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Problems with my charger

Fudgey Finger

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I've had an Efest Luc v4 nearly a year now and it has worked fine until recently. Now it will show a different voltage for the same cell depending on the slot I have it in.

I will put a battery in one slot and it will read 3.80v then move it over a slot and it will read 3.84v then over the course of a couple seconds it will climb as high as 4.00v before holding steady. It's the same slots every time that read high like this.

So I bought a new one. This time I got the Luc v6. I'm having the same problems with this one! I mean the same exact problem. Some bays read correctly, while others will read slightly high and the rapidly climb by at least 0.1v

I have all of my batteries married. I've used multiple battery brands and sizes on these chargers.

Am I doing something wrong? Has anyone else had this problem? Could I get some reccomendations for another higher quality charge? What brands are considered top shelf?

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IMFire3605

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3.80 on one but 3.84 on another, that is sounding like mainly a control chip calibration problem which could be from length of wires connected to those slots. Do you have a multi-meter to check the voltage of the battery, would be highly suggested. Regardless, a +/- of 0.4v can be worrisome but if the battery comes off the charger at proper 4.10 to 4.20v (reading with a multi-meter to double check), then the charger is doing it's job properly. However if it is super worrying to you, then look at an Xtar charger instead, I have a LUC V4 and a LUC Blu V6, also an Xtar WP4, the Xtar is a bit more accurate, but neither of my Efest LUC's have to date charged a battery to over 4.18v when they shut charging down on any battery, which 4.21 or higher is danger territory. Also remember that 1) if you started charge on bay 1 and were reading 3.80, then moved the battery to bay 2, 30 seconds is more than enough time to input .2 to .4v into a battery during reading detection of the control board, and 2) if the charger is cutting off at 4.2v to 4.1v the charger is doing its job just fine and working properly, as it detects signal resistance and monitors battery temp in some instances to guess when to throttle signal up, throttle down, and finally to shut signal down.
 

Carambrda

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Member For 5 Years
My Nitecore NEW i4 doesn't have an LCD display, but I always check by using a multi-meter. On all 4 slots, each and every single time the charging stops at exactly 4.20 volts... it's always accurate all the way down to the last digit.
 

Fudgey Finger

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Ok so it sounds like I need a multimeter. What should I be looking for in a multimeter? Something that would be fairly accurate for vaping applications?

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inspects

Squonkamaniac
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Carambrda

Platinum Contributor
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Ok so it sounds like I need a multimeter. What should I be looking for in a multimeter? Something that would be fairly accurate for vaping applications?

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Here's a good article that explains about accuracy specifications... for measuring battery volts you only need to care about the DC volts accuracy specification. https://www.designworldonline.com/how-to-determine-digital-multimeter-accuracy/

The DMM that I use is an old ST3900 Standard. It measures DC volts with an accuracy specification of ±(0.5% + 1).

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Fudgey Finger

Silver Contributor
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Ok so after reading that article it seems like I should be more concerned with the range of the DMM than the accuracy specification. If it has a 5v range but a +-1.0% it would be more accurate than one having 2v and 20v ranges but only a +-0.5% AS? I don't know if they even make them with a 5v range but that statement was still correct, right?

I don't want to buy a DMM just to check the charge on my batteries though so I want to make sure I get one that can be used for any vape applications. So I should probably be looking for something that has a +-0.5% accuracy specification as well as a 20v or lower setting? I just looked around and I couldn't find any with a range lower than 20ohms. Are there multimeters that can read sub ohm resistance fairly accurately?
 

Carambrda

Platinum Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
Ok so after reading that article it seems like I should be more concerned with the range of the DMM than the accuracy specification. If it has a 5v range but a +-1.0% it would be more accurate than one having 2v and 20v ranges but only a +-0.5% AS? I don't know if they even make them with a 5v range but that statement was still correct, right?

I don't want to buy a DMM just to check the charge on my batteries though so I want to make sure I get one that can be used for any vape applications. So I should probably be looking for something that has a +-0.5% accuracy specification as well as a 20v or lower setting? I just looked around and I couldn't find any with a range lower than 20ohms. Are there multimeters that can read sub ohm resistance fairly accurately?
Yeah, 5V range and ±1.0% would give better accuracy than 20V range and ±0.5%. Here's a reasonably priced DMM with 6V range, ±(0.8% + 3) accuracy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071JL6LLL
For measuring atomizer/coil resistance I use a Sifu B-Tab by UD. An extensive comparison test involving multiple of these units revealed the ohms reading on it is always 0.01Ω higher than any highly accurate DNA mod so, unless you already have such a DNA mod (I don't), just grab the Sifu... it is worth getting especially if you're into building on the mech.
 

Fudgey Finger

Silver Contributor
Member For 2 Years
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Awesome I ordered the DMM you posted. I have a DNA device that I use to check resistance but I was just thinking that if I got a DMM that could accurately read them it would be a plus, but I'm not going to buy new hardware to do so.

Thanks for your help guys. I have a new xtar dragon on its way too, but hopefully I can still get these Efest chargers straightened out.
 

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