Hasnt arrived yet
Im expecting it eagerly since I’ve sold my Trustgire charger so I dont have nothing to charge my 16340s (I mean I have, but I dont want to use spacers)
last night i left a fully depleted 1x 18700 cell (cell#1@3.344V resting voltage) in the i4 and went to da bed sleeping. 8hrs later when i woke up the cell was already FULL for a few hours, as expected. since i missed the very point when the 3 LED's turned FULL, i couldnt tell what the cell voltage was at that point. damn i was asleep at that point haha. anyway, when i just measured the cell voltage after these 8hrs in the i4, it was indeed exact 4.200V, and within 3-5 secs in my hands with the DMM it already dropped to 4.199, 4.198,.. etc Volts. So this leaves 3 possible explanations:
1. the charging got terminated at 4.200V and after that time, for hours, the cell sustained this exact voltage (no self-discharge), because it is a good cell and a 18650. It is known that the self-discharge rate of big cells (e.g. 18650) is much lower than 10440's self-discharge rate.
2. or, the charging got terminated at 4.208V and for hours the voltage had been decreasing by a total of 0.008V (self-discharge).
3. or, the charging got terminated at 4.200V and after that point, for hours, the i4 was maintaining this perfect voltage by trickle-charging to counteract any self-discharge
The charger does stop charging when the battery is full, but has a very small "leak" current.
I measured this current to below 120uA (It varies with battery voltage), i.e. in one week it would charge less than 20mAh into a battery, this is not enough to do any damage, but might be enough to keep the voltage up?
I checked cell#2 which i took out of the charger 10 hours ago because it was FULL by that time. Cell#2's voltage is, after lying 10 hours offline on my desk, 4.199V. Practically no self-discharge observed during the 10 hours!
From these observations the correct answer would be "1.": the charger terminates my 18650's at exact 4.200V (UT61E), stops charging, and from then on, for hours, the Sanyo cell doesnt exhibit any notable self-discharge.
Will do some testing with cheap 10440's which tend to terminate at 4.13V in my Ultrafire charger unless i repeatedly reinsert them. ...
I just received the charger and I just charge 2 16340 on it. It refused tocharge third 16340 who’s voltage is around 2,2V and droping when I try to measure it.
But, foor version V2, should there be “V2” written on the box somewhere, because I dont have it?
Xtar WP2 II is charging at about 1A, the Sysmax i4 V2 is charging at about 750mA, but will drop to average 325mA when both slots in a channel is used.
The lower charge current does not depend on LiIon or NiMH charging, but always applies when charging on both slots (A full battery in a slot will not reduce the current).
here some good info. I tested an old abused cheap blue unprotected Ultrafire 10440. When it was brand-new i could charge it up to 4.2xxV. Not anymore, repeated inserting in the i4 results in 4.179V, and this is instantly recognized as FULL in the channels.
Repeated inserting in the Ultrafire charger (WF-188) would give 4.200+V but after ~3mins offline the cell would have self-discharged a lot. In practice it makes no sense to force my old 10440 cell to reach the 4.200V with the WF-188. Repeated inserting? Too much hassle, no thanks!
A couple times I have put in some AAA batteries, and it refused to charge one of them. What did I do, I took it out that bay, stuck in another bay, and it started charging. In other words insert that cell in another bay, and see what happens.