Yes absolutely. I unplug all of my chargers when not in use. Then plug them into wall power, wait for them to boot up, then insert the cells to be charged. I think that loading cells, then powering on the charger is not to be considered in the category of “best practices”.
push the display button before current selection
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Nice find, but will your method work with two, three or four cells?
I will try tonight when my cells are discharged.
I hope it does. That will save me from unpluging it and plug it in so many times to get my desired charge rate.
Welcome!
I hope your method works with multiple cells. Nice find if it does! I don’t see why it wouldn’t if it works with one cell.
Most of my hidrains I can achieve the desired charge rate. But some of my other cells ga’s and MJ1’s Etc they do what your cell did, it goes right back to 250mA before the desired rate is achieved.
I get tired of unplugging and plugging it back in that usually will resolve it but not always after the first unplug. It’s a pain in the butt! I’ve had at least five of these Chargers and every single one of them does it some worse than others.
Hello, the new version of BLF, I haven’t logged in yet,
Today is my first login
I’m very sorry for the bad shopping experience you had
Just received a user reminder that it may be due to the high internal resistance displayed, causing the charging current to be unable to charge at high current
In this situation, if 3A charging current is forcibly selected, it will still jump back to the highest 2 levels
If you could send me a video of the malfunction, that would be the best
My email 2938410268@qq.com
@ Another,
I just got an opportunity to try your method with three Cells…3 X GA BT.
I tried to get the desired 2000 milliamp charge setting. It failed like it has so many times with these chargers.
After it failed, I tried your method of hitting the display. The display showed 2000 milliamps. I didn’t get too excited.
I’ve learned that means nothing until you check each individual slot to see if that’s actually what is charging. It was not. One was 500mAh, the others were 250mAh and 1000mAh. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and was able to get my 2000 milliamps. That has been My Method All Along but sometimes I have to unplug it and unplug it three or four times and it’s a pain in the you know what.
I have begrudgingly over the last few years accepted this flaw with these Chargers.
I have written detailed emails to corporate and I got nowhere. One of their responses was the contacts must be dirty! Well if that’s the case how come if I unplug it and plug it back in, two or three times I’m usually able to get my desired charge rate?
It has NOTHING to do with dirty contacts. It Is electronic glitches that were never resolved or addressed.
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I too tried the “display” trick. It behaved exactly as you describe.
OTH, If I put one cell at a time in, I can set the current for each and that works. But honestly, the max I have set is 2 amps. Mostly I use 1 to 1.5 amps. SO I am not sure about trying to use anything above those settings.
As to
The problem has been intermittent. Meaning not repeatable. It is unlikely that I could get a video of the behavior. Maybe the results, but not the whole process. As I never know what it is doing until after the fact. I would have to make long videos of the entire setup for charging and results every time I use the charger for a month or likely several months. Which is simply not practical.
Thx for your input and experience.
The majority of my trail lights are three and mostly Four cells. It would be way too time consuming to put one cell at a time just to get my desired charge rate. In addition I’m charging most of my hydrain cells to at least 2500mAh and many of them 3000 milliamps.
P42A,40T,50S, P28A, VTC5D.
I have the standard charge rate and maximum charge rate for all these batteries on a graph on my wall and my flashlight laboratory.
I have a few two cell Chargers that I use for lights that take one or two cells.
Yeah I use 1.5 A for all of those. Even the QB26800 cells (Supposedly 6800 mAh) I only use 2 amps.
I am not usually in a hurry because I have lots of cells available (and fully charged). I truly believe I get more cycles out of my cells with lower charge rates. I have also seen data that supports this.
In any case, that does mean this is the right way to do it, or, considering a given situation, even the best way. Just trying to explain, potentially, why I am not seeing the behavior that you see.
Oh, that and maybe because I set the charge rate for each individual cell… 
That doesn’t work either. I selected 2000 milliamp and when it settled in two of them were 500 mAh and 1,000mAh.
Bottom line is these Chargers are junk!
I have never ever had an issue selecting a charge rate with any of my other chargers. Not even once.
For those of you that don’t use 2amps or 3 amps that’s fine but if they’re there, and they are ,they should work properly.
Thanks for your efforts and trying. Working with one cell doesn’t do anything for me because I never use a four-cell charger for one cell.
We use it differently.
On rare occasions I may mix some cells and then pick an individual rate. But usually those cells are also being charged at the same rate.
When I put my four cells in there being charged at the same rate because they came from the same light. I’m not going to set the charge rate for each individual cell .that is way too time consuming and really doesn’t make sense.
Are you saying that… when the charger is working the way you want it to, you can put in 4 cells and just select a 3 amp charge rate once for all of them? I thought I read something in the manual about being able to do that if the other three cells are inserted within a specific amount of time after the first one… but maybe I am mixing that up with one of the other many chargers that I have and use occasionally.
EDIT: Yeah. Thye call it “common regulation mode”. The last three cells need to be inserted within 5 seconds of the first. Before it starts charging. To select the same current for all 4 cells. BTW, I often have a hard time doing that. I seem to miss it. But I guess that is why I have resigned myself to setting current for individual cells.
Anyway, IIRC that is not your problem. It is that you can’t select the higher current levels when trying to charge 4 cells at the same rate.
It’s not the way I want it to work it’s the way it’s supposed to work.
When you put in two ,three or four cells and pick a charge rate it is supposed to charge all of them at that rate.
If you want individual charge rates for the cells, you do it one at a time.
As long as the display is still flashing you could pick the selection which is supposed to be for all the cells that are inserted. It’s not hard to do it takes two seconds three seconds to put in the cells then it’s flashing then you pick the charge rate.
The issue is that it is inconsistent and sometimes will not accept the charge rate you put in. Then I unplug it plug it in do that once or twice and then it will take the rate. It has nothing to do with internal resistance, contacts being dirty it is some glitch in the electronics. Because one time the cells will accept two, 2.5a or 3A…and other times they won’t. It has a mind of its own!
Read the rest of my post above… I edited it while you were replying.
Anyway, I think it is both… the way you want it to work as well as the way it is supposed to work…
Semantics, isn’t it? Especially seeing that they coincide.
Yes, as long as you do it within the 5 second time limit… which is what screws me up.
If you notice each cell that you put in , the display will Flash. As long as it’s continuing to flash while you insert the other cells you have time to choose your charge rate. It is more than 5 seconds because you are continuing to insert other cells.
If you do not do it in time, it will default to whatever rate it wants which is usually 250 milliamps.
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