I would go for a Lii-500, mainly due to the price and discharge/analysis functionality, only really advantage with the SC4 is the faster charge times.
i wished they release a new lii500 with 2A charging.
What’s the difference between the Lii402 vs Lii500? I noticed that the former is a third of the price of the latter?
Are you asking regarding the charging algorithms? Because you can see aesthetically they are completely different, the lii402 lacks the display and so it doesn't have any sort of analyzing feature, nor measuring feature to see the voltage displayed for example. You can just choose the current in lii402 and than wait for the light to tell you the charging is complete.
That’s my only complaint with this charger. Other than that, I love it.
Just sent this to HKJ:
Just a little follow up (mostly for if someone finds this thread while searching like I was).
TLDR: The Lii-500 is the best bang for the buck @ $15ish I found.
I spent about 3 weeks with the Opus BT - C3100 charger. It cost me $40 (I have seen it cheaper on Ebay and other places. But I went Amazon so I could easily return if I didn’t like it). I found it to be a perfectly acceptable charger, it definitely will do the job of properly charging your cells. The modes I think are something to wait on. IR is a very rough measurement. Refresh didn’t refresh any of the cells I tried it on (I know that it is meant more for Ni-Cd but I tried Li-Ion as well, but neither yielded results, I think that might just be because the cells were were just too far gone though).
I ended up returning the Opus in favor of the Lii-500. Had it about 2 months now. 0 regrets changing to the Lii. The Lii-500 has 3 big advantages over the Opus for me, #1 USB output (for charging a cell phone or something else in a pinch-I have lots of cells laying around if the power goes, or any number of other scenarios, its nice to have the ability to do that, and I have plenty of single AA flashlights and cheap AA’s I have got for free from HF or really cheap that can get the job of lighting done in that kind of an emergency scenario) #2 It costs about half or less of what the Opus costs ($15 for me from Alibaba, I have seen it for $13 on there, might even find it cheaper now). #3 No fan to worry about cleaning/greasing/replacing and I have not observed any excessive heat, even when charging 4 cells at max output. It does a fine job of charging my cells as far as I can tell, consistently bringing them off at identical voltages even if cells were of varying types/charge levels are placed in at once, even with different channels charging at different rates. Also, oddly enough, I found the Lii gives more consistent IR readings. The opus would bounce around (same cell, read it, then read again in 2 minutes and it went from 40 to 80) where the Lii seems to stay more within a +/- 10 range. I don’t know how accurate it is, but at least its more precise (and based on the cell types I have it seems to be at least accurate reading my high discharge low IR cells at lower readings than me high mAh cells with lower discharge ratings).
Overall, the Li-500 seems to smash the $/value category and I honestly don’t see me needing to upgrade from it for a loong time unless some major advances are made offering more features/better IR readings, etc with a great price point.
Where did you find it for $15? Even the banggood anniversary sale was over $20!
Just reread your post and saw Alibaba. Is that site legit?
+1
My opus is junk after a year of moderate use. Meanwhile my $17 lil500 keeps charging away. I see someone has it for $19 at banggood, less with points….
Lii500
All these low prices, is that the charger alone, no AC power supply, let alone car cord…?
I think I want a complete setup…
The super cheap price is a bare charger, no accessories.
One of the things the Opus has is more charging/discharge rates and can charge at higher rates. People don’t like the fan but I think the fan is part of the reason it CAN do that. Crank the Lii-500 up to 2A and I suspect it will have heat problems.
Is there any deals for the lii-500 now?
When thinking of the worst case, of what a cheap mains powersource can be with it internals - I rather use a brand cellphone charger OR my Anker as a powersource for a charger.
I definitely count it as win/win to NOT have powersource in the box.
Furthermore, when ordering chargers, there are some cases that offer only US plug and you have to use a bit iffy converter pieces to get it to fit for EU/230V.
Liitokala has done it well! :cowboy_hat_face: