Liitokala Engineer Lii 500 Charger

SemaJG

Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2017
Messages
42
Hi wondering if there are many users with these chargers and how they are behaving?
I have three so far in service and I just bought more to speed things up while I'm waiting for some TP4056's to arrive from China for pre-charging the cells.
Ironically one of the Liitokala's is now playing up and one slot is not working any longer. The offending slot just shows 4.31V on the display and END on the cycle while stuck in Charge mode.

Is there a re-set/fix that's possible? I know they're a cheap charger and all that but I'm happy with the other units so far however they have only done about 100 cells each if that to date.

Jimmy
 
SemaJG said:
Hi wondering if there are many users with these chargers and how they are behaving?
I have three so far in service and I just bought more to speed things up while I'm waiting for some TP4056's to arrive from China for pre-charging the cells.
Ironically one of the Liitokala's is now playing up and one slot is not working any longer. The offending slot just shows 4.31V on the display and END on the cycle while stuck in Charge mode.

Is there a re-set/fix that's possible? I know they're a cheap charger and all that but I'm happy with the other units so far however they have only done about 100 cells each if that to date.

Jimmy
My 4 units have cycled almost 3000 cells. Haven't had any issues yet. That being said, they'll probably explode now. :-/lol
 
Two of mine now have issues.
Not sure whats going on, bought direct from official store on Alixpress

J
 
Ask for a refund from Aliexpress. They shouldn't have this problem.

Also, are any cells above 4.23-4.25V on the last slot when charging? Maybe the unit's display is bugged.
 
Yes I have contacted the seller BlueSwordM but no response so far I guess it open a dispute time then, never good. These are only fit for the bin.
Yes the display reads over 4.20 on one slot at least. Dont trust these two devices any more, my other one is fine and like I say ironically there are two more in the post :)

J
 
I've purchased 3 from Banggood. The first two have processed about 2000 cells. The third one only arrived yesterday.
No issues yet.


Something that I have noticed with these is that they won't recognise that there is a cell in the slot if the cell is at or close to 2v. If the cell is under 2v, it will end the charge at 2v and then won't recognise the cell if you put it back in. People charging with a TP4056 first won't be noticing this.

I'm using a 18650 battery holder on a hobby charger to bring cells above about 2.4v before putting them in the LitoKala.

I do occaisionally get a slot that seems to be frozen. This seems to happen if I remove a cell early (eg it's obviously junk and I can't be bothered waiting for the cycle to finish). When that happens (which isn't very often), mine have reset themselves when left for 20-30 minutes.
 
Yes I too was very happy with the chargers until a couple of days ago, only done about 100 cells each if that. No problems at all but now two have gone badly wrong for some reason. Been on to Alixpress because tbere was no reply from Liitokala the sellers, they're trying to sort it out.

J
 
SemaJG said:
Yes I too was very happy with the chargers until a couple of days ago, only done about 100 cells each if that. No problems at all but now two have gone badly wrong for some reason. Been on to Alixpress because tbere was no reply from Liitokala the sellers, they're trying to sort it out.

J

Hope they sort it out for you!
 
Just ordered 3 of these, being cheap I'm not expecting the world, I like the norm test, if they play up I'll move over to the opus.
 
jestronix said:
Just ordered 3 of these, being cheap I'm not expecting the world, I like the norm test, if they play up I'll move over to the opus.

Norm test works ok... if your chargers aren't faulty like mine :D
I think it only discharges at 700mA though which is ok for me, could be wrong. Might be worth pre-charging the cells somehow if possible and testing in the Liitokalas to save the units which is what I plan to do from now on.

Jimmy
 
I am just getting started which unit is better the LiitoKala Lii-500 or Opus BT - C3100 V2.2
Or does each have their place? I have TP4056 and a iMax B6AC V2 but want to be able to do more.
 
SemaJG said:
jestronix said:
Just ordered 3 of these, being cheap I'm not expecting the world, I like the norm test, if they play up I'll move over to the opus.

Norm test works ok... if your chargers aren't faulty like mine :D
I think it only discharges at 700mA though which is ok for me, could be wrong. Might be worth pre-charging the cells somehow if possible and testing in the Liitokalas to save the units which is what I plan to do from now on.

Jimmy

Max discharge is 500ma

If you select Nor Test and 700ma or 1000ma, it will charge at up to 1000ma, but discharge at 500ma.
 
jestronix said:
you rekon the charging is killing these ? getting too hot?

I'm not sure. I've always set mine to Nor Test 1000ma. The cells areusually charged in another charger before going into the LitoKala for the test cycle, but they are fullycharging in the LitoKala after the discharge test.


Mine have been going okay, but it's only a sample of 2 (I haven't had the third one long), so I might have been lucky.
 
My three arrived and all working well :). They really sit for a long time to soak in at 4.2, they might be pushing in 20mah for half hour of your time.
 
jestronix said:
you rekon the charging is killing these ? getting too hot?

I wish I knew, I have charged my share of Sanyo's which can get pretty hot and some Sony cells which can also get red but they are usually bad cells unlike many of the Sanyo's.
I didnt notice any really bad heat on the day they both malfunctioned but I could have been distracted.
I was doing a norm test on some pink Samsung cells as far as I can remember. I was in the office with the chargers and one failed when I checked them at intervals during the day. The following day I noticed the other one when I loaded the cells for another charging session. I couldnt switch between slots with the buttons it would only show the last cell I put in. Possibly a component could be software maybe?

J
 
SemaJG said:
jestronix said:
you rekon the charging is killing these ? getting too hot?

I wish I knew, I have charged my share of Sanyo's which can get pretty hot and some Sony cells which can also get red but they are usually bad cells unlike many of the Sanyo's.
I didnt notice any really bad heat on the day they both malfunctioned but I could have been distracted.

J

Mine just started to act the same as yours after getting 2 Sanyo cells HOT, I cannot use any buttons, is stuck in charging mode(what I was doing last) @500mA.
Noticed one cell was leaking but opened the charger and electrolyte didn't got on pcb, so it must be the hot temp who kill it, was planing to add a big fan on the back to cool it a bit, now is too late.
There are 2 temperature sensors inside but I am not sure on what they are used b/c no temp info or no safety close on hot cells...
Bad design with no cooling and also how the battery stay in, upside down that makes any leak to get insideand also no safe at all found the other day a cell that was not finishing charging and was getting over 5000 mAh total charge!
 
KaminoReal said:
SemaJG said:
jestronix said:
you rekon the charging is killing these ? getting too hot?

I wish I knew, I have charged my share of Sanyo's which can get pretty hot and some Sony cells which can also get red but they are usually bad cells unlike many of the Sanyo's.
I didnt notice any really bad heat on the day they both malfunctioned but I could have been distracted.

J

Mine just started to act the same as yours after getting 2 Sanyo cells HOT, I cannot use any buttons, is stuck in charging mode(what I was doing last) @500mA.
Noticed one cell was leaking but opened the charger and electrolyte didn't got on pcb, so it must be the hot temp who kill it, was planing to add a big fan on the back to cool it a bit, now is too late.
There are 2 temperature sensors inside but I am not sure on what they are used b/c no temp info or no safety close on hot cells...
Bad design with no cooling and also how the battery stay in, upside down that makes any leak to get insideand also no safe at all found the other day a cell that was not finishing charging and was getting over 5000 mAh total charge!

Mine have been sent back to the seller in China, not too hopeful of a good outcome or replacements which I need. Will post here how I get on. I will have five in total when the ones I orderd arrive, if they replace the broken ones then great.
I think the culprit in my case was a hot cell which leaked its hot electrolyte onto the board.
Theres two temprature sensors on the charger but they didnt kick in in time.
Luckily I had ordered some TP4056 pcb's and cell holders and they are now doing most of the charging.
Im precharging all the cells with these and will charge test with the Liitokalas once the replacements arrive.
Using this method can help save the chargers as many cells only seem to get really hot on the first charge when the damage can be done. If these discharge enough before the capacity test then they never make it to the Liitokalas.
Even Opus chargers die but the Liitokalas seem more fragile but they are also half the cost so....
I recommend making a 20 cell charger from an old pc psu, some TP4056 boards and single cell holders (not the spring type). Its fun and saves in the long term.

Jimmy
 
SemaJG said:
I recommend making a 20 cell charger from an old pc psu, some TP4056 boards and single cell holders (not the spring type). Its fun and saves in the long term.
Heh you didn't saw my "workspace" or how I like it to say: battery corner :p

image_uugjuy.jpg

I used some of theTP4056 but the board is mostly used for testing so I don't have time to use them anymore for charge.

Anyway I found what was the fault with mine, one of the Sanyo cells was heating and leaked electrolyte, at first look I didn't saw it, I tough is white silicone, but after the ultrasonic cleaning the board came up as new and recovered:

image_tcwxzl.jpg

image_grolaq.jpg

After:

image_ihkizs.jpg

image_wyiylv.jpg

I also applied a layer of NanoProtech for future leaking...

image_odlnmj.jpg

Lazy now but I will do the same for the other chargers I have.
 
Super post KaminoReal and great work.... love the workspace too btw! :)

That very same resistor? is what I suspected to be the problem on mine.

I'm going to treat mine with the Nano Protect .... whatever that is :) Might even try it on myself at this stage... need something :D

Thanks

Jimmy
 
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