liitokala lii-260 LCD 3.7V 18650/26650 Battery Charger $18
Or less see obo.
Looking foward to the Lii-300 report
Also Looking for an usual HKJ review too… I’m very thankful we have people like him here :party: Hopefully he will investigate on the “overcharging” part of of the Dzy overview here
FYI…
At least three versions seems to exist:
–1 @ Engineer Lii-260(LiitoKala) the smartest li-ion charger in a world?
–2 @ Russian (?) tear-down (blue backlight). LiitoKala Engineer Lii-260 с синей подсветкой
–3 I just got mine and took it apart and it’s –3 (white backlight).
Some questions for the smart folks:
(a) Perhaps someone can look at the schematic on the russian site and explain the mR value being displayed.
(b) Do manufacturers publish internal resistance value and their “age”/”usefulness”/”life left”/”or some sort of measurement” ? Are there some examples?
© Or are there general rules of thumbs for internal resistance values (excellent, good, ok, poor, bad, ready to melt down)? (I’m looking specifically information for 18650)
Thanks,
-d
Is the mA (capacity) inversely proportional to the mR/iR? I ask because it doesn’t seem like it based on first look at the preliminary data below. BUT “common sense” “seems” like it should……
Samsung ICR18650-22B SDI 472: lii-260 1795 mA, lii-260 70/76/97/86/91/75/74/73/75/74 mR = avg 79.1, median 75
CGR18650E, previously measured from a hobby charger* 709 mA and lii-260 1923 mA, mR 79,79,75,74,75,74,70,73,80,73 = avg 75.2, median 74.5
LGDA2E18650, previous measured from a hobby charger 2417mA and lii-260 2167 mA, mR 88,88,96,91,88,90,87,95,86,84 = avg 89.3, Median 88
Either I made a mistake or the mA reading are really off for the CGR18650E.
I also have some bad (or what i think is bad, since the batteries gets HOT when charging) green SONY batteries that I would think the mR should be really high…. but if memory serves, it wasn’t when I was spot checking random batteries yesterday… ? Tomorrow, I’ll go through and do 10 mR check on two SONY batteries and see if the mR values are high or not. I don’t know the mA on those BUT I would think that it is low? Unless there is no correlation between cells getting hot during a charge at 1A and their capacity.
Thanks,
-d
/*/ hobby charger (JARX Racing) is a clone or unbranded unit of Thunder AC6 / Dual Power B6AC / GT Power 606D / iMax B6, etc.)
One of the things I like about this charger is the lack of a fan and the quiet operation because of it not being there.
As far as a correlation, I could say yes and no or it depends.
A MFG can design “big cells” with a low iR or tiny cells with a relatively high iR.
In practice I would think that the obvious is true, that as the iR/mR goes up the capasity goes down. Now how highly they are correlated is a different story.
I found that the charger only got warm I put a riser under the screen side to both allow it air underneath and to have the heat flow out the vents(heat rises) when using the Dis/charge function, for streight charges it stayed much cooler.
I also found that once the mR was calulated it stayed the same unless the circut was broken and then it was re-calculated.
I’ve been wondering about how good some laptop cells are. I have read that self-discharge is an indicator — faster the cells discharge in storage the worse the chemistry is.
Assuming that’s true, is using the LiitoKala 260
fully charging a group of cells
resting them for a few weeks
putting them back in the charger and comparing the “mAh” number needed to return to full
a good way of comparing the cells?
Actually, the Liitokala, may not be a good use for that. It’s voltage is only 0.1 precision, you would probably want one that is 0.01 precision.
If you have a digital volt meter (even an inexpensive one from Harbor Freight for $6 which is frequently “free with any purchase” (buy some batteries or gloves)). Measure the voltage an hour after charging, then wait a month and check the voltage again. If it’s dropped by more than .2 volts then, it may not worth keeping. So if the resting voltage is 4.2 volts, then 4.1 volts after a month probably a great cell, if it is 4.0 volts, it’s an okay cell. If less than 4.0 then, poor. If say it was 3.8, then I would call that a bad cell.
Of course, it depends on your usage. Self-discharge by itself isn’t the end-all to a cell’s deposition. It maybe able to hold it’s full charge for for a few days and discharge all of it in a short time (e-bike). In which case, it is still a good cell for your application.
Is there thermal protection circuit in the lii-260? To prevent bad cells (high IR) from “blowing up” in the charger?
+1 you can do that with any charger that gives you the mAh “taken”
If the mR is too high the charger simply returns a message of “fail” (I think)… I know it will not charge them I just forgot what it says when that happens.
+1 a very well reasoned answer.
Great idea with the riser. I found a small 1.5” x 1.5” tin/AL mint box that fit perfectly beneath the charger to, hopefully increase airflow around and through the air slits.
Yes, it’s odd that the mR changes between calculations. I tested this by leaving the battery stationary in the slots but plugging and unplugging the barrel connector.
Here are the values that I got for two batteries:
slot 1: 93,99,96,102,95,95,95,95,90,97,95
slot 2: 87,88,93,82,91,91,91,91,95,85,86
I did find a slight but greater variance when I physically remove and re-inserted the battery into the slot.
-d
Maybe in addition to the 255 = 100% thingy, that the varaince of the cells and the tester are such that the mean aka the average is just that.
which is ok by me.
Was just looking for another protection circuit… can’t have too many. Better safe than a burned down house. 
I took a look at the schematic but I don’t see anything that resembles a thermal sensor… of course, I have no electronics background and really can’t read the schematic that well.
-d
I made a charging station with slots in the surface and a built in fan with a speed controller.
I am quite happy with mine. Thanks. All I miss of my previous Soshine is the white case. I will probably give it away and use this and two little Xtars. I am having varying voltage readings, but I think it is my cheap multimeter.
Anyone know for sure the web address for the manufacturer?
There appears to be some confusion: Mini review of the Liitokala Lii-500 Analyzing Charger
On the resistance measurement — is there a cutoff or threshold where resistance is high enough the cell isn’t worth saving, or is less safe?
(I got four 26650 “DeWorld” brand protected Li-ions as Radio Shack closeouts — one showed zero volts and had to be reset before it would accept charge and it shows “60 mR” on the LiitoKala. That one gets noticeably, slightly, warm while charging at 500 mAh; the other one from the same blisterpack shows 57mr)
The pair that charged OK from the start show 52 and 53mr and don’t feel at all warm when charging.