Hobby Charger iMax question

Hi guys, tire of my smarts and cheap chargers I bought a iMax replica charger that I think I like already, all the options in a single charger, well, my doubt is, the charger had options to charger LiPo and LiIo, the cut voltage for the LiIo is 4.1 volts, can I charge the LiIo with the LiPo option the get the max voltage of this batteries that is 4.20V?

Using the discharge option, I see in the display 5 digits in the right, there will show the mah of the battery that I discharge right? I ask this because I just discharge two batteries and the numbers are to low… Like 00920 for a sony and 00785 for a XXXXfire, I will test a Panasonic 3400 right now…

Discharging a panasonic 3100

Charging a panasonic 3100

The number dosent match to a 3100

I recommend this little charger… Cheap with all the option in it…

Yes you can, but only if the charger is a decent copy.
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Give us a link to the charger, there are lots of different chargers that have been copied from a copy and not all of them are anywhere near trustworthy to use.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200945017770?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&\_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

You may want to follow up on these links:
http://www.skyrc.com/antifake/indexen.php

Most of the eBay sales are the fakes unless they SPECIFY they are not fakes and have the proof. Some of them are OK, some are not very accurate, and can anything from minor to dangerous problems.

If you do a lipo discharge, from the proper mode, for a full battery down to the specified 3.0v/cell > you should get an accurate mA reading, IF the charger is accurate (see above).
You can also use NiMh mode and specify EXACTLY the voltage stopping point.
You cannot exceed 1.0A discharge with that class of charger, a limitation that frequently trips people up.

Frankly, I don’t know why people keep buying these things when for a few more $$ you can get a better charger or authentic version.

Thanks for the tip how to discharge it, I am sure that mine is a fake one, but is ok, in my case I buy there because I just have 20$ in my paypal account to spend in a charger… Maybe later I buy something better, I am happy with it, for the moment… Better experience that when I receive my i4 V2, problems from the beginning…

Those bottom right numbers tell you how many mah have been put into the battery, not the batterys capacity. To get a capacity reading you have to do a discharge from a full battery, that will give you a battery mah reading.

Ok, I will do the test with the NiMh discharge option to 2.85volts

I hope you got a decent one. In the RC world there are a number of disappointed people.
I’ve got the i2. Mine does fine on lion but seems to be hard on NiMh so I won’t use it there. It’s convenient. I have the Accucell-6 hobby charger. The single cell clamp unit I’ve made for lion cells works but is not as lazy/convenient as just popping them in the Nitecore.

There is very little capacity to be gained after 3.0v. In fact there is little after 3.4v
(check this DC graph - )
It just stresses the cell more and has little value unless you are looking for the protection cut-off.

My fake cheap B6 has a custom mode of some kind, but I haven’t explored it.

There are at LEAST a dozen+ if not 20+ of these clones. Now there are clones of clones. Next we’ll have fakes of fakes. It would be amusing if it wasn’t crazy making for the consumer. You literally often don’t know what you are getting when you order it even when you’ve done your homework.
The original was the Bantam B6, still available at 3-4x the cost but probably of much better build quality AND support.
Heads Up RC sells the original IMAX for a decent price, quick and cheap US shipping, AND he supports his products. Wonderful retailer. VERY high standing in the RC community which I can vouch for personally.
http://www.headsuphobby.com/iMax-B6-Li-Po-Li-Fe-NiMh-Digital-Charger-D-103.htm

All the clones use very similar or identical modes-they are clones after all :wink: . If you can use one, you can use them all.
Most of the real difference is in the quality of the components and build. Some of the IMAX B6 of a few years back had horrible balancing for RC lipos. Then they cleaned up their act. Now the fakes are out there. I have no doubt there are actually a number of different fakes, some OK, some not. No telling when you buy it……it’s a lottery.

I don’t know anyone that uses the custom mode. The menu tree is enough of a hassle without complicating it.

See that the clock is on 120:00, that means the safety timer has timed out before the full charge is complete. This happened to me before, so set the timer out so it will complete, like 1A for say 200:00 minutes, or more.

PS: Safety timer is in the User Set Program menu.

Thanks, I just changed to 240

This might help: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=827821

from the first post in that thread

"A while back, I bought the iMax B6 charger and like most people, found the voltages to be out. The I proceeded to change the resistors for ones of higher accuracy, using the kit from this thread: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=777717

However, even after the upgrade, the voltages were out. They were roughly balanced, but were still out by up to 0.05V each, finishing the charge in the vicinity of 12.48V for a 3 cell lipo.

That got me thinking about how resistor values would be compensated for in the factory and I came to the conclusion that the only option would be to adjust the voltages via some sort of service menu.

To cut things short, my search produced access to two "hidden" adjustments:"

There should also be a capacity limit setting. If you set it at 3000mah that’s all it will put in the cell. You probably fixed the early termination by setting the timer up with that cell. If you charge 2 parallel cells or a big 32650 cell you may have to adjust the capacity cut-off limit setting higher, just thought I would let you know incase you run into that problem. According to what I read its factory cut-off setting could be anywhere from 2500mah to 5000mah, might want to check.