LiitoKala lii-500S - New HIT or ...?

Rayoui · 2020-01-28T17:45:22.000Z

Nisei:

Rayoui:

A couple of weeks ago I was using this charger to top up a 30Q and I felt like it was taking an unreasonable amount of time. I checked on the charger and the light was still red and the screen indicated that it was still charging, but the voltage reading was 4.20. I took the cell off the charger and measured it with a multimeter at 4.27v.

First, the Lii-500S seems to top off to 4.25V, that’s still within tolerance.

Second, what meter were you using?

The charger stops displaying any voltage raise above 4.20V (that’s a shame) and continues to charge up to 4.25V. Hence it can still take quite some time to reach that (especially with high capacity cells). The user may think the charger doesn’t terminate but let it continue for a while longer and you’ll see it terminates.

I use a Fluke 77IV. My cells measured above 4.25V after using this charger and never reached termination. I like to keep my cells under 4.20V.

My other chargers measure ~4.17 - 4.2V immediately after charging and using the same meter.

Nisei · 2020-01-28T18:19:26.000Z

Hm then it sounds like you got a faulty unit indeed
I will check the voltage of my cells as well immediately after the charging terminates.

hammerJoe · 2020-01-29T02:08:58.000Z

Something that I rarely see discussing about chargers is how well they charge the batteries!

What really causes the most damage to a cell? The charging process or the termination?

nikosef · 2020-01-29T06:53:01.000Z

nikosef:

Nisei:

It’s not in Test mode so it’s not a measurement.
Looks like you just dropped in 2 cells of which we don’t know how much they were discharged and this is what it says when charging has finished (for channel 4).
If you want to measure capacity you’ll have to use Test mode. This discharges and charges it for a couple of cycles and gives you the capacity of the cell.
Takes a loooong time though.

You are right sir, just bought it and drop the batteries. I will test them. thanks

I want to see if this charger works well and complete the charging cycle in order to keep or sell it

Sony VTC6 18650 3000mAmp

Test Mode of 500s at CH1 and CH4

After a lot of comments, worth to keep this charger or buy another one with same price? Please advice

Nisei · 2020-02-08T10:20:11.000Z

Capacity does seem to be on the high side but keeping in mind it terminates at 4.25V it may be fairly accurate.
I wouldn’t worry about an optimistic capacity test though. What’s important is termination voltage. If it’s too high it may drastically decrease the amount of duty cycles since it’s bad for your cells. The only way to measure this is to buy a 6000 counts or higher multimeter with an accuracy of ±(0.1%+2).

Nisei · 2020-07-05T13:05:48.000Z

I’m having a problem with a protected 18650 battery in the 500S
When it’s (almost) fully charged the charger stops and displays “null” as if there’s no battery inserted.
Is this how it’s supposed to be?
I know the 500S charges up to 4.25V so could it be the battery protection circuit kicks in before that? And is it normal for a protected battery to completely shut off when this happens?

d_t_a · 2020-07-07T08:06:23.000Z

Nisei:

I’m having a problem with a protected 18650 battery in the 500S
When it’s (almost) fully charged the charger stops and displays “null” as if there’s no battery inserted.
Is this how it’s supposed to be?
I know the 500S charges up to 4.25V so could it be the battery protection circuit kicks in before that? And is it normal for a protected battery to completely shut off when this happens?

That’s a possible explanation.

What protected battery is that?

JasonWW · 2020-07-07T09:49:17.000Z

Nisei:

I’m having a problem with a protected 18650 battery in the 500S
When it’s (almost) fully charged the charger stops and displays “null” as if there’s no battery inserted.
Is this how it’s supposed to be?
I know the 500S charges up to 4.25V so could it be the battery protection circuit kicks in before that? And is it normal for a protected battery to completely shut off when this happens?

I’m surprised you havent had many responses.
It will shut off completely on the lower voltage limit, but I dont know about the upper limit. I would assume yes. Once the cell gets up to 85% or thereabouts it should shift from Constant Current to Constant Voltage and maintain a steady 4.2 volts. Have you tried checking the voltage with a multimeter? It may not have enough accuracy, but it’s worth a try.

Nisei · 2020-07-07T12:24:21.000Z

JasonWW:

Have you tried checking the voltage with a multimeter? It may not have enough accuracy, but it’s worth a try.

My meter is accurate enough to measure this.
But do you want me to measure the voltage of the battery right after this happens or do you want me to measure the voltage when it’s still in the charger just before this happens?

JasonWW · 2020-07-07T12:35:01.000Z

Nisei:

JasonWW:

Have you tried checking the voltage with a multimeter? It may not have enough accuracy, but it’s worth a try.

My meter is accurate enough to measure this.
But do you want me to measure the voltage of the battery right after this happens or do you want me to measure the voltage when it’s still in the charger just before this happens?

Still in the charger. The battery is irrelevant, we want to know if the charger is using too high a voltage.

Maybe better yet, charge a unprotected cell and measure that voltage just before it finishes.

Nisei · 2020-07-07T12:43:03.000Z

d_t_a:

That’s a possible explanation.
What protected battery is that?

Trustfire flames 18650 2400mAh

Nisei · 2020-07-07T12:46:59.000Z

JasonWW:

Still in the charger. The battery is irrelevant, we want to know if the charger is using too high a voltage.
Maybe better yet, charge a unprotected cell and measure that voltage just before it finishes.

I’ll do both (so we also know at which voltage the protected battery shuts off).

JasonWW · 2020-07-07T16:43:30.000Z

After some research, I see HKJ tested 3 different protection circuits and they all allowed up to 4.26v. Maybe that is standard? It’s possible your charger is putting out a tiny bit higher voltage or else your protection circuits are set just a little bit lower, like 4.24v.

I imagine that’s the problem. Nothing else I can think of would cause your issue.

JasonWW · 2020-07-07T13:30:18.000Z

Nisei:

d_t_a:

That’s a possible explanation. What protected battery is that?

Trustfire flames 18650 2400mAh

Oh man, those are known to be junk. Closer to 2000mah. Review here. I would recommend different cells from a better company.

Nisei · 2020-07-07T13:47:45.000Z

JasonWW:

Oh man, those are known to be junk. Closer to 2000mah. Review here. I would recommend different cells from a better company.

I normally use Sony/Murata VTC6 batteries for vaping but I had this lying around for use in a flashlight.

Nisei · 2020-07-07T20:51:59.000Z

Unprotected battery, almost finished charging (4.249 - 4.250V)

Unprotected battery right after charging has finished.

Protected battery, charging terminated by battery's protection circuit.

Note the 4.9V after the charger displays "null"

JasonWW · 2020-07-07T16:44:03.000Z

Botton line seems to be those protected cells just don’t like the extra voltage from that charger. It’s tripping the overvolt circuit. It’s probably fine to use the battery assuming it’s not being used in parallel with other batteries like in a BLF Q8 where all cell voltages need to be super close.

Nisei · 2020-07-07T15:09:36.000Z

JasonWW:

Not to confuse resolution with accuracy/tolerance.
So just keep this in mind when trying to get these precise voltage measurements

See my post #132 in this thread

Nisei · 2020-07-07T16:04:02.000Z

JasonWW:

Botton line seems to be those protected cells just don’t like the extra voltage from that charger. It’s tripping the overvolt circuit. It’s probably fine to use the battery assuming it’s not being used in parallel with other batteries like in a BLF Q8 where all cell voltages need to be super close.

Indeed.
I just wish Liitokala would have programmed it to terminate 0.05V lower than it does now.

JasonWW · 2020-07-07T16:45:18.000Z

Nisei:

Then you should do the maths right.
0.1% of 4.254 = 0.004 plus or minus 2 counts.
So 4.254 on my meter is between 4.248 and 4.260

My bad, I was thinking 1% for some reason. :person_facepalming:

Ps, it’s not minus 2 counts, it’s only plus 2 counts.