Do you know of any pictures of the new configuration that we could look at?
Thanks for taking our comments into consideration and responding with improvements!
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Yes - great news. I might want an S8000 now.
With these contact issues fixed, is this a better charger than the MC3000? It will do 1.5V Li-ion but how about other features?
I have received an S8000 from Enova and have been using it extensively for the best part of two months.
I’ve tested it with a number of batteries, including flat-topped LG MJ1s and Molicel P45Ds (and one of the latter actually being a “concave top” due to a collapsed top ‘dome’) and I’ve had exactly zero contact issues.
I’ve compared my S8000 contacts with the ones from @TimMc’s review photos (eg) and I don’t see much of a difference – but then I don’t own any “recessed top” batteries like the Vapcell F14 he mentioned having contact problems with.
is this a better charger than the MC3000? It will do 1.5V Li-ion but how about other features?
For me, the S8000 is already far superior to the MC3000. I’m right now working on porting my MC3000 telemetry script to the S8000, and when that’s done, my MC3000 is going right out of the door, as it’s going to be totally replaced by the S8000.
I’m going to post a topic with my impressions (not going to be a full, general in-depth review like the ones from @SammysHP or @TimMc, just a collection of my impressions on my use cases, and things that might have been improved since they made theirs).
This might be a while tho, since I’ve been dealing with other issues IRL that have been keeping me otherwise occupied.
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Be very interested to read it. I trust they HAVE fixed the contact issues - maybe the ones referred to as “current batch in production” above are a later version of yours? - hopefully.
Could you give us just a taste of “far superior to the MC3000” - for the time being?
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Just to clarify my thoughts on the battery fitment: I have not had any problems with cells actually making electrical contact .
The problems I have mentioned are only dealing with inserting and removing cells. The negative slider vertical part is just too short. With anything bigger in diameter than 18650s and particularly longer cells (21700) the slider can’t be accessed with a finger to remove tension and allow a cell to “fall in” when inserting them. Also removing cells with the charger full of 4 large cells is difficult for me. I have literally shot cells across the room. Just making the negative vertical tab taller so that it protrudes above the edge of all cells would fix this. But, again, I have not had electrical contact problems at all.
This has been needed on all chargers for like forever.
All the Best, Jeff
Hi Mandrake 50
Have you finished your comments on this charger yet? I am keen to see how it is “far superior to the MC3000” as you wrote earlier.
Also, does anyone know where you can buy it? - does not seem to be available in a whole lot of places.
As far as I’m aware, the GyrFalcon S8000 and S4000 Pro chargers are presently only available from two vendors-
I don’t recall saying this. I went back and tried to find that statement and could not. The MC3000 is still my daily driver. Mostly because I use it mostly for charging cells . I just leave it setup for 1 amp charging and drop cells in as needed. I also have several charging and discharging routines setup in the phone app which makes it easy to change things very easily. The 8000 is a bit more fiddly, and my model does not have the improved contacts so inserting cells and removing them is difficult. Other than that I like the 8000, I just need to keep the manual close so I remember how to do things. It does everything right once it is setup correctly. Also I am sure that the computer control that is available makes it nice for setting up and monitoring tasks. In one specific aspect it is superior to the MC3000. It can charge and test the 1.5v LiIon AA and AAA cells. The Mc3000 cannot charge those cells.
I simply don’t have the ability to setup a computer in the place where I do my charging. Which is why the BT app for the phone is so nice on the MC3000.
Honestly I am very happy to have both units available.
Anyway, If you can point me to the place where you read the quote that you attributed to me, maybe I can explain better knowing the context. But other than that, yes I am finished commenting for now.
Wrong person quoted. Here’s the correct quote:
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Yes - wrong person quoted: humblest apologies. But thanks for the update @Mandrake50 - and @phouton for pointing out the misquote.
I reread one of the reviews on the S8000 last night (SammysHP I think) and noted that the ability for the S8000 to charge 1.5V Liion was added in a firmware update along the development stage somewhere. If Enova can do it for the S8000, I guess SkyRC COULD do it for the MC3000 - but they would have to tell us if they did and firmware information has not been a strong point of the otherwise outstanding MC3000.
Back on the S8000, I don’t see why it, unlike the MC3000, can’t detect the type of cell inserted. They must be able to add that in a firmware update too?
But thanks again to all for the updated views and vendors. Why so few?
Has anyone compared the internal PCBs?
The S8000 looks like a cost reduced version of the MC3000. The buttons are all in the same place, just cheaper display+buttons and drop wireless to save money?
To increase my suspicion, my S8000 user manual has some typos within that say “MC3000” as if the manual was either blatantly copied or more likely it’s built by the same OEM?
Thanks @phouton for quote-summoning me. I’ve been away from BLF for far too long!
Just finished it in the wee hours of this morning, and here it is for everyone’s previewing pleasure: s8000tty.py: DMenezes telemetry script for the Enova Gyrfalcon battery chargers // records initial configuration and all measurements during operation in a separate CSV file for each battery · GitHub; to use, just install dependencies (basically just python3-pyvisa and its dependencies which should be installed automatically), and run the script with no arguments to see a help screen.
For now it’s just a single-file “gist”; I plan on doing a full release sometime in the future.
In advance of my full review, here are a few points that come to my mind (quickly because I have to go out of the door in a few minutes):
- at least with firmware 3.0.38 on, but getting even better with newer firmware versions, the touchscreen buttons are a joy to use: as precise and responsive as a high-quality touchscreen (as in a smartphone) and gets rid of all the clickety-clackety unavoidable with the MC3000 mechanical keys; moreover, it’s bound to last a lot longer and there’s no mechanical parts to wear out and fail.
- Much better (larger, higher resolution and more visible) display than the one on the MC3000;
- Its IR measurements are much more precise and reliable/repeatable, and the numbers it reports are in-line with the manufacturer datasheets for the batteries and for my expectations considering each battery age and wear; In comparison, the MC3000 IR numbers were not consistent with either, and varied sometimes even depending on firmware version (so upgrading the firmware sometimes turned all your IR battery data on its head).
- Its USB interface uses a standard usb-serial chip (a CH341) which makes it much more compatible than the standard-breaking USB implementation on the MC3000 (which, among other horrors, uses Vendor|Device IDs of zero, which are not allowed by the USB standard and result in many incompatibilities, eg Virtualbox being unable to pick them up and pass on to a virtual machine – which means that us folks can’t run the SkyRC software under VB virtualization on non-Windows environments like Linux).
- It uses a standard serial ASCII (TTY-like) interface and commands and responses, and on top of it, standard VISA syntax/semantics, which is much much better than the totally proprietary and undocumented binary interface on the MC3000;
- It’s fully compatible with @HKJ’s TestController aka TC software, including slot programming, starting operations, and capturing data, which is not only multiplatform but feature-wise heads-and-shoulders above the crappy, limited and Windows-only SkyRC software.
- has a highly responsive vendor behind it, which not only listens to the community but implements our suggestions for enhancing their products; case in point, in these 4 months I’ve been using my S8000, and sent about a dozen different suggestions to WFJ from @enova18650.com and most were implemented (sometimes in a matter of hours which is almost miraculous considering I’m about 10 timezone hours away from them), resulting in a much better product. Incomparable with SkyRC which takes literally years between firmware releases and has simply ignored all the complaints and bug reports I sent their way.
- Didn’t need any spare parts for my S8000 yet, but when my MC3000 display stopped working, it was a real struggle to get a spare one from SkyRC: they simply wouldn’t respond, had to involve the seller I bought it from and wait months to have it shipped to me and at great expense as it first had to be shipped to the seller and then to me. I’m pretty sure given my experience with Enova so far, and what I’ve read from the experience of others, that it would be much simpler to get spare parts and support from them if I ever need it.
That’s it for now, wife is calling and I have to go. Hope what I was able to post above so far is useful.
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I have now 6 programs saved and after the S4000 is plugged in it uses default program 0 for slot 1, program 1 for slot 2 etc.
Is there a simple way to use e.g. program 0 for all slots without setting up every slot?
Go into global settings (setup + enter). There you can set the default program for each slot.
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I think you missed the part where @Larry_B said “e.g”, which I interpret as meaning he would like to load a different program every time (and not always #0, which he seems to be mentioning just as an example), but do it in all slots simultaneously (or as simultaneously as possible).
If that’s the case, my answer to him would be to use the charger’s copy operation, as in pp.10-11 of the manual:
- Copy Operation: This operation allows users to quickly copy a
channel’s program to other inactive channels in Normal and
Professional Modes. In this example, all four channels are inactive,
and we will copy Channel 1’s program to Channels 2, 3, and 4:
Step 1: Simultaneously press SNB#1 and SNB#4. This will activate
the copy operation for all inactive channels between the two selected channels.
Step 2: Click SNB#1. At this point, Channel 1’s program will be
copied to Channels 2, 3, and 4.
@Larry_B: hope that I’ve interpreted your request correctly, and that the above helps.
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Thank you @SammysHP and @dmenezes 
Both hints are interesting for me but yeah, you´re right, @dmenezes , that´s what I meant with my question
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You are welcome, glad to have been of help! 
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The S8000 (with the new Positive and Negative contacts) and the S4000 Pro are now available on akkuteile.de and enovapura.com.
We look forward to receiving your comprehensive review. Your valuable suggestions for product improvement and the significant time you’ve dedicated are truly appreciated - thank you sincerely for your contribution.