Data logging, display, capacity reading….all that makes just sense if it is made while a discharge….or am I wrong?
So we need a discharge function first…
Jude Law, Kim Jaejoong, Jesse Williams? 0:)
Is trickle charge a generally wanted or unwanted feature?
Or how do like the idea that the charger re-charges once the resting voltage has dropped below a limit say 4.15V for Li-Ions and 1.40V for NiMH?
Or do you really prefer that the charger completely stops, i.e. the battery would suffer from "standby drain"?
Trickle charge is a good idea on NiMH, but not allowed on LiIon.
It is best to keep the recharge limit on LiIon below 4.10 volt or an old battery will jump in and out of charge mode all the time. Generally I do not see much reason for a recharge option on LiIon chargers, good batteries does not drop very fast in voltage, except if the charger discharges them!
I don’t like post-charge trickle charge on Ni-MH as you know. I prefer that the charger ceases charging completely.
I would think that trickle charge is unnecessary for Eneloop, would you agree?
Okay, 4.10V sounds like a reasonable threshold. You know, my Ultrafire 10440's, the blue unprotected ones, are poor quality cells. Their self-discharge rate is immense in the first 2hrs after completing a full charge. In such a case, a re-charge would be nice.
Hmm right, the charger should not discharge any cells notably fast through standby current drain!
Chloe, most NiMH chargers do have trickle charge. Don't your chargers have it?
Yes, for the precharged type of NiMH (including eneloop) trickle charge is unnecessary.
These two don’t (Shan SH-168DLCD and Soshine SC-F3):
Trickle charge might be of use with older Ni-MH cells though, the kind that these chargers consider “bad cells”.
cute photo with the hair ribbon :*
so trickle charge does have some use, thanks for the helpful input! :)
Afaik the C9000 applies trickle charge. Oh well!
And for Li-Ion i know that some very cheap chargers don't stop charging and do apply some kind of prohibited trickle charge after the status LED turned from red to green (4.2V). They are the worst li-ion chargers omg.
That is not even trickle charge, they do simply not stop charging, I have just checked 3 chargers of that type (I am not going to review them).
The led turns green when they are near 4.2 volt, but that does not necessary means that the battery is fully charged.
Mine was a HXY-18650 1bay charger, pretty much this here:
In the webpage fake description it even says "trickle charge" lol. And the 18650 cell got very warm at the end of the charge, also overcharged. One day it created a short, i.e. a hot charger not connected to the power line, so i finally decided to trash it. Afaik i got the product for free from Dinodirect with dinopoints giftcards and whatnot.
It still like the idea of automatic re-charge from 4.10V :)
I have tested one HXY charger and was not impressed with the result.
Can you try to explain why?
A good LiIon can take months to drop below 4.10 volt when charged and as you might have heard, it is not a good idea to let the batteries stay in the charger that long.
Lots of recharges on a old battery is not really a good idea, it would be better to just throw it out or accept the lower performance.
HKJ, I’ve seemed to notice that it takes a longer time for the last .1 V to be added, from 4.10 to 4.2…tell me, from your experiences with charging, am I hallucinating (waiting makes it always seem longer, I’ve never actually timed it) or is this true?
If a charger had the option to set the re-charge threshold, then "4.10V" would be just an example setting. For my 10440's i'd choose a setting nearer to the typical termination voltage of Nitecore i4 with these cells. This would simulate a trickle charge for poor-conditioned li-ion cells. One purpose of it is the convenient determination of the max 10440 capacity.
It is easy to determine the max capacity of good 18650 cells with zero self-discharge, and it is a challenge to determine the max capacity of poor 10440 cells with high self-discharge.
Well, that's just one RL application. For advanced users only, or peeps with ocd ;)
I had *tried* to measure the capacities of my four 10440 cells. Was a big practical challenge to get accurate reproducible data!
This is often true, many chargers has a soft change from CC to CV phase, this means that the charge current goes down above 4.1 volt (Sometimes earlier), making the increase up to 4.2 volt slower.
If you look at the charge curves in my battery test, you can see that there is nothing special with the charge speed between 4.1 and 4.2 volt, but 4.2 volt will be stable for some time. My charge setup is a bit special, because the resistance between the constant 4.2 volt and the battery is about 0.002 ohm, this resistance is much higher on a normal charger.
The high self-discharge might be because you over charge the cell!
In my test I charge to 4.2 volt and then wait exactly one hour (1 second tolerance), before starting the discharge.
i know what you mean. well, in my capacity measurements with genuine IMAX B6 i start the discharge tests at the highest possible voltage out of Nitecore i4 or WF-188. Waiting 1 hour, wow:
Thanks, I’ve observed this on many chargers, seemingly that last 4.1 to 4.2 increment takes forever whenever I’m waiting for the cells to be done so I can go on a trip.
readable version:
