I'm not expert for those things like some people around here, so it would be nice if someone can comment this (cut-off, charging, discharging, etc..). Is this any good. Mini review of the charger is translated from Russian.
I got some of those chargers and can highly recommend them. The build quality is excellent and it has a reliable termination at 4.2V. After the main LED turning green, leave the cell in the charger until the little LED in the housing turns green too. They really get fully charged this way.
Hiltihome states that overly long cells don't fit, but even my Xtar 18700 cells do fit.
Only 26650 cells don't fit very good. They fit in the charging bay but don't get good electrical contact. You have to work with small magnets.
How come according to specs could not be very safe? :)
It has many LED status points. The output really cuts power when the battery is around 3V.
It's not 1A unless you have a power supply that can offer 1A, otherwise it's 500mA. Even a 1A power supply mayt not offer 1A since not AC to DC power supply is 100% efficient.
Very solid build, high quality soldering inside. When the LED is red then charging is really done. Also the reverse polarity protection is working.
About the termination. I have two, each of them always terminates at the same voltage, but not identical between them samples. One always 4.17V one 4.20V, I trust my multimeter on this one.
Could you give us some more details aout the display mod? Maybe we can do the same with some pictures or more information, how you connect die dispaly with the charger (my charger will arrive in 1-2 weeks).
I unfortunately did not take picture while doing the mod. But it's very easy:
I just drilled two little holes in the charger's housing and soldered a wire to the positive and negative solder point that holds the chargers battery connection springs. Then I connected the negative wire to the - pin and the positive wire to the 1S pin on the voltage display and hot glued the voltage display to the charger's housing.
I bought one King Kong INR 26650 raised top and (2) ML-102 chargers. The raised top cells do not like to sit in the ML-102 charger very nicely. The raised top of the battery slides up off the positive terminal of the charger (because the terminal just barely hits the edge of the raised part). Seems the charger is really sized for 18650's.
Anyone else using this combination? Seems to me that for use with these raised top cells it would be best to file off some of the chargers rolled side (the way it's rolled to fit an 18650) to allow the 26650 to sit down lower.
Here's a photo trying to show the issue:
It's tough to see the chargers positive terminal, but you can see how the cell is raised up off the "rolled edge" of the side of the charger.
King Kong Raised Top INR26650's: Total length 68.05mm, diameter 26.33mm. Battery is a tight fit in the ML-102 charger with just a mm or two to spare.
Charged up my King Kong INR26650 and terminated at 4.19v measured with a cheap DMM. I then disconnected from the wall adaptor and plugged in my iPhone 3GS to see if it would start charging and it didn't at first. I removed the battery from the charger and placed it back in and it finally started charging.
Here's a photo showing my temporary solution to the raised top cell popping up out of the cradle (a rubber band):
I don't see any reason that I can't file down the rolled edges of the charger to better accommodate this raised top King Kong. I can leave enough of the rolled edge to still firmly hold an 18650 (maybe file the edges down at the top and bottom to about the same level as the middle.
That sounds like a good plan. I dont see any reason it wouldnt work. And if you do like you wrote and leave the edge same height as the middle section it should remain structurally strong.
This said without me having one of these. I never bought one because I could not find a review
I was wondering if this charger will be able to fit the Xtar 18700 batteries. Also, does it come with an AC adapter or can I just plug it into my computer/cell phone charger? I am thinking about getting this over the Xtar MP1. Thanks.