 80, 80 81, 80
With 100mOhm extra: 119, 118, 118, 118, 117

Channel #2:
Resistance box shorted: 71, 71, 73, 73, 73
With 20mOhm extra: 80, 82, 81, 82, 82
With 100mOhm extra: 123, 124, 121, 124, 121

The results are very consistent (Variations is probably due to variations on contact resistance), but does not really match any ohm values.

It can be used to evaluate how worn the batteries are, but calling it ohm is not really correct (To be fair, the display does not say ohm, but mR).



To measure resistance the charger uses a 0.5A pulse.


Testing the EU mains transformer with 2500 volt and 5000 volt between mains and low volt side, did not show any safety problems, but the US trafo failed the 5000 volt test (This is not a problem in the US).



Conclusion

The charger works like somebody has tried designing the simplest charger to maintain LiIon batteries. I.e. provide exactly what is needed with a simple user interface and nothing more.
I believe the charger succeeds as a basic analyzing charger, I also like it uses constant current charge and discharge.
The wrong ohm values is not really a big issue, the trick is to find out at what value the batteries does not really work in a specific light or other equipment. It can also be used to sort batteries into good (Lowest mR value), average, old (Highest mR value).

For people that want a way to check their batteries, without lot of buttons and modes, this is a good charger, it is also a good charger just for charging and with two currents it covers many battery sizes.

But it has one caveat, the limit on battery length!



Notes

Here is an explanation on how I did the above charge curves: How do I test a charger

2

yay thanks HKJ!

i recently acquired one of these myself, and I am happy with the results.

You say the “ohm” measurements aren’t quite correct? can you elaborate on that? so it’s a valid metric, just not an ohm measurement

are the discharge miliamps correct?

3

Thanks for testing. Interesting charger, it might provide just the level of information that I am interested in, and the 1A charge current is just a bit higher than the i4 that I have now.

4

Correct

They look fairly correct, maybe a bit on the high side.

5

Thanks HKJ. Now I understand why they don’t use mOhm but a rather vague mR. Good that they’re not claiming something that is not. But this feature is still very useful to separate new and old batteries.

All in all, looks like a simple charger that gives you all the basic battery charging and analysis without any hassle. Perfect.

I already have one on order. Just checked - still on sale on Aliexpress - $21 for another day.

6

Thanks for all your efforts.I've been waiting for this review,but got impatient and ordered it yesterday.Glad it held up well.

wdkingery wrote: so it’s a valid metric, just not an ohm measurement. So it's not AC internal impedence like I

thought.I should be able to get a mΩ conversion factor by comparing IR measurements already done using HKJ's
resistor method,and the Littokala's IR measures on the same cells.I'll post after the charger gets here.
7

Thanks HKJ. How much does this cost? Is it better than the Xstar MC-1?

edit: Googling up for the price brought me a link to the ‘other forum’. Just an observation and not flaming or trolling or inviting any negative comments.
HKJ posted there 2 hours earlier (or it is 4 minutes) and no response there yet :wink:

edit2: Costs $30. Too expensive for me (well I don’t really have lithium batteries :P!) Only 1 14500 cell and my bro has 2 18650!

8

Does AliExpress accept PayPal?

9

No it does not :slight_smile:

10

Great review, very detailed thank you!

I think all we need to know is if the Litookala is better product than the Gearbest 3100 charger :)

11

Define better.

LiitoKala has the better charger and discharge curves (No pulsing), but BT-C3100 has more currents, functions, supports both NiMH and LiIon and can handle 4 batteries at a time.

As I wrote in the review LiitoKala has the minimum needed. The BT-C3100 has a lot more.

12

Some users maybe can live with the limited functionality. 500mA is too high for smaller cells, and some protected won’t even fit.

It is funny, this review seems overall more positive. :zipper_mouth_face:

13

That is probably the biggest issue with this charger, maybe it ought to be in the conclusion.

That is because I like the functionality of this charger, it does exactly what is needed, nothing more and is very simple to use.

14

Hi first post here

i brought this charger about 5 weeks ago but its under a different name, only problem i find with it is, it gets really hot when discharging as HKJ said
i just brought the new version of the xtar vp2 2014 version (new casing)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quality-AW-T-Fast-Battery-Charger-3-7V-LiIon-LiMn-18650-18500-18350-14500-26650-/360922892907?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Battery_Chargers&hash=item5408ae4a6b

wish i never found this forum, in 6 weeks ive brought

btu shocker
hd2010
SolarStorm K2
SolarStorm SC02 x2
small sun T08
yezl Y3
xintd X3
Roche F12 x2
fandyfire warrior x2
skyray king 3 emitter
skyray kung 4 x emitter
ultrafire c8 x4
ultrafire wf 502b x3
trusfire tr3t6 x2
and loads of them spik68 clones plus the one that takes a 18650

4x 26650 kingkongs 12 xtar 18650 2600mah, 12 panasonic 1860 3400mah, plus crap load of them nasty ultafire 3000mah that came with some of the torches, oh and 2x 26650 imr mnke 3500mah 4 samsung 186500 28a sdi plus 8 of them samsung 30 sdi 4.35v

needless to say the missus has done her nut, ive filled 2 big draws up in our bedroom, but i never new how much i liked flashlights :bigsmile:
also ive just ordered a few drivers, and bits and bobs from fasttech, im gonna try a few basic mods

i did make an account at CPF but they deleted my post for no reason and when i asked why i got banned lol
seems much more friendly here

15

Welcome to BLF, gouldy. This is a great place to hang out, but you already found that out (and so did your wallet ).

16

hi djozz

my first mod is going to be xml2 u2 on copper stars into my c8s plus im going to swap the drivers
right now the emitter is just stuck to the pill by the wires being twisted from the driver, so basically its just free
is it worth while putting some mx-4 paste under the xml2s, do they run hotter or cooler than the xml

im just waiting for a few more parts, ive already brought some copper braid for the springs, plus ive got some 22,24,26 awt wire
so as soon as the emitters and drivers come in im gonna

xml2-u2 1a on copper
new 2.8a driver plus ive got some of them 350ma current regulators coming to
copper braid on spring
change the wire
plus some ar coated lens

will there be a worthwhile difference you think?

edit and how many amps can the xml2 take? 4.5 ok?

17

yes it will be worth it. The L2 vs. the L, the L2 is more efficient, but still generates a lot of heat. Some people run their xmls at 6a, so you should be fine. If you want more help, search the forum or create a new thread.

18

I reread the test this morning and realised that HKJ's resistance box measurements should allow the calculation of a

conversion factor from mR to mΩ.HKJ took 5 of each measurement,so I averaged them for each bay.

For bay 1:IR=64.2mR,with shorted resistor box,70.2mR and with 20mΩ,80mR,difference 9.8mR for 20mΩ,factor is2.04.

100mΩ gives 118mR,minus 70.2=47.8mR for 100mΩ,factor is 2.09.

For bay 2:IR=62.4mR,as above 72.2 and 81.4,difference 9.2mR for 20mΩ,factor is 2.17.

100mΩ gives 122.6,minus 72.2=50.4mR for 100mΩ,factor is 1.98.

Basically,double the reading to get milliohms.The test cell in the photo looks similar to the 2.1Ah LG laptop pulls

I've got and 125/130mΩ IR is definitely in the ball park.

Each individual Lii260 may well have it's own calibration factor,I'll test mine when it arrives.

Just had to scratch that itch,hope I haven't missed something obvious.

19

Seems that way, but the initial mR reading may have additional resistance due to the spring design. This value has to be known and subtracted before we can use any multipliers.

HKJ, do you have any batteries with known internal resistance? Can you measure the known resistance against Liitokala result?

20

There is not much point in doing that, pulse based resistance measurement will not really match anything, it will be somewhere between AC impedance and DC resistance.