Due to the shortage of chips and the COVID-19, vapcell has suspended the research and development of high-end chargers for the past two years. At present, many aspects have become better
The vapcell charger is constantly upgraded, and the product quality is also continuously improved at present，
Vapcell will develop some new chargers, including 2-10 slots. Vapcell is committed to developing high-quality, cost-effective chargers to provide users with services. Your suggestions are welcome，the more detailed the better
There will be some new charger gifts for BLF members who leave messages
Thank you very much for your proposal. It is expected that 4 slots of vapcell LCD chargers capable of charging 4 *26800 batteries will be available
However, there is a bad news: it seems that many factories have suspended production of 26800 lithium-ion batteries, mainly selling 26800 IFR 5000mAh 3.2V
Is 26800 a big market? Many flashlights use this battery?
4x 26800 is awesome I would love to be able to adjust charging amps from .5 to 2 amps.
An option charge to 4.1V or 4.0 would be really nice but less important.
The market for 26800 cells is relatively small in the enthusiast flashlight world. It is becoming more popular though.
Here are a few flashlights that take a 26800 cell:
Astrolux FT03
Convoy L6 with 26800 tube
Convoy L7 with 26800 tube
Convoy L8
Convoy M3C
Emisar DM1.12 with 26800 tube
Emisar D4SV2 with 26800 tube
Lumintop D3
Mateminco MT04 with 26800 tube
Nightwatch NI03
Nightwatch NSX4
Access to 26800 cells is another issue. Enthusiasts may need to bulk import 26800 cells and resell locally to obtain them at an affordable price.
I don't think it's a big market right now, but it could be in the future.
There is no great multi-cell 26800 charger right now, so I think a good number of people on BLF would buy one.
Vapcell would own the market, and maybe more 26800 batteries and flashlights would be introduced because there will be a great charger available from Vapcell.
Yes, support for small cells like 10440 with a 250mA charging current or less is nice.
Protected 26800 probably isn’t necessary. I mentioned it to try to cover all unprotected 26800 lengths.
Dimples on the negative terminal and a protruding positive terminal (e.g. S4+) make it possible to charge cells with a recessed positive terminal. Film around a 10440 cell may not allow the negative end to touch a flat negative terminal.
Perhaps a 4-slot charger could be designed for up to 18650, and a larger 4-slot charger could be designed for 18650 to 26900.
My personal opinion is that supporting 18650-26800 is perfectly fine. There are plenty of other chargers suitable for smaller sizes but very few for larger sizes.
I think one mistake manufacturers make is that if the charger doesn’t support smaller sizes that it is suddenly going to have no market? Personally I like longer chargers as it makes getting 18650/21700 in and out of the charger easier.
I would like to see the following;
2 or 4 bay charger
3A charging per slot
USB-C PD for power input*
18650 - 26800 support (I would say 65mm - ~90mm total length supported)
Storage mode (Charges or discharges to ~3.7V)
Capacity testing (1A discharge is fine for me)
Manually adjustable charging current (Up to 3A)
*I am not overly familiar with the limitations of USB-PD in terms of power delivery but I don’t see why it wouldn’t deliver enough power. Personally I would take a slight charging hit (Maybe a max of 3A x 2 slots or 2A x 4) in order to have USB-PD input.
**I would say if you could include 14500 size batteries that would also help your market. They’re a lot longer than 16340 and I don’t think would require too much additional modification. I would have a lower minimum charging current if supporting 14500 batteries.
By eliminating shorter batteries you can cut costs of manufacturing/R&D as you have said.
Only other feature I can think of that would be nice is if it also had USB output (Either through the same port or another port), but this isn’t a deal breaker.
As TimMC said above the form factor is slowly becoming more common but availability is definitely not the best. I purchased a bulk quantity to sell into my small local market which has worked well and one of the most common question is “Which charger” to which I reply XTAR SC1 Plus as it’s essentially the only good one on the market.
I currently own and use the S4+ daily it’s a great charger all round.
Some folks dont like the full charge bell sound, personally i dont mind it but it isn’t loud enough.
I have some AB cells with USB C on them and i hate them, dont quite fit the S4+, 26800 capability would allow charging any 21700 battery.
I’ll second TimMc request for a storage mode.
Slightly stronger springs as well even though the current ones are ok a bit more tension will help secure smaller cells a bit better eg. 10440/14500.
The charger that I would use a lot is one that analyses all li-ion cells that are inserted correctly, and charges them correctly. So also smaller cells and old cells are analysed and charged correctly. At the same time it must have a good display with as much information as possible simultaneously displayed for all slots (so no toggle-button clicks needed).
It happens too often that I have to insert a cell several times before a charger picks it up correctly. Or the charger declares a half-full cell as full all of a sudden. And then I take it out and insert again and the charger starts charging correctly again. This happened with Soshine chargers, Liitokala chargers and Xtar chargers.
It is nice if the charger is compact and can be USB-C powered. A two-slot charger is what I use most. For me if it charges just li-ion cells that is fine.
Several charge currents are nice, and the option to stop at 80% charged is nice, but these are secondary wishes, the first is that it charges well.
It will be nice if you can add some identification to your cell (barcode/QR/RFID/etc) and a reader to the charger so we can have history of our cells (num of cycles, capacity, etc.)
