West Mountain Radio CBA HR (Battery analyzer)



West Mountain Radio have two battery analyzers, this is the small version designed for lower current test.



The box is a standard box for their battery analyzers with a sticker on saying exactly what is in the box.



The box for this analyzer contains the analyzer, a usb cable, a test cable, a CD and a manual (Both software and manual can be downloaded).



In addition to the above I also got the thermosensor and 4 terminal adapter. Recording temperature curves requires the extended version of the software, that has to be bought separately (It is only a license code), this extended software also allows a more test modes. I also got this software.





The CBA HR is only a box with a few connectors and indicators. There is a USB-B connector for connection to a PC, two power pole connectors for connection to the battery under test, a 3.5mm stereo jack for connection to the thermosensor and 4 terminal sense wires (Connections in the jack are described in the manual).
The box has a fan and it is always on when a test is active, even if the test is very low power.



The thermosensor and 4 terminal cable has a NTC resistor with a magnet and two alligator clips for connection.




The supplied test cable is a pigtail and must be connection to some sort of battery holder or clips that can be attached to the batteries for test.



My test system uses banana plugs for most connections and I made my own test cable with some power pole connectors, thick silicone cable and banana plug sockets. Using extra connectors will increase the voltage drop, but here I am working with fairly low current and I have the 4 terminal adapter.



This matched perfectly with a 4 terminal battery holder from China.



And I was ready to test.



Testing and looking at software



Starting the software I get this screen, pressing the ± icon will open the test start menu (After selecting a filename):



Where I fill in data about the battery I want to test and the actual test, the data about the battery do not need to be accurate, but helps the software with default values. The “Amplifier” is for the larger CBA and makes it possible to run high power discharges.
The most common test type is “Discharge” that is a standard discharge, but there are many other (See below). For running the same test many times a profile can be used, this will remember all the settings.

When “Start” is pressed the test specification window is closed and the test starts. While it is running the chart will be updated on the screen.



After some time you will get the test completed message. If you want both Ah and Wh, this is the only time it is available in numeric format.





The final result can be viewed different ways, depending on selected chart type (Use Test, Chart Properties to change at any time).
It is possible to zoom in/out and move around in the chart. Other charts can also be imported for comparison. Pressing the diskette symbol will save the chart for later.



I did a discharge curve at another current and added it to the same chart for easy comparison.



Testing modes

The software has many testing modes, here is a short list:

• Mission profile. Draw a constant current for a specified time, result is a pass/fail, depending on if the battery could do that.
  
• Discharge. Standard constant current discharge
  
• Charge monitor. CBA will only record voltage and not do any discharging.
  
• Timed discharge.* Discharge battery to a specified percent of capacity.
  
• Power profile. Test with automatic increasing current, this shows what a battery can do.
  
• Duty cycle. Discharge with pauses, i.e. x seconds on and y seconds off.
  
• Constant power.* Power draw will be constant, i.e. current will increase with lower voltage.
  
• Multiple discharge. Use a table with current and time.
  
• Constant resistance.* The CBA will simulate a resistor.
  
• Dynamic. Constant current discharge, but it is possible to manually change current during discharge.
  

Requires the extended software



Export of data

The program can save in CSV files, but they are not standard format.



The first part of the file contains a header with the test data, but I wonder why it only includes Ah, why not always include both Ah and Wh and preferable in full resolution.



With more advanced tests it will also include more specifications.



After the header follows the data, but not in a numeric format, the quotes says it is text. I would have preferred the numbers to be in numeric format.
Note: CSV exist in two standard formats depending on country:
decimal point=. and separator=,
decimal point=, and separator=;



Testing for an application

Because the software can do discharges with pauses or multiple currents (Extended version), it is possible to simulate real word application and see how long a battery will last under specific conditions. Here I will show an example.
Note: The parameters are selected to get sensible test times, not to simulate real world usage.



This CR2032 is very common for small applications, how much power can it deliver.



The battery holder works perfectly for this type of batteries.



I got a warning when setting this battery about termination voltage, the software was using LiIon termination levels on this custom battery. Not a real issue because I could override the warning.




With one test I can generate these 3 curves. The battery can deliver up to 50mA, before voltage drops to 2V (With a fresh battery).

Lets use this battery in an application that draws 20mA for 20 seconds, at regular intervals, our system works down to 2V. How long will the battery last?



A constant current of 20mA says 11mAh and that is 33 minutes. That is not really a correct test, because we do not want to draw 20mA constant current, but only for 20 seconds and then some rest time, do this change anything?



Here I did a test with 20 seconds on and 80 seconds off to simulate that, it did improve the capacity and time. This time I got 72mAh and 1062 minutes.



The thick line is because the battery recovers between each 20mA discharge, here I have zoomed in on the time curve.



The average current above is 4mA, what about just testing at 4mA?
The answer is no, the above curve shows 102mAh in 1543 minutes, that is not the correct result.



Measurements



My first test was with a SMU where I can generate a voltage and measure the current while monitoring both voltage and current with high precision. Both voltage and current is precise. And even the lowest current setting (1mA) has a fairly good precision.
When idle the CBA will draw some current from the battery, how much depends on voltage.



Lets try a battery instead and see if it gives the same results. Here the voltage is mostly fixed, but I can change the current.
If you are going to do many test at same current, it is possible to calibrate the CBA at that current.



For the last test I wanted to see how good the 4 terminal connection was. For that I added a 1 ohm resistor in each current lead, as can be seen the voltage is about the same as the battery, i.e. the two 1 ohm resistors are compensated out. Or are they?
Some more testing showed that it was not a true 4 terminal sense, minus is not four terminal, but has about 0.1ohm between sense and current terminal (Probably the wires).
There as also another detail: It is important to disconnect sense leads from battery or remove battery, before (un)plugging the mini jack (It will short + sense to – current terminal shortly).



The discharge window do also show resistance and that is the internal resistance of the battery (and wires). A fast test shows it is fairly precise.



Here I have swept the voltage while measuring the current. The current is fairly stable and it works down to 0.7V



The lowest current (1mA) is a bit more unstable and works down to 0.5V.



In the table the 10mA curve had tolerances both over and under, how do the curve look?
As can be seen it has a slight variation with voltage.



A one hour test at about maximum power. The current drops a bit when the CBA heats up.
I measured a total of 0.993Ah and 9.831Wh, the rapport from CBA HR said 1.001Ah and 9.830Wh.
The temperature photos below are taken about 45 minutes into the one hour test.



Finding maximum and minimum in the curves and divide by the current gives the maximum tolerance over voltage. It is not surprising that the tolerance is higher at lower current, but it is still good.
The one-hour test is within 1% and that tolerance will be much smaller if the CBA has time to heat up first. The second line (0.1%) is calculated from 5 minutes to 60 minutes, i.e. after the CBA has heated up.



M1: 35,9°C, M2: 51,8°C, HS1: 61,0°C
The heat is generated in one side of the CBA and the fan is blowing air out.



HS1: 61,0°C



M1: 53,6°C, HS1: 60,7°C
The higher temperature can be seen on the side also.



M1: 32,6°C, HS1: 59,8°C



A constant current discharge looks constant on a oscilloscope.



Using a fast duty cycle test with 1 second on and 1 second off, the load looks like above.



A closer look at the on shows that i takes about 10ms to turn the current on.



And about the same to turn the current off.



Tear down



It is very easy to open, just four screws and the circuit board is loose.



The construction has a microprocessor (PIC18F26J53), two OpAmp (LM324 & TLC272C), a current sense chip (INA270) and two mosfets, one on heatsink and one on the circuit board.
There is placed a 2A fuse on the + connection, i.e. if something goes wrong, this may protect from fire.



There is nothing on the other side.









Conclusion

The CBA HR is fairly precise and practical. It can be used to measure battery capacity for smaller batteries, but where it really is interesting is to estimate life time with some specific load, and it can simulate variations in the load.
The 4 terminal do not really work, but is not needed at 1A, just use thick wires.

Charger LiitoKala Lii-402





LiitoKala has some fairly cheap charger that can handle nearly all battery types (Lii-100 and Lii-202), do this one match the other models?



It arrived in a brown cardboard box nearly without any printing on it.



In the box was the charger, a power supply, a car adapter and a instruction sheet.



The charger has usb input for charging and usb output for power bank function.



The user interface is lots of leds and a single button.
Holding the button down will change current.
Short presses on the button will change battery type.
These selection can only be done before it starts charging.
There is lots of restriction on charge current.



Specifications are printed on the bottom of the charger (That is fairly common).



The slots uses the classical slider construction and it works fine.

The slots can work from 32.4 mm to 70mm. This means that very long protected 18650/26650 batteries will not fit in the slots.








The charger can handle 70 mm long batteries including flat top cells.
Charge current is on the high side for 10440 batteries.
21700 is a very tight fit.



Measurements

• Only slot #4 support 2000mA current
  
• 1000mA can only be used with one or two batteries on the charger.
  
• 700mA can be used with up to 3 batteries.
  
• 500mA can be used with all four batteries.
  
• The charger will discharge LiIon batteries with below 0.1mA when not connected to power.
  
• Usb out will discharge with 0.6mA when not connected to power.
  
• When power is connected with a full LiIon battery, the charger will charge with 0.5mA
  
• Below 0.1V the charger will not detect a battery, but will charger with about 3mA
  
• Between 0.1A and 2.0V the charger assumes NiMH
  
• Above 2.0V the charger assumes LiIon
  
• Charger will not restart when voltage drops.
  
• It will restart charging on reinsertion of the battery or power cycling.
  
• Charger uses about 30mA from usb when idle.
  

• Usb output is coded as usb charger (DCP)
  
• Only one battery is used for usb output.
  
• While usb out is active the 4 leds above the battery shows remaining charge in the battery.
  
• Usb output will turn off after 10 seconds with less than 20mA load.
  
• The power bank will discharge batteries with about 0.6mA
  
• Usb output will only turn on when no power is connected to the charger.
  
• Usb output will usual turn on automatic, but can also be turned on with the button
  

Charger Panasonic BQ-CC65





This is one of Panasonics top models for NiMH chargers, it can charger 4 AA/AAA with individual control and with a usb charger output port it can also charge a phone or other usb device.



I got the charger in a blister pack.



The pack included the charger, mains cable and instruction sheet in a lot of languages.



The charger is powered directly from mains and do not have other power options.



The user interface is a display and 3 buttons.
REFRESH will start a charger-discharge-charge cycle
DISPLAY will select between voltage, time, mAh and Wh (Last two only for refresh) display.
USB OUT will stop any charging and turn the usb output on.
A normal charge is started by putting the batteries in the charger and do not require any button presses.



The display has a nice blue background light, but it turns off fairly fast (It is still possible to read the display).



When putting batteries in the charger it will animate the blocks in this display for a few seconds.



Then it will show the total number of batteries it has charged.



When refreshing batteries it is possible to see mAh



And Wh.



When usb is selected all the charger stuff is turned off.



As usual there are some specifications on the back of the charger.



The usb output is clearly marked with voltage, but not current (It is on the label under the charger).




The charger has the typically two level slots used for AA and AAA batteries.







Measurements charger

• When not powered it will discharge the battery with below 0.03mA
  
• If the charger detect an error the display will show error
  
• When charging an over discharged battery the charger will show a spanner, it disappears around 1V.
  
• The charger use peak currents up to 3.2A
  
• Voltage display is within 0.02V
  
• Charge will restart charging after power loss, or battery insertion.
  
• Power consumption when idle is 0.23 watt
  
• Charger reports “FULL” 15 minutes into top-off charge.
  
• Charger counts total number of cell charged.
  

• Usb output will turn off if load is below 100mA for 1 minute.
  
• Output is coded as Apple 1A (Why, it is not used anymore)
  
• When usb output is turned on the charger will not charge batteries.
  

Charger Japcell BC-800S (8xNiMH)





This charger can charge and discharge up to 8 AA/AAA cells with individual charge control for each cell.





The charger comes in a retail box. There is some specification on the box.



The pack contained the charger, a car adapter, a power supply and a instruction sheet.



The power input is the usual DC adapter.



The display has 8 battery symbols with animation showing charge or discharge (It must be the same for all batteries).
The display shows “CHG” or “DISCHG” depending on selected function.
Pressing the button for about 2 seconds will start a discharge (or stop it).



The battery slot are the typical two level construction.







Measurements

• Power consumption when idle is 0.35 watt
  
• Discharges with 0.2mA when not powered.
  

Using some very old AAA NiMh (the Eneloops are 10-years old, the Panasonic may be older)

Zanflare C4

Opus BT-C3100 v2.2

SkyRC MC3000 v1.13 firmware

Liitokala Lii-500 Engineer

Miboxer C4-12:

Armytek Uni C2





This charger from Armytek is fairly universal with 4 charge voltages and 3 currents, including a very low one.



The charger was in a cardboard box with specifications on the outside.



The box contains the charger, a mains cable, a 12V car cable and a instruction sheet.



The charger is powered directly from mains or from 12V with the supplied car adapter.



On the bottom is a very short instruction (Good idea) and some specifications.



The user interface is two buttons and 10 dual color leds. The dual color is red and green and using both at the same time is kind of yellowish, but the two colors do not mix very well.



The top led shows the charge current and the bottom four leds the charge state or charge voltage.
When a battery is put in the top led will start blinking shortly after, fast presses on the button at the same side will change current from default 0.5A to 1A to 0.1A and back to 0.5A.
Holding down the button will start one led off the bottom four to blink, click to select charge voltage (This only works for LiIon chemistries).
A press on the button during charging will show the selected charge voltage.
The charger will remember the selected LiIon chemistry and default to that the next time.



The charger uses the classical slider construction and can handle batteries from 30mm to 71.4mm.












The charger can handle 71mm long batteries, inclusive flat top cells.



Measurements

• Below 0.3 volt the charge will report fault and charge with about 20mA
  
• Below 1.7 volt the charger will assume NiMH, above LiIon
  
• Below 3 volt LiIon will be charged with about 140mA.
  
• When not powered the charger will discharge LiIon with about 0.4mA and NiMH with 0.05mA
  
• When idle the charger uses 0.37 Watt
  
• Charger will restart if battery voltage drops below 4.1V on LiIon 4.2V setting.
  
• Charger will restart if battery voltage drops below 4.2V on LiIon 4.35V setting.
  
• Charger will restart if battery voltage drops below 3.2V on LiIon 3.7V setting.
  
• Charge will restart charging after power loss or battery insertion.
  

Battery chargers might not seem like the most exciting thing to read a review on but trust me this one is different and has a lot of neat features to geek out on. ISDT is an established brand in the Hobby charger market. They have historically been focused more in the RC market but the C4 I have in front of me today is targeted to more common battery sizes such as AAA, AA, and 18650s. This is my first formal charger review, so let me know in the comments what you would like to see in future charger reviews. Thanks to Banggood for sending this to me to take a look at it, this review has not been influenced by the manufacture or seller.

Full Image Gallery:https://imgur.com/a/QpI7Z
Video Review of the ISDT C4: (I am trying to hit 10k subscribers in the next few months, please help out by subscribing.)

Construction
The body of this charger is constructed with a high density gloss white plastic, with the inner carrier where the cells go being a black semi gloss finish. ISDT claims this is a fire resistant plastic, which is nice but one thing I obviously didn’t test. On the rear you have the fan exhaust, power in, USB port for charging a phone or powerbank, and a MicroUSB in for firmware updates. The bottom has slots for cooling air to enter the charger. The front has a nice fairly large color LCD display thats 2.4” IPS display with a wide viewing angle. Itself isn’t touch screen but the touch panel is to the right and contains up and down arrows and a select.

The C4 doesn’t use the standard spring loaded contacts instead the contacts are hard mounted and have a bit of flex to them. Compared with most other battery charges I have (Nitecore, Xtar, etc) it’s a much less flexible in the size of cells that it will accept. I will go as far as saying it’s very picky.

18650 that are any longer then 650mm just will not fit. So most protected batteries are a no go. Unprotected Flat tops, or unprotected button tops seem to fit. Here are a selection of cells I tested fit with.

Sony VTC6 Flat Tops– Fit
LG HG2 Flat Tops– Fit
Samsung 30Q Button Tops– Fit
Sanyo NCR18650B Protected – Too Long
*Nitecore NL1894 *- Too Long
Xtar Protected 10440– Too Long

I didn’t have any trouble with the KeepPower 14500’s, Eneloop AA, Ikea Ladda AA, Duracell Rechargeable AA. Amazonbasics AAA, and Duracell Rechargeables AAA seem to fit.

Limited Capacity
While this charger takes a decent number of sizes of cells (with some popular exceptions) it doesn’t always take very many of them at one time due to how it’s laid out.

Input power is via an included AC Wall adapter. The one in my package has a 2 prong European design and an adapter was included in the shipping package. Having to use the adapter means it’s not the most secure connection with the wall wart hanging off the plug. The charger itself is capable of a 12V or 24V input from an automotive source too and displays incoming voltage in the top right corner of the screen.

Modes and UI
In all modes when the charger is doing its thing you get lots of metrics on the display. You get the mAh that has been put in or discharged from the cell, The time it’s taken, The current voltage, and requested charge rate, the resistance, and temperature. Each bay has its own temperature probe and I believe they are at the positive end of the termal. So it might take a little time for heat to radiate to the sensor if the battery does get hot. It also plots a graph in real time as battery are going through their cycle. This graph scales in real time as time increases.

The C4 is compatible with a wide variety of battery chemistries including NiMH, NiCd, NiZn, Eneloop, Li-Ion, LiHv, LiFePO4.

The main modes of this charger are …

*Charge *- This is the default mode and probably what you use the most. It automatically detects the chemistry of the cell and for most the default charge rate is 1A.

Discharge– Does exactly what the name describes, it discharges the cell in the slot at the rate you choose. 1A seems to be the default speed. Depending on the chemistry the charger will discharge down to 0.9V for NiMH, 1.2V for NiZn, 3.1V for Li-Ion, 3.3V for LiHv, 2.9V for LiFePo4, and 0.9V for eneloop.

Store– This mode charges the battery to the optimal voltage for it’s type of chemistry. This is particularly useful for Lithium batteries who are happiest if they are not going to be used for a while to be stored at between 50-80%. I tested it on an 18650 and it stopped charging at 3.70V. Depending on the chemistry of your lithium battery it could be 3.8V or 3.2V. Storage mode will automatically charge or discharge the cell to get it to the optimal voltage. It’s only available for the Lithium based batteries.

Cycle– Will charge and discharge a battery a given number of times at your given speed. This could be useful on older NiHM or NiCad batteries. Default cycle here is 3 times but the charger will allow you to do this up to 99 times.

*Analyze *- Analyze will charge the cell up to 100% at the rate you choose, then do a full discharge at that rate, and then charge the cell up to full once again. During it’s run it tells you time, cell resistance and capacity in mAh.

*Activate *- This is used to activate a cell where the voltage has fallen below specs or on protected lithium batteries to reset a protection circuit. It uses a small amount of current to “wake” the battery up prior to charging. Caution should be used if using this mode.

*UI*(Video is best for this) is pretty clear and easy to understand. To the right of the screen there is a touch panel with an up, down and select button. They are pretty self explanatory, the up and down allow you to scroll and when you are on an option you want to change you touch the gear selector and then use the arrow keys to make a choice and then the selector to confirm. By default the charge goes to charge mode, in auto detection at 1A when you insert a cell. It gives you 3 seconds (Configurable) to make changes before charging begins. If you want to change modes of a slot while in use the only way to do this is to remove and reinsert the cell. It has a audible alarm and a very large flashing error message if you put a cell in reverse polarity.

The C4 also has the ability to charge another device via USB while charging the batteries in the bay. What’s a little strange is that it seems to prioritize this USB and it will limit current to the batteries instead of limiting the current to the USB port, just something to be aware of. ISDT lists it as 2.1A at 5V for USB charging.

I have some Thorfire 14500’s that this charger doesn’t seem to like. I can’t tell if it’s a bad battery or something else. I know they are not a great battery but they are also not terrible either. My other chargers like the Xtar VC4 charge it without a problem. This charger however will stop charging these at around 75% and act like there isn’t anything in the bay. If it was a bad cell I would expect an error message of some type.

My charger analyzer setup that enables me to graph charging curves isn’t friendly with this charger. The charger is too smart for it and the graphs that I have gotten are not accurate to what the charger itself is doing. I have some new parts shipping from overseas so hopefully that helps a bit for future chargers.

Firmware Update Process
This charge has a microUSB port on the rear that’s used for updating it’s firmware. When my unit arrived I checked the ISDT website and found there was a firmware update available. I was able to download the firmware which came with a windows only flashing program. I had to use AC to power up my charger then plugged it into my PC via USB and then started the program. It was recognized and I clicked the Start flash button in the application. The charger rebooted into a bootloader mode, transferred the file and rebooted. I do wish the log notes were more detailed about what changes between each firmware version. I didn’t notice a tone of difference but there are still a few bugs in the firmware it seems.
https://i.imgur.com/oHTm9nm.jpg

One firmware bug I have encountered is sometimes when I have a battery charging already and I go to insert another one the screen almost goes 100% white, It’s like the user interface locks up. I can’t make it happen regularly but it seems to only happen on the 2nd or 3rd battery insert. I also get some odd percentages as it guesses how charged the battery is at first. This seems to stabilize after about 10 minutes. This was new and I only noticed it after the firmware update I did. Hopefully a future firmware update will fix these issues.

In the Box
The box is nicely constructed and rigid with foam in the bottom and lid. The charger itself was housed in a plastic try with the Euro AC power adapter underneath. I like that they included a glass screen protector like you would put on a smartphone for the screen. It’s should keep the screen free from scratches. https://i.imgur.com/1K7LHwJ.jpg

Pro’s

• Ton’s of advanced features and options that are all pretty easy to get to on the IPS display with the side touch interface.
• It’s fast with a maximum of 25W of charging power and 10W discharge power.
• Easily Upgradeable Firmware on a PC.
• Well built plastic construction that’s fire retardant.
• Super obvious reverse polarity alarm
• Comes with a plastic screen protector you can apply.

Con’s

• Limited to what cells can be charged by it’s design. No protected cells as the design doesn’t allow for anything longer then the standard 650mm in length. This also holds true for protected 14500 and 10440’s.
• Small fan is loud and seems to come on based on the power level your charging at not the ambient temp.
• Shipped with a European power adapter and requires a plug adapter to work in other countries (Included).
• No manual listed online yet.

Conclusion
This is an advanced charger that has just about every option one would want, but it would be hard for me to recommend this to the flashlight community as someone’s only charger to do it all, because of inability to accept protected cells (Especially protected 18650). Protected batteries are popular on flashlights because they give an extra layer of safety. However for some reason ISDT choose a design that was less flexible on battery length which really compromises the offering in my opinion. I have had a few querkey issues too, mainly with the UI. These should be fixable in future firmware updates.

There are good things about this charger despite that though. It’s easy to use, with a relatively large, easy to read color display. The UI is easy to navigate. It has a wide variety of modes to handle your basic and advanced battery charging like charging, discharge, storage and activation needs. I like that the more batteries you put in it, it doesn’t slow the others down. It also has the ability to charge fast or slow if you want. The charger gives you a lot of data if if your the type of person who likes that thing, and I am.

For charging AA size NiMH batteries this is really a nice charger. It has the ability to cycle, charge, discharge, and analyze cells at pretty quick rates. It can fit 4X AA sized cells at once but only 2x AAAs at once.

For me this is my new AA and AAA charger. I will use it with 14500’s and flat top 18560’s that fit. It won’t completely replace my XTar VC4 as a do all charger but it will supplement it. I really like it’s storage mode for batteries that fit and wish protected cells fit too.

My hope for the short term is that ISDT continues to bring out more firmware fixes for the software bugs that I have noticed. It would be awesome if they had a email list you could join to be notified of new firmware. In the long term I hope that ISDT revises their design for the C4 and comes out with a model that can charge a wider selection of cells including protected batteries, and popular shorter batteries such as 18350, 16340, etc. It would also be nice to see a future model be able to charge 4X 18650 or 2× 26650 at a time. Since this model would most likely be physically larger I would prefer a larger, lower RPM fan to make it a quieter charger.

Thanks again to Banggood for sending this to me to take a look at. They did provide a coupon (coupon Code “C48100”) that takes 8% off the price if you are interested in picking this up.

Charger ISDT C4





This charger from ISDT has a lot of functions and can handle both NiMH and all 3 common LiIon types. It can also do NiZn.




The charger was in a cardboard box with specifications on the outside.



The box contains the charger, a power supply, a instruction sheet, a screen protector and some stickers.
I used the screen protector, but as can be seen on some of the photos I was not very lucky with putting it on.



The stickers.



The charger is powered from 12V and has a usb output and a micro usb “update connector” for new firmware releases.
The fan is a bit loud and will turn on/off frequently when the charger is working hard, this is rather annoying.



On the bottom is the specifications and air intake correctly placed at opposite end of air outlet.



The power supply is a standard 12V 2.5A model.



The user interface is a good looking color lcd display and a panel at the right. It is possible to touch up/down/select, there is auto repeat on up/down. The up/down function can also be done by sliding.
The touch button works mostly fine, except it sometimes believe I am sliding when I am not.



The charger will automatic recognize NiMH, 3.6V and 4.2V LiIon batteries, but for the two LiIon types this recognition do first take place around 3.6-3.7V, until then it will not specify what type LiIon it is charging. This also means that discharging or charging to storage voltage the automatic recognition will sometimes fail.
The charger has a lot of modes, I have tested most modes below.

Available chemistries: NiMH, NiCd, NiZn, Eneloop, Li-Ion, LiFePO4, LiHv (In my test I used NiMH, not Eneloop)



The display looks very nice and includes a lot of information.



There is no scale on the curve, but it gives a good idea of what is going on.





Even the input voltage and the usb output current is monitored.
Holding down on the select button will open the system menu where it is possible to see software/hardware version, reset to factory settings, select language (5), beeper volume (off-low-medium-high), backlight (low-medium-high), capacity limit (on-off), auto start after (off, 3s, 5s), cycle display (off-5s-10s)



The charger has fixed slots, this limits what size batteries it can handle:
AAA slot up to about 45mm
AA slot up to about 51.5mm
xx650 slot up to about 67mm



The slot marked AA/AAA can also handle LiIon batteries.







The charger cannot handle protected cell, but both button top and flat top will usual work. The charger is very limited in supported battery sizes, but with spacers it is possible to handle a few more sizes.



Measurements

Contents
    4.2V LiIon charging
    4.2V LiIon discharging
    4.2V LiIon analyzing
    4.2V LiIon storage
    4.2V LiIon cycle
    LiIon internal resistance
    LiIon activation
    4.35V LiIon charging
    3.7V (LiFePO4) LiIon charging
    NiMH charging
    NiMH discharging
    NiMH analyzing
    NiMH internal resistance
    NiMH activation
    USB output

• Power consumption is 1.5W when idle with display on and 0.9W with display off.
  
• Charger do not assume chemistry on voltage alone.
  
• Charger will sometimes automatic select between LiFePO4 and LiIon 4.2V
  
• When not powered the charger will discharge LiIon with about 0.03mA
  
• Voltmeter is within 0.03V
  
• Voltmeter updates both during charge and when the charger is finished.
  
• Charger will not restart if battery voltage drops
  
• Charge will restart charging after power loss or battery insertion.
  

2. Display shows 2092mAh 44mOhm 2:09:25
   
3. Display shows 2067mAh 48mOhm 2:07:55
   
4. Display shows 2096mAh 55mOhm 2:09:43
   
   
   
   This high capacity cell is handled fine.
   Display shows 2658mAh 68mOhm 02:44:28
   
   
   
   The charger could not really terminate on this cell, but due to the 3000mAh limit, the charging is fine (Or as fine as can be expected with this old cell).
   Display shows 3001mAh 202mOhm 03:05:38
   
   
   
   Nice charging.
   Display shows 799mAh 95mOhm 01:38:55
   
   
   
   A full cell was discovered in 10 minutes.
   Display shows 171mAh 57mOhm 00:10:37
   
   
   
   Four NiMH at full charging current, this time the charger was a bit slow to terminate.
   Display shows 1997mAh 63mOhm 01:01:49, 1992mAh 44mOhm 01:01:40, 1997mAh 41mOhm 01:01:49, 1992mAh 40mOhm 01:01:40
   
   
   
   This time the charging looks perfect. The charger uses less than 2A from the power supply.
   
   
   
   M1: 28,4°C, M2: 30,2°C, M3: 30,7°C, M4: 28,4°C, HS1: 37,6°C
   Not much heat in this picture.
   
   
   
   The charger need some time to initialize and wait for any user interaction, before starting charging.
   
   
   
   While charging it will turn current off to do a voltage check each 3. second.
   
   
   
   NiMH discharging
   
   NiMH discharge current can be selected from 0.1A to 1.5A in 0.1A steps.
   
   
   
   A NiMH discharge is to 0.9V and with a final low current discharge.
   Display show 1895mAh 2:01:52
   
   
   
   
   
   These discharge are done with the same cell as I charged above.
   
5. Display show 1882mAh 2:01:27
   
6. Display show 1919mAh 2:03:48
   
7. Display show 1927mAh 2:03:46
   
   
   
   M1: 27,0°C, HS1: 38,9°C
   The fan keeps the charger cool.
   
   
   
   NiMH analyzing
   
   NiMH analyzing current can be selected from 0.1A to 2A in 0.1A steps.
   
   
   
   The analyze cycle is a charge, a discharge and a final charge again.
   Display show 2175mAh 47mOhm 13:02:55This is a super eneloop cell with more than 2000mA?
   
   
   
   NiMH internal resistance
   
   The charger shows internal resistance while charging.
   
   
   
   The first row is done with the same battery in all slots, there is some variation some of it due to varying contact resistance.
   For all the other measurements the battery and connection is not touched.
   The results looks good, the charger is fairly close to the correct resistance values most of the time.
   
   
   
   NiMH activation
   
   The selection said 2A, but the display said 0.1A at 0V (Current will increase at higher voltage).
   
   
   
   The charger applies 0.1A for 2½ minute to try resurrect the battery. If the voltage increase the current will also be increased.
   
   
   
   A closer look at the current shows it is pulses.
   
   When activation fails the charger report “Battery type wrong”
   
   
   
   USB output
   

• Power consumption is 1.5W when idle with display on and 0.9W with display off.
  
• Usb output is auto coding with DCP, Samsung and Apple 1A
  

Charger Sofirn 8 slots AA/AAA





This charger is a fairly cheap and slow 8 slot NiMH charger.



I got it in a plastic bag without any box or instruction sheet.



The charger works on mains voltage.



Each slot has a two color led, red while charging and green when finished.



The back has the usual specifications on it. Do not be confused by the 2.6V, it is individual cell handling.



The slots are the usual two level slots used for AA/AAA batteries.









Measurements

• Power consumption when idle is 0.2 watt.
  
• Will discharge battery with 7mA when power is off
  
• Charge will restart charging after power loss, or battery insertion.
  

Nitecore Intellicharger i8





This is a simple to use 8 slot charger with usb charging outputs.



The cardboard box lists lot of specifications, battery types and features.



The box contains the charger, a mains cable, manual and a warranty card.



Front and back looks the same on the charger.



All the connections are on one side.



The charger has two power connectors, one for mains input (100-250VAC 50/60Hz) and one for 12 VDC input. There is also a dual usb output.



The user interface is one led for each slot, it is red while charging, flashing red on error and green when done.
They cannot be seen from all angles or in bright light.



The slots uses the usual construction except for orientation and works well. The springs are strong enough that batteries may fly.
They can handle batteries from 28mm to 70mm long.
This means 21700 is a very tight fit and some protected 18650/26650/32650 will not fit.











The charger can just about handle 70 mm long batteries, inclusive flat top cells.
The minimum charge current is on the high side for 10440 batteries.



Measurements

• Power consumption when idle is 0.85 watt
  
• Will charge a LiIon with 0.2mA when charging is finished.
  
• Will discharge a NiMH with 0.1mA when not powered
  
• Will discharge a LiIon with 1.4mA when not powered
  
• Change between long/short cell at around 56mm
  
• Below 0.75V the charger will report error (leds flashing) and charge with about 0.5mA.
  
• Above 0.75V regular charging is used.
  
• Will assume LiIon above 2.0V
  
• Slots on opposite sides will time share.
  
• The charger makes small clicking noises when switching power on/off to the batteries.
  
• Charger will not restart if battery voltage drops.
  
• Power cycling and insertion of a battery will restart charging.
  

• Power consumption when idle is 0.85 watt
  
• Both usb output coded as usb charger (DCP)
  
• Usb outputs are in parallel.
  
• Batteries takes priority over usb, usb will turn off if 3 or 4 slot pairs (either of front/back) are used.
  

LiitoKala Lii-S1





LiitoKala has made a couple of small usb chargers, this model adds a voltage display to the smallest model.



The charger arrived in a nice cardboard box with specifications on it.



The pack contained the charger, usb cable and a instruction sheet.



The charger is powered from micro usb.



The charger has a LED display and some leds together with a button for user interface.



When putting a LiIon battery in the charger the 3.70V chemistry leds starts flash, presses on the button will change the selected chemistry.



Holding the button down will change the current and show the new value.



It is easy to see when the charger is done.



No battery in charger.



The charger uses the typical slider construction, it can handle batteries from 33mm to 70mm.







The charger can just about handle 70mm long batteries (The 21700 was very tight), inclusive flat top cells, this means most protected cells.



Measurements charger

• LiIon and NiMH Batteries will be discharged with 0.1mA when power is off.
  
• Default charger current is 0.5A
  
• Voltmeter is within 0.02V, except at very low voltages.
  
• Voltmeter will only update reading slowly and will never reduce the value.
  
• Above 2 volt a battery is assumed to be LiIon.
  
• Charger will not restart when battery voltage drops, but see below.
  
• Charger will restart charging after power loss, or battery insertion.
  

UltraFire H2 (HXY-H2)





I got this charger as an UltraFire, but the original brand is still on the charger.



The charger arrived in a brown cardboard box without any printing on it.



The pack contained the charger, usb cable, car cable, but no instruction sheet.



The charger is powered from mains or from 12V with a small barrel connector.



The charger has a LCD display and a button for each slot. Pressing the button will show the selected current, pressing again will change selected current. Holding down the button for 10 seconds will select LiFePO4.



All the segments on the display.



Voltage readout during charging.



Actual current. The top bar in the batteries are animated while charging.



Time used.



There is specifications and approval marks on the back.



The charger uses the typical slider construction, it can handle batteries from 32mm to 71mm.







The charger can handle 70mm long batteries, inclusive flat top cells, this means most protected cells.



Measurements charger

• LiIon and NiMH Batteries will be discharged with 0.3mA when power is off.
  
• Default charger current is 0.5A
  
• Below 0.2 volt the charger reports “Err”
  
• Between 0.2 volt and 2 volt charger assumes battery to be NiMH
  
• Above 2 volt a battery is assumed to be LiIon.
  
• Voltmeter is within 0.01V
  
• Voltmeter stops updating when the charging stops.
  
• Charger will not restart if battery voltage drops.
  
• Charger will restart charging after power loss, or battery insertion.
  
• Power consumption when idle is 0.55 watt with display off.
  

Charger Brillipower BIC-2





This is a simple charger that can handle NiMH and LiIon cells and has one charge current.



The charger comes in a cardboard box with some information on the back.



The pack contained the charger, a mains cable and a instruction sheet.



The charger has mains input and 12V DC input.



The user interface is 3 blue leds for each slot, they are animated while charging and all will be steady on when the battery is full.



The charger is supposed to support both 4.2V and 4.35V cells, but there is no way to select charge voltage.



The charger uses the classical slider construction, it will handle from 34mm to 70.5mm long batteries. This means it will handle nearly all the long batteries.








The charge current is too high for smaller cells.



Measurements on charger

• LiIon batteries will be discharged with 1.5mA when power is off.
  
• LiIon batteries will be charged with 0.5mA when power is on.
  
• NiMH batteries will be discharged with 0.5mA when power is off.
  
• Below 0.3 volt the charger will charge with lower current trying to start battery and flash all the blue leds.
  
• Below 1.5 volt the charger assumens NiMH batteries.
  
• Between 1.5 volt and 2.2 volt the leds are off and the charger is not charging.
  
• At 2.2 volt and above the charger assumes LiIon.
  
• Power consumption when idle is 0.3 watt.
  
• Charger will not restart if battery voltage drops.
  
• Charger will restart on battery insertion and power cycling.
  

Vapex VTE8000 8xNiMH charger





This multi charger can be used for AA and AAA and handle up to 8 at a time. It can also be used as a usb charger.



I got the charger in a blister pack. The pack has some specifications on it.



The pack contained the charger and a universal power supply with multiple plugs.



The power connector is placed on the side of the charger and will accept from 10V to 18V input.



The user interface is a LCD display with 8 batteries on it, it has a blue background light.



The connection are the typical two level slots.








Measurements charger

• When not powered it will discharge the battery with about 0.6mA
  
• Charge will restart charging after power loss, or battery insertion.
  
• Power consumption when idle is 1.4 watt
  

GP Recyko+ Pro U411





GP has a line of both chargers and batteries, this charger includes a set of NiMH batteries and as can be seen on the label GP means the charger is free. This is reflected in the naming of the pack: it is only named for the batteries.
The charger can charge two or four AA/AAA batteries at a time and is usb powered.



I got the charger in a partial clear plastic pack.



The pack contains the charger, a usb cable, 4 2000mAh pre-charged NiMH AA batteries and a instruction sheet. The batteries will be covered in their own review.



The charger has a micro usb connector for power input.



There are two led indicator lamps, flashing when charging and steady when not.



The charger is rated for 1A input, this is a bit high for a total charge current of 0.6A. Notice the hole in the bottom, this makes it easy to remove the batteries.



The charger has the typical two level slots used for AA/AAA batteres.








Measurements

• Slot #1 & #2 is in series.
  
• Slot #3 & #4 is in series.
  
• Power consumption when idle is 1.3mA from usb
  
• When not powered it will not discharge batteries.
  
• Trickle charger on NiMH is about 50mA
  
• Will charge from 0 volt with nearly 1A.
  
• Charge will restart charging after power loss, or battery insertion.
  

I previously have tested the Folomov EDC C4 flashlight and thought it was solid. Folomov also makes chargers and here is their largest, fastest charging model, the Folomov A4, that’s capable of a combined 8A across the slots with a max per slot of 3A.

Full Image Gallery:https://imgur.com/a/ooUgsp4
*YouTube Version of this Review: *

I did have one issue with one of the spring loaded slots with the spring coming disconnected. I was able to easily disassemble and reattach it. The spring slots are a little rough when you pull them back, not as smooth as my Xtar VC4 or Nitecore chargers. That said they work well on a wide variety of cells, anything I tried including a 20700.

The display is inverse of many LCD panels. It’s background is black and the display characters are white. It’s easy to read and decent sized. I like that each cell gets it’s own dedicated spot on the display and you get the voltage all the time.

One thing I wish it did have was little rubber feet. I like to charge on a piece of granite tile and all my other chargers have rubber feet that keeps them from sliding around the table when inserting cells, the Folomov A4 doesn’t so you need to hold onto it with one hand while installing a cell with the other.

Display & UI
When you plug in the charger if there isn’t a cell in the slot you get a “null” message. Upon putting in a cell it will default to 250ma charging which is slow. You just have to press the button once and it goes to 500ma, press again for 1000ma, again for 2000ma, and again for 3000mah if available. The UI here is a little slow, you can’t double click to jump up in rates faster you have to press and wait. It’s not that big of deal for me but something to know about. Each bay is independent as well.

Instead of working from a bank of 8A and the charger deducting amounts as you insert cells, this charger let’s you set each bay as high as you want and takes power from other cells. For example say I charge Bay 1 at 3A, Bay 2 at 3A, it would let me insert a cell into Bay 3 and set it to 3A but since that’s over 8A total it would reduce Bay 1 to 2A without letting you know.

The charger will then analyze the cell and during this analysis phase the capacity in percentage you get may not be true. This is why I prefer voltage to look at. The same holds true for when it’s full. It will sit for quite a while at 98-99% at 4.2V on a lithium ion battery before ticking over to 100%. Not entirely sure why this is. It includes overvoltage protection too, a nice bit of safety. The charger also has 0V activation which I did not test.

How does it handle different sized cells
The A4 handles a wide variety of sizes of cells with ease. I tried everything from normal NiHM AAA, AA cells, to 16340, flat top 18350, and all the different types of 18650’s that I have including protected, unprotected, flat tops and button tops. I also tried a button top protected 26650 without an issue. Spacing on the A4 is large between bays so it can accept 4× 26650 at once which is fantastic as many 4 bay chargers can only accept two at a time.

The AC/DC adapter is a separate piece, it looks like a laptop style power supply. It’s fairly large and has long cables. It’s rated for 110-240V input power. Since this does look like a laptop power supply and it is not branded as Folomov, my advice would be to label the charger so you don’t get it mixed up with something else you may have.

Conclusion
This is a fairly simple charger but is fast for both Li-Ion and Nimh batteries. I would rate it as a good charger but not the best charger. It’s UI is a bit slow when changing charging rates. It seems to hit a wall at 98% with the last 2 percent taking longer than it feels like it should. It has a large external power supply but lots of cord length. The connector into the charger is looser then I would like. However these slight negatives are outweighed by the nice white text, black background LCD Screen, and total of 8A charge capacity, with a maximum of 3A per slot upto 8A total. I like how it can charge a wide selection of sizes of batteries and chemistries it can take. This is a safe charger that does the job well. I can recommend it as a good value fast charger.

Pick it up on Amazon (Referral) if you are interested.

Charger TrustFire TR-009





This charger can charge up to 4 LiIon and NiMH batteries at a time. Usual TrustFire products do not inspire much trust, lets see how this one does.



The charger comes in a retail box. There is some specification on the box.



The pack contained the charger, a mains led, a instruction sheet, a warrenty card and a QC note.



The power input is a DC barrel input.



The charger has one usb output, it can use from 1 to 4 cells to power it.



The user interface is fairly limited. It contains 4 red/green leds, red while charging, green at all other times, except when usb output is on. Then the usb output has its own green led that will be on when it is active.
To change between charging and usb output a switch is used (C=Charge, O=usb output).



The battery slot are the slider construction, but with plastic sliders. It is very smooth and has a good grip on batteries with large diameter, but smaller batteries (Like AA) can be problematic to center on the slider.
It handles batteries form 31 to 71.5mm.










The current is a bit high for 16340 and 14500 LiIon batteries.



Measurements

• Power consumption when idle is 0.8 watt, power supply uses 0.5 watt of that.
  
• Slot 1+3 are working together, i.e. use both slots and the current will drop.
  
• Slot 2+4 are working together, i.e. use both slots and the current will drop.
  
• If on slot in a pair finish first, the other will get the full current.
  
• Below 0.8V the charger will charge with 0.5mA
  
• Between 0.8V and 1.5V the charger will use NiMH charging.
  
• Between 1.5 and 2.5 volt the charger will charge with 0.25mA
  
• Above 2.5V the charger will use LiIon charging.
  
• Will discharge NiMH with 0.1mA when power is off
  
• Will discharge LiIon with 0.4mA when power is off
  
• Will charge LiIon with 0.1mA when power is on
  
• If the battery voltage drops below 4.23V the charger will restart.
  
• Charge will restart charging after power loss, or battery insertion.
  

• Usb coding is unknown (It is 2.4V on both data pins).
  
• Usb output can only be supplied from batteries, not from mains.
  
• Will draw 0.4mA from battery with usb out turned off.
  
• Will draw 20mA from battery with usb out turned on.
  

Charger NicJoy A03 Dual





The charger model has been on the marked for some time and is sold with many different names on it. I have checked it before, but was asked to do another check.




It arrived in a small white box



It did include a usb cable and an instruction sheet (in Chinese) in addition to the charger.



The charger has a micro usb input and a full size usb output for the power bank function.
The charger needs a 2A usb power supply/charger to work at full speed.



The user interface is a couple of leds and a single button.
A fast press on the button will select battery type, when a battery has just been put into a slot.
A long press (2 seconds) will change current at any time.



There is 4 blue leds for each slot, they are used to show charge state and when selecting battery type. Two red leds used to show selected current.



One 3.7V LiIon (Charge to 4.2V) and one NiMH battery in the charger, ready to charge with 0.5A



The slots uses the classical slider construction and it works fine.
The slots can work from 33mm to 70mm. This means that very long protected 18650/26650 batteries will not fit in the slots.







The charger has some trouble with 70mm long batteries, but can handle flat top cells.



Measurements

• When not connected to power it will discharges with less than 0.1mA.
  
• On the power bank slot it will discharge with about 0.2mA (45mA while indicating capacity).
  
• When power is connected with a full battery, the charger will charge with 0.6mA
  
• Below 0.1V the charger will not detect a battery, but will charger with about 3mA
  
• Between 0.2A and 1.5V the charger assumes NiMH
  
• Between 1.6V and 2,1V the charger will not recognize a battery, but charges with about 2mA
  
• Above 2.2V the charger assumes LiIon
  
• Charger will not restart when voltage drops.
  
• It will restart charging on reinsertion of the battery or power cycling.
  
• Usb input power consumptions when idle without batteries is 34mA
  

• Usb output is coded as Apple 1A
  
• Usb output will turn off after 10 seconds with less than 45mA load.
  
• Usb output will turn off when the charger is powered.
  
• On the power bank slot it will discharge with about 0.2mA (45mA while indicating capacity).
  

Folomov A4

MSRP: $35 - $40

Manufacturer page: http://www.folomov.com/en/content/?125.html

Store link: https://www.amazon.com/Folomov-A4-Charger-Charging-Current/dp/B07BQC3KKH

I was sent this charger to review free of charge but, as always, I've tried to be as unbiased as possible.

TL;DR

The Folomov A4 is a very fast 4 bay charger. It's capable of charging four cells at 2A each simultaneously. It can charge Li-ion, LiFePO4, NIMH, and NiCad cells. Besides overcharging Li-ion cells by 0.04V, it's great!

Album link: https://imgur.com/a/N0Jbk6G

Packaging

The Folomov A4 comes in a black and orange cardboard box. A photo of the charger is on the front, and detailed info about the charger is on the back. This box is good enough to be put on a shelf.

Contents

The box contains:

• A Folomov A4 charger
• An adapter
• A cable for the adapter
• A manual

Manual

Build

The Folomov A4 is a 4 bay charger with pretty typical construction. It's made of black ABS plastic and has 4 bays consisting of fixed positive contacts and sliders for the negative contacts. The sliders were a bit sticky on mine. They weren't bad, but they were pretty hard to move compared to the sliders on my XTAR chargers. A bit of lube on rails fixed that.

A common problem that I've run into with chargers like this that can charge any battery size is that sometimes they won't reliably make contact with AAAs or flat top cells. The A4 doesn't seem to have that problem.
There are fins on the sides of the charger by the screen. These look like heat fins, but I'm not sure how well they'd actually dissapate heat. Folomov chose a barrel plug as the connection type for the power cable. That's a good decision. In my experience barrel plugs make good connections, and they're robust. Not to mention that this lets Folomov use whatever voltage and current they want rather than having to use a 5V USB connection. The screen is a backlit LCD, with a black background and white images. This makes the information easy to read without putting out a blinding amount of light when in a dark room.

On the bottom of the charger, there's a table of recommended charging currents and a list of supported sizes and chemistries. The charging current table isn't quite correct, as discussed in the performance section, but the other information is correct, barring one typo. It says that the A4 can charge "163401735517500" cells (bonus points to anyone who can tell me what that cell would look like). I think that was supposed to say "16340 17355 (I don't think that's a real size) 17500".

Inside the charger, there are two main PCBs: the one for the screen, and the one for the charging.

There are 4 sections on this PCB that all have the same components, and a bit in the middle with a bunch of resistors, capacitors, and an IC.

I'm not HKJ, so I can't really tell you what's going on electrically. I also don't have a digital microscope, or a camera that's good at macro photography, so you can't really make out the chips. But I do have a great pair of eyes, so I've written down all of numbers on all of the important looking components. Here are the important looking bits:

• nuvoTon N77E003AT20: A microcontroller. The brain of the charger, as I understand it.
• U34 GP 731: I can't find *any* info on this one.
• DTU 15P03 DH25: I was only able to find one page on this. I'm not sure if it's relevant, or what it says. If anyone can read Chinese, go for it. This is "a CC/CV buck converter for the microcontroller, stepping down 36V to lower voltages from 3V to 5V." Thanks /u/BlueSwordM!
• DTM9926: This is a dual channel MOSFET.

If anyone needs more info values or model numbers let me know.

UI

When you first put a cell in that slot's screen flashes. During this time you can single press that slot's button to change the charge current. If it's a LiFePO4 cell, you'll need to press and hold the button until you see the LiFePO4 indicator turn on. While the cells are charging, the voltage is displayed by default. Single pressing the button shows the charging current, and double pressing lets you adjust the charge current and chemistry settings, like when the screen flashes when you first put a cell in.

When the cell is done charging, that slot says 100%, and the charging indicator stops moving.

This UI is great. It's not difficult to understand, and the screen shows everything that's going on. The only improvement I can think of is to format the manual better. The thing's a nightmare to read.

Performance

The A4 can charge cells at a maximum of 8A total, but only with two configurations. You can do 3A on the sides and 2A in one of the center slots, or 2A on all slots. If there is a cell in all 4 slots, the max current for any slot is limited to 2A. Because this has 4 electrically separate slots, you can charge multiple chemistries at once.

The A4 performs pretty well. It's very fast, obviously, and it's pretty versatile. It can handle cells up to 71mm long. The ability to charge 4 cells at high currents is fantastic. Mine overcharges li-ion cells a little bit to 4.24V (which is within the 1% tolerance mentioned on the back). Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this does any significant damage to the cells. The termination voltage for NiMH cells is 1.45V.
On the bottom of the charger, there's a little table that tells you at what currents you should charge things. It's not quite right. It doesn't factor in what sort of cell you're charging, or how high drain the cells are. For instance, it says that you're fine charging a 3000mAh cell at 3A. This is probably fine for Sony VTC6s, but not for Panasonic NCR18650Bs. I'd just ignore the chart.
Charging fast is great, but I also love how that A4 is capable of charging cells slowly too. The 250mA setting is great for 10440s.

Power Source

The Folomov is a fast 4 bay charger, so USB isn't enough. It gets its power from an adapter that plugs into mains and puts out 12V at a maximum of 8A.

Abuse Testing

The manual says the A4 has reverse polarity protection, as it should, but I decided to test a couple other things as well. First I tested the RPP. It worked fine on all four ports, displaying "Er" when the cell was in backwards. Next I tested shorting the contacts out. This also displayed "Er". Putting too much voltage (6V in this case) across the contacts didn't do anything, not even display an "Er".

Edit: It's been brought to my attention that putting two CR123As in a charger in series was stupid and dangerous. To that I say, 'yeah probably'.

Bottom line:

Pros

• Relatively cheap
• Very fast
• Lots of charge current options
• Protection against user error

Cons

• Overcharges li-ion cells ever so slightly
• Inaccurate chart on the bottom
• Sliders need lubed

Thanks for reading my review! If you have any questions about this charger, I'd be more than happy to answer them.

Xtar PB2 Charger & power bank





This is a 18650 charger and power bank from Xtar.



It arrived in a white cardboard box with a window in and some specification on it.



The box contained the charger, a usb cable and a instruction sheet.



The charger is usb powered with a micro usb input and a usb output for the power bank function.



This button is used to turn the power bank on, this is only needed when checking the power level, it will automatic turn on when a load is connected.



The display shows from 00 to 100, depending on how much capacity is in the power bank. While charging one of the digits will flash. When powered on or reset is will show a counting sequence: 00-11-22-33-44-55-66-77-88-99- for external usb power and 99-88-77-66-55-44-33-22-11- for internal battery power.



The lid uses magnets, this makes it fairly easy to open when you stick you nail into a small slot. The magnets are strong enough that you can easily lift the box in the lid, when it is filled with batteries.










This charger only supports unprotected 18650 batteries.



Measurements

• Power consumption from usb when idle with no batteries is 9mA
  
• Will charge one battery with 2A
  
• Will charge two batteries with down to 1A on each (Lowest voltage will get more current)
  
• Will discharge a full battery with about 0.5mA when powered.
  
• Will discharge a full battery with about 0.1mA when not powered.
  
• Below 0.5V the charger will report error
  
• Between 0.5 and 3V the charger will charge with low current (200-300mA)
  
• Above 3V the charger will use full current.
  
• Will not restart charging if voltage drops.
  
• Will restart charging if battery is inserted.
  

• Will discharge a full battery with about 0.1mA when not powered.
  
• Usb output turns off after 45 seconds with load below 290mA, with no load it turns off after 10 seconds.
  
• Usb input and output is not directly connected, no output voltage leaks to the usb input.
  
• Cannot be used as a UPS, output turns off when usb power is removed.
  
• Usb output is coded with usb charger (DCP)