MiBoxer C4 v3 OR C4-12 Old Version - A Dilema

Not sure if I’ve had a result with this or not … I ordered the new C4 v3 with 1.5a charge capability for just under £23, I guess they must have run out of stock so sent me the old single button version of the C4-12 instead.

I wasn’t bothered about charging at over 1.5a nor was I bothered about the discharge / charge function (although it may be useful) as I’d just use the mah that a flat battery was taking combined with the IR as a indication of overall health and when it was time to replace older batteries.

The one thing I won’t like as much - A lot of the reports say it’ll charge a newish 18650 x 3500 mah at 1.8a which if I’m in no hurry I’m happy to charge them at 0.5 / 0.8a which will extend their overall life and it’s quicker / easier to alter the charge rate with the newer dual button versions especially if putting more than one battery in at a time can do them all at the same time as opposed to having to do them individually.

Some have also had the issue of the 3rd channel failing on the C4-12 although it’s hard to establish if this is just a few users or a more widespread issue.

Either way for £23 it seems like quite a lot of charger but interested to hear what other people would do and whether to hang onto this one or send it back for a refund and get the other … albeit more expensive C4 v3 from another seller as the listing’s been removed now from their site???

Just for comment, there appears to be a slight revision of the Miboxer C4-12 (2-button version).

Its manual is labeled “v2.2” (the previous Miboxer C4-12, 2-button version has a manual that indicates “v2”).

Basically some difference I noticed:

note: both units look physically the same (can accommodate protected 21700 batteries or 4x 26650 batteries)

(only checked with Li-ion batteries)

  1. Miboxer C4-12 (2-button version) “v2” manual
    = when insert a battery that has low enough IR (eg. it indicates around (roughly) 30mOhms or lower), it will automatically select the highest charging current of 3.00A (if battery is not nearly full)
    = when cycling throught the manual charging current selection; it will cycle 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0A and “Auto”
    = even when battery is >4.15-4.20v, it will try to measure IR, and then automatically-selected charging current can still be relatively high (eg. ~0.7A if IR is low enough)

2) Miboxer C4-12 (2-button version) “v2.2” manual
= when insert a battery that has low enough IR (eg. it indicates around (roughly) 30mOhms or lower), it will automatically select the charging current of up to 2.00A (if battery is not nearly full) only. User can still manually select 2.5A or 3.0A.
= when cycling throught the manual charging current selection; it will cycle 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0A (there is no “Auto-select” when manually selecting charging current)
= when battery is around 4.16-4.20v, the charger will not show/test IR (will show “—-”) and will select 0.3A as default charge current

So it seems the v2.2 is a slight revision in the charger behavior to make it a bit safer with regards to the automatically selected charging current.