Need charger what should I get??

M

Mikel Sandoval

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Aug 24, 2018
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Due to the fact that my bt-c3100 doesnt test capacity(because its wrong every time) , im trying to get a refund. doesnt give good readings, and 40$ just to charge batteries is BS as other chargers are cheaper

so here is the question

What charger should I buy, that will give me really good capacity tests.

As for charger, I'm going to make a setup withTP 4056 18650 chargers. after seeing the Sparky project someone made, I plan on doing something like that.

As for theTP4056, Which one should I get. I am currently seing some dirty cheap for 10x and some 5$ for 10x,
Is there something in that charger I should look for to know that its legit


Theres this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Pcs-1A-5...omponen/183317785778?var=&hash=item2aae976cb2
Dirty cheap
and this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-5V-M...543281&hash=item3b081b25ab:g:SfgAAOSwwARawuOZ
little more


not sure, help me out please and thankyou
 
Hi Mikel,

I use the Liito Kala 500, I have 3 of. It does a Discharge test of various settings including 1 amp. This it the amps to set to. Seem to be the Standards or Norm. I paid $35 Au Ebay. seen one for $26 Au on Ebay.

Also I use the Imax B6 Balance Charger. This will Charge at a Rate of 5 amps and discharge of 1 amp. I got this for $16 Au Ebay. Get yourself a few 18650 Holders the four bank from Ebay and connect in parallel to bulk charge using the Imax. From Ebay.

I hope I Helped. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Adam Cecere
 
I use the Opus and its good enough.
No matter what "tester" you choose for sub 50USD you will get readings that are off. And Opus should not cost more than 30USD at most btw.

Note that a charger and Tester is not the same thing. The Opus is a full charge and test station meanwhile the TP is just dumb CC/CV charger with no fanciness built in and will stop charging all between 4.05 to 4.25V. Is that good enough?
For testing if you want dead on capacities you need to go up to a 100USD or higher tester. For instance iCharger DUO does it pretty well with 2 channels but it cost 200USD or more ;)

Lii among all the others out there that are SUB 30USD testers for up to 4 cells all have their disadvantages and most off them will read +-100mAh or 10% varitation depending on how you see it.

So before I actually answer your question what readings are good enough for you? How much do you want to spend? How many cells do you want to test at a time?


Cecere: No, the LII does NOT discharge at 1A. its only 0.5A discharge and thats why that charger is cheaper and doesnt get hot!



Btw I have tested over 15000 cells with my Opus station. Over 5000 of them are in powerwall and many of them for more than 2 years without a problem... This with a tester that does it wrong :p You can get pass it if you want.
 
daromer said:
I use the Opus and its good enough.
No matter what "tester" you choose for sub 50USD you will get readings that are off. And Opus should not cost more than 30USD at most btw.

Note that a charger and Tester is not the same thing. The Opus is a full charge and test station meanwhile the TP is just dumb CC/CV charger with no fanciness built in and will stop charging all between 4.05 to 4.25V. Is that good enough?
For testing if you want dead on capacities you need to go up to a 100USD or higher tester. For instance iCharger DUO does it pretty well with 2 channels but it cost 200USD or more ;)

Lii among all the others out there that are SUB 30USD testers for up to 4 cells all have their disadvantages and most off them will read +-100mAh or 10% varitation depending on how you see it.

So before I actually answer your question what readings are good enough for you? How much do you want to spend? How many cells do you want to test at a time?


Cecere: No, the LII does NOT discharge at 1A. its only 0.5A discharge and thats why that charger is cheaper and doesnt get hot!



Btw I have tested over 15000 cells with my Opus station. Over 5000 of them are in powerwall and many of them for more than 2 years without a problem... This with a tester that does it wrong :p You can get pass it if you want.
Click to expand...

Opus is one of the widely used devices for capacity testing.

I'd try replacing the unit.
 
There is always a variance in readings but you have lots of cells in parallel. Some readings are higher and some are lower than exact capacity... it averages out and doesnt matter in pack dimensions.

I have 10 liitokala and am fine with them. My packages are between 134.5 and 135.5 Ah, which is less than 1% variance...

Regards
Karl
 
For charging IMO, I would go with the TP5100.

Since it uses a buck converter, it has the advantage of working from 5V-18V, meaning it is much easier to wire up since you only need a 12V power supply to power them all, and it has the advantage of being more efficient, and a much lower chance of a copy since it costs much more compared to the TP4056, and can work with higher currents like 1.5A without a heatsink.

Here's the link to the seller from which I bought the TP5100s:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TP5...971.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.16844c4dR7bGuH
 
hermitdave said:
daromer said:
I use the Opus and its good enough.
No matter what "tester" you choose for sub 50USD you will get readings that are off. And Opus should not cost more than 30USD at most btw.

Note that a charger and Tester is not the same thing. The Opus is a full charge and test station meanwhile the TP is just dumb CC/CV charger with no fanciness built in and will stop charging all between 4.05 to 4.25V. Is that good enough?
For testing if you want dead on capacities you need to go up to a 100USD or higher tester. For instance iCharger DUO does it pretty well with 2 channels but it cost 200USD or more ;)

Lii among all the others out there that are SUB 30USD testers for up to 4 cells all have their disadvantages and most off them will read +-100mAh or 10% varitation depending on how you see it.

So before I actually answer your question what readings are good enough for you? How much do you want to spend? How many cells do you want to test at a time?


Cecere: No, the LII does NOT discharge at 1A. its only 0.5A discharge and thats why that charger is cheaper and doesnt get hot!



Btw I have tested over 15000 cells with my Opus station. Over 5000 of them are in powerwall and many of them for more than 2 years without a problem... This with a tester that does it wrong :p You can get pass it if you want.
Click to expand...

Opus is one of the widely used devices for capacity testing.

I'd try replacing the unit.
Click to expand...
I think mines broke
Made a post about them giving me 6600mAh per cell
doing tons of test but so far, not turing out good. I do have square trade protection but I have to call. Do these things have manufacture warranty or a place to get help from manufacture?
 
Depending upon where you got it from, you should be able to ask for replacement.
 
MikelSandoval said:
hermitdave said:
Depending upon where you got it from, you should be able to ask for replacement.
Click to expand...

ebay and out of return period
Click to expand...

You still may be able to open a case with PayPal. If you used PayPal of course.
 
I just love the SkyRC MC3000 and I rarely see it mentioned here. One of HKJ's highest rated on his list. I know it's a bit pricey at about 100 bucks but the feature rich, firmware upgradable format makes for an awesome charger/analyzer.
 
Yes, indeed pricey, taking into account that i have 14 4bay chargers to get through all my batteries...
 
Lii-500 is good enough for me... seems to work great considering the task at hand. Very inexpensive too.

None of these testers need to really be accurate, they just need to be consistent. All you are trying to do is establish a baseline for capacity so you know how to place your cells in a pack. If your Opus reads 20% high, then that's still OK, as long as all the cells tested read 20% high.

The real problem comes when you mix chargers / testing methods... that is literally worse than being 20% out on everything consistently.

If you want accuracy... buy a good hobby charger you can cross reference against. Unfortunately they don't do well in volume operations for 18650 processing, but still a worthy tool. Great for parallel charging, testing completed packs, final capacity testing, and other advanced battery functions.
 
when my packs are built then i test them with the icharger at 15 amp drain and they are all same capacity
 
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