Got mine in too. Testing it out beside me at work with some of my old Trustfire 2400s I brought in. Currently setup to discharge and then I will recharge to see how much capacity is less in these things. Seems like a good charger, using it is intuitive. I really like that I can discharge at various currents, measuring mAh and watching the discharge voltage in near realtime.
Ordered one BT-C3100 V2.1 today. Thanks GearBest for the offer!
For lack of something to do over the weekend, I tested my Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mah cell’s discharge capacity:
Charger used to charge cell to 4.2V at 1A rate: Xtar VP2 (both times)(resting voltage at testing: 4.17v)
Discharged via: iCharger 106B+ = 3234mah (at 1A discharge rate, programmed to terminate at 2.8v)
Discharged via: BT-C3100 v2.1 = 3226mah (at 1A discharge rate, terminated at 2.8v)
Difference: 8 mah!
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8 mah? Out of 3400? I wants my monies back, that charger is broken!!! 0.2352941% error is unacceptable
haha
Tatasal you charged with the VP2 because of the noise? :bigsmile:
Haha, actually, the 2.1’s fan is no longer as loud as the 2.0, and as to the noise itself, having been used to my noisier hobby charger at full steam, fan noise is no longer an issue for me. I have 2 v2.1s, of which I experimented on one of them by using an old pc fan placed at the bottom, pulling the air through the cells/s and sliders. The noise is much, much less and is still controlled by the charger’s internal temperature-controlled switches. I can show some pics of it if requested.
I used the VP2 as the charger for both tests to make things ‘fair’ for both discharge sessions and to avoid a possible issue of ‘favoritism’, if you may call it that.
I’m sometimes using my I2 for charging while the Opus does something else because use them if you got them. The noise does not bother me, it really turns off toward the end of the cycle.
There’s still some inaccuracies when occupying all 4 slots. I tried my NCR18650B cells and the discharge and charge readings were in the right ballpark i.e. ~3200 but there was still variation between slots, for instance slot 3 usually shows higher than normal charge capacity (I remember seeing 3400mah once, I got a bit excited but then realised it was too good to be true). As I don’t have a high current power adaptor I cant make any further comments. Discharging capacities however are spot on, which is what I’m after anyways.
In my # 182 post, I used the stock power supply in the v2.1 BT-C3100, btw.
My order finally showed up in "regular" tracking (i.e. USPS tracking) as "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment"!
-Garry
Try using 4 cells and charge after a discharge cycle. I’ve tried a few times and can’t get consistent results no matter how high/low the current I set, this of course is in line with HJK’s analysis of the stock power supply not able to handle the current spikes.
Do I understand it right that you suspect bay #3 shows higher than normal charge capacity than the other 3? Does it show the same behaviour regardless which cell among the 4 cells you put in that slot?
For me ordered early early morning on the 4th, a tracking number became available on the 9th, on the 11th PostNL stated “The item is pre-advised”, that is all as of now (16th). Very unusual for Netherlands post, I’m worried it got lost already.
Garry, when did you order?
I ordered Sept 1st, received "Your Item Has Shipped" email on Sept. 3rd.
-Garry
Hi one41,
Please don’t worry, usually the post office takes 3-5 business days(Monday to Friday, not including the holidays and festivals) to update the tracking information. We have met our mid-autumn festival, so they will take longer time to update the information than usually, could you please wait for more a fewer days? After that time, if you still don’t find the information, please PM me with your order number, thank you!
Best Regards,
Gearbest.com.
Yes I do, look at the following snapshots,
charge (batch 1 left, batch 2 right)
discharge
In each batch I’ve kept the cells in the same slots. It looks like slot 3 shows higher charge capacity and slot 4 shows higher discharge capacity. I don’t know the true capacities of each cell but as they are new I doubt their capacities would differ by this much.
Looks not unusual to me. I get much bigger differences with my NCR-PF cells, charge or discharge. The differences among the cells themselves can be one of the reasons, even if they were bought together in one batch.
Look at my post #19 in this thread, I have even bigger differences among the four cells. Those cells were bought brand-new, together in one batch, never been used in a flashlight so far.
Mark the cells and try to switch cells in slot 3 and 4 to slots 1 and 2. IMO they are not alarming differences actually.
CSgearbest
I Ordered one BT-C3100 V2.1 09/12/2014
Order has not yet been shipped…
PS: I wrote you in PM yesterday, you do not answer.
Hi hohol_m,
I’m sorry to reply late, I had communicated with our ralated staff this morning, it has been in process of distribution today. I just want to wait to get the tracking number to send it to you, so be delayed to reply you, feel sorry if it bothers you, beg your kindly forgiveness.
Best Regards,
Gearbest.com.