This new compact MX4 Charger has wide compatibility for 3.6/3.7V & 1.5V Li-ion, 3.2V LiFePO4 & 1.2V Ni-MH batteries. It’s very suitable for users who need to charge different types of batteries at once. How do you think of it?
Chcek more information online: XTAR MX4 Charger_ShenZhen XTAR Electronics Co., LtdShenzhen XTAR Electronics Co., Ltd. - XTAR originated in 2006, is an electronic technology company integrating research and dev
Congratulations, looks you’ve given us a real one for all charger. Still I have a few questions.
This charger supports unprotected 21700’s. Is that because of the size, or because of the additional electronics, of protected batteries?
Your site mentions “micro current activation”. Is that the same as the “Zero Volt Activaion” of my trusted VC2 Plus Master?
That little charger can bring back “sleeping batteries” where other chargers fail. Including my other XTAR chargers.
They’re longer than normal ones.
Well. I like the 1,5V LiIon-charging
But this charger will very rarely used by the enthusiast users here, more for ppl which buy discounter ware.
No current selection, overall very slow charging if using more than 1 cell, no additional functions, no display.
I think the ppl wait more for something like the vP4 Plus Dragon with individual bay configuration, voltage display, more than 4x1A, discharge mode, LiIon 1,5V and LiFePO4.
Thanks for the comments. It’s because of the length, the MX4 charger supports unprotected 21700, but it can’t charge protected 21700 cells. Yes, the micro current activation is the same function as zero volt activaion you mentioned to recover over-discharged batteries.
Looks like an excellent travel charger.
Does it support USB C-to-C PD3.0 charging?
Like @Johnny_Bravo mentioned, I would like to have higher charge current available, and user-settable, e.g. 0.5A, 1A, 2A selection. I further want to see the voltage of each cell.
For a budget-oriented price I might anyways buy one as a travel charger.
What I really wish for is a XTAR PB2S that supports 14500 cells, with user-selectable current.
MX4 charger in xtardirect store now: https://xtardirect.com/products/xtar-mx4-charger-compatible-with-36-37v-15v-li-ion,-32v-lifepo4-12v-ni-mh-batteries?VariantsId=10991
The dark blue XTAR 14500 1.5V Li-ion 2500mAh cell charged at a rate of 0.4A until it reached 5V.
The cell produces 1.515V when full and about 1.10V when it needs to be recharged.
5V gives it extra performance, right?
…
Right?
Im bewildered at this. Looks like the charge rate didnt begin to taper from 400mA until almost 4.80V (?!?!) Is this some bizarre manifestation of the 1.5V regulation circuit when fed a charge current? I always thought liion chemistry was CVCC until 4.15V or so then a small taper charge. I thought anything more than 4.35V under any circumstances was no bueno.
The battery has its own integrated charging controller. The “charger” only has to supply 5V, although it seems to have a current regulation and reduces the voltage so that the (linear?) regulator inside the battery has less power to dissipate.
This only makes sense if there is a proprietary dedicated charger required for these cells, most likely an onboard USB using 5V?
I thought they could be charged in a standard liion slot charger. Where else but USB do you get 5V?
The regulated 1.5V liion sounds like a neat idea, rather convenient but the capacity loss vs. NiMH (compare mWhr) due to efficiency losses from the voltage conversion negates their purpose if runtime is your endgame.
I assume they aren’t being fully charged when you put them in a standard charger. That would make sense to me, they would need higher than 4.2v to get close to 4.2v. But I don’t have any batteries like that, idk for sure.
The charging time checks out, thats about as long as it should take to charge that battery.
Id be curious what the voltage is right after charging if you took the thing apart and measured the cell’s voltage directly. But I’d understand not wanted to disassemble the thing immediately after charging
They cannot be charged with a regular Li-ion charger. They need the special XTAR “charger”.
XTAR mentioned that it has a 3.6V nominal Li-ion inside so I’d imagine it’d be full between 4.15 and 4.20V internally.
As @SammysHP mentioned, these 1.5V Li-ion cells have their own charging circuit and need a special charger.
But is it full when charging cuts out at 5.1v is what I’m wondering.
The integrated charging controller decides when it is full. You can see how the current decreases. Still interesting to see that the “charger” disables the power supply once the current dropped to zero.
And my question is- How accurate is the integrated charging.
As SammysHP and Tim explained above, the 1.5V Li-ion battery integrates an intelligent charge-discharge management chip, which controls it smartly. The voltage curve depicted is the summation of externally supplied voltage and the battery integrated charging circuit’s voltage. To charge the 1.5V Li-ion battery on MX4, there is still TC-CC-CV charging method for the internal 3.6V cell. Trickle-charge (TC): 2V-2.9V; constant-current stage (CC): 3V-4.1V; constant-voltage stage (CV): 4.1V-4.2V . You could observe the current change on Tim’s chart.
So charging is linear you think? Looks like it, right? But still with a buck converter for output probably?
