Wanted to charge a 14500 Li-ion cell using the Vapcell BL4 charger. But the charger thought the inserted cell was Ni-MH/Ni-Cd type. I then tried changing the cell type to Li-ion by pressing the Type button on the charger, but this didn’t seem to have any effect as the cell type chemistry remained displayed as Ni-Mh/Ni-Cd!?
Tried pressing the Type button several times, but this didn’t have any obvious effect.
I then tried the 14500 cell in another BL4 charger that I have. But again this other charger identified the cell as being Ni-MH/Ni-Cd, and again pressing the Type button didn’t seem to have any effect on cell type; the charger continued to display cell as being Ni-MH/Ni-Cd.
Then I put the 14500 cell in my Liitokala Lii-600 charger, and this charger correctly identified the cell as being Li-ion and subsequently charged the 14500 cell without issue.
So, it appears there is some fault or limitation with the BL4 chargers, which is disappointing as the BL4 charger has worked fairly well until now for other cells processing.
Anyone else have this issue with the BL4 charger incorrectly identifying/displaying cell type and inability to change cell type by pressing the chargers Type button?
What voltage was the battery at when you put it in the charger?
I just recently had a similar issue wigha different charger. It was a bad cell and was down to 1.3v, so the charger assumed it was a nicad
I’m not entirely certain as I didn’t pay too much attention to other parameters apart from the cell chemistry.
The cell voltage may have been around 1.6 volts, but this was from a quick glance at the charger display apart from the cell type which I was more focussed on.
Over the years, I’ve had several cells go bad on me.
These days, if I have a cell that registers below 2v when I put it on the charger, it is getting tossed.
Especially if it is going to be pulling several amps.
I just went through about 20 18650 cells yesterday that had been neglected for a few years.
Out of those, I had 3 that were below 2v.
For the sake of science, I decided to use my chargers “revive” feature. It was working and woke the cell up, but it was feeling a little warm. So into a lipo bag it went until I can safely dispose of it.
ETA: One of those cell was 0v when it went on the charger.