LiitoKala Engineer Lii-500

[judo]

Nice little charger for a good price. Doesn't use pulse for charging/discharging.
Has tests modes so you can drain and give a full charge which allows
you to see how much is going back into the battery.
4 independent slots, comes with a 2 amp wall charger and pretty decent 12 volt plug.
Pretty much like most other cheap chargers. Been using it for a while and it works great.
Not as popular but similar to the Opus BT-C3100 but I believe the Opus uses pulse
charge/discharge.

 

[MrScaryZ]

interesting I love my Opus it gives me warm fuzzies

 

[fq06]

I've had the 2 bay version for about a year now, great charger for the money. Also charges just shy of 4.2v so it's easier on cells than most of the mainstream chargers that will charge up to and a hair over 4.2v. Charge curve is excellent giving max power to start and tapers off well as a good Li charger should but not all do.

Now that I have a 3 cell mod I may have to grab the 4 bay version

 

[judo]

I've had the 2 bay version for about a year now, great charger for the money. Also charges just shy of 4.2v so it's easier on cells than most of the mainstream chargers that will charge up to and a hair over 4.2v. Charge curve is excellent giving max power to start and tapers off well as a good Li charger should but not all do.

Now that I have a 3 cell mod I may have to grab the 4 bay version

The nice charge curve is one of the reasons I decided to give this one a try,
that and the price. I think i got mine on sale for $20 delivered. forgot to
mention it has a usb charge port. Not sure what the bonus of that would be.
maybe give a better charge on your cell phone then what you get with a factory
adapter. I like it more then the mainstream chargers in vape shops, either way
my batteries are charged...im vapin.

 

[Zamazam]

Thought it might be a Finnish company, nope China....

 

[fq06]

Haha, yeah, you would think. They're tricky tricky

 

[judo]

So maybe this charger isn't so great...instead of side tracking the other charger thread
i'll copy my last comment here.

I haven't been able to catch it when its at the end of a discharge cycle.
My evic mini and sigelei 150 power off around 3.3-ish if im not mistaken,
I have check them on a multi meter and the they are within .1-.2 V of what
the evic mini says the volts are, the sigelei just gives a % indication but tends
to cut out around 35% which for some reason reads around 3.3V on my multi-
meter.

 

[fq06]

What does the low voltage cutoff of those mods have to do with a charger?

 

[fq06]

I see, you were trying to test the cells capacity on the charger. I have no idea how accurate the tests are and i wouldn't want to take my batteries below 3v to find out.

If I were to test a cell, I would use my RC powerlab charger to get an accurate read and also have an accurate IR reading.
Also, you are not going to see the cells full capacity unless you deplete all of it's energy and this nor the opus or any cheap charger is going to do that so don't think there's anything wrong with your 25r's because your charger is not taking all of it's capacity out.

For $20, I bought it to charge $5 batteries. $80 lipos go on my powerlab

 

[judo]

I see what your saying about depleting the entire capacity, this charger takes them down to around 2.8
For example one of the things that seems strange is that the charger shows it putting in 1930ma and 1975ma
into 2 vtc4's on a normal 1 amp charge that are about 1.5 months old. the charger shows it putting in 1955ma and 2029ma into these
newish 25r's on the normal test mode. Both sets have been used in the same mod so remaining capacity or voltage should be very
similar ??? I guess I thought the accuracy of what its putting into them would be better the an error of 500-600ma
especially with test modes. The guy that tests all the chargers and batteries on the flashlight forums reviewed this
charged and said it was a useful analyzing charger :S
I really don't know very much about batteries but something seems to be a little off somewhere. I really
don't care in the end, I just thought it would be good to have a charger that would be able to show the
state of a battery compared to the ones what just give a volts reading.

 

[fq06]

So you put vtc4's and 25r's on the same discharge / charge cycle and they all got about 2000 mah put back in?

Or after using them in your mod they all needed about 2000 mah to be fully charged?

I'm sure it is a useful charger for analyzing but I just don't need to stress new cells taking them down so low to see what the capacity is. I also don't vape till the mod cuts me off, lithium batteries hate being used till they are dead.

Mainly I just care how much went back into them after using 3 cells in my reuleaux rx200. So if after use I put 1805, 1815 and 1799 back in, that's close and just fine.
If I put 1805, 1815 and 2051 back in then I have one cell that's weak and getting ganged up on but if around the same amount goes back in then I am happy. And it will never be the exact same amount that goes back in to each one of the same kind of battery. If you see that, go play the lottery.

 

[judo]

The last time i used the 25r's in the mod and put them on the test mode and got 1955ma and 2029ma.
For the vtcs i used them in the mod put them on a normal 1a charge and got 1930ma and 1975ma.

I havent been monitoring them since new but i believe the 25rs that im wondering about normally get
2000 +- 50 mh on normal charge after using them until the mod says game over.

 

[fq06]

2000mah sounds about right for the 25r after full use in a mod. You should put less back in the vtc4 after use since it has less capacity if you are using the same way of checking them.
So, consistency... use vtc4 till low voltage cut off (LVC) and then use the 25r in the same mod till LVC.
After you have hit LVC pull the cell and throw it on a 1a charge... not test, just charge. Do the same thing the same way for both the 25r and vtc4.

If you put about 2000 mah into both 25r and vtc4 using the same mod and running them both down to LVC, the only thing I can think of is the vtc4 has lower internal resistance and less voltage sag so even though you are pulling more capacity out of it as a percentage compared to the 25r, the vtc4's voltage is holding up better and not tripping LVC until it has depleted more of its capacity as a percentage than the 25r has.

You will definitely see +-50 mah or more. That's normal. Cells are never the same capacity, they should be very close but rarely exactly as advertised.
Capacity used up will also vary depending on the ambient temps and also wattage your running your mod at. Many variables go into how much juice your cell gave until your mod hits LVC.

 

[judo]

So, consistency... use vtc4 till low voltage cut off (LVC) and then use the 25r in the same mod till LVC.
After you have hit LVC pull the cell and throw it on a 1a charge... not test, just charge. Do the same thing the same way for both the 25r and vtc4.

I'll do that, should of done that from the start but those are my main two sets of batteries and I don't like messing up my rotation lol

 

[judo]

Got around to comparing both the vtc4 and 25r's.
Both battery sets used in my Sig 150 tc. Both sets were used at the same wattage. The first time the LVC
kicked in I pulled them out. Put all 4 batteries on the charger at the same time for a normal 1amp charge. All 4 batteries finished charging at around the same time.
Does these numbers look normal for how much is gettng put back into the cells?

vtc4#1 1890ma/28mr/1:57h charge time
vtc4#2 1909ma/31mr/1:58h charge time
25r #1 1963ma/36mr/2:03h charge time
25r #2 1919ma/34mr/1:58h charge time

 

[fq06]

Did you use the vtc4's first then the 25r's after then put them back on charge at the same time?
Was that a few hours between when you took the vtc4's off and then the 25r's were done?

The batterys will recover a little energy sitting so there may be some variance there but about 100mah less sounds about right. I would have thought it would be more like 200 but maybe that's because they were used first?

Could also be that the vtc4 is holding voltage better (less voltage sag) and not tripping LVC until it has used a higher percentage of its capacity before it got cut off.
The vtc4's are very close in health and performance.

The 25r's being within 50 mah of each other is normal.

 

[judo]

I used the vtc4 first then the 25r the next day. About an hour after the 25r ran out they were
all put on the charger at the same time, plugged in the charger and they all started charging
at the same time. Also, I tested them on the multimeter after taking them out of the mod and
got 3.40. I didn't test the vtc4s after sitting and before getting put on the charger.
Each set last me pretty close to the same time... almost one day. One reason i picked up the
25r's instead of a second set of vtc4s is that i wanted a little more battery at the end of the
day to get a full day before having to change them. But I don't get any longer with the 25rs just
the same.
Im getting the feeling that these might not be what they say they are.

 

[fq06]

Best way to test is when you are done with the vtc4's, take them out (give them a couple minutes to cool if you just got done vaping) and charge them. Note mah the charger put back in.
Next day when you are done with the 25r's, take them out and chage them, note the mah put back in.

2000 sounds like about the amount I put back in using about 2/3 of the bar which takes them down to about 3.6v. I'll take note of that and post back here.

There is only a few hundred mah difference between the vtc4's and 25r's and you are getting 100 mah more out of one of the two 25r's. Maybe one is somewhat of a dud, that happens out of thousands of cells made.

You know the results of the 25r's fresh off of use, now note the vtc4's fresh off of use so you are testing the most fair way possible keeping the discharge, charge and time between dischage and charge consistent if you really want to compare the two.

 

[judo]

I'll give what you suggested a try, just hard to find the time to be at my charger for a bit these days.

Btw, do these new green 25r's have two marks that are visible under the positive contact?
Mine have two marks that are just small indents that look like a small line... or 1 or I :S

 

[Zamazam]

yes.

 

[fq06]

This is what got put back in from 3.6v which is usually where I stop using them at... 1/3 of the battery bar left.

1 cell is a year old, the other is 6 months old but they still discharge about the same amount. But if they were new they should be closer like probably within 20 mah.

 

[judo]

Just to compare to your I tried taking them out at 3.6 but got them at 3.57 and 5.58.
let them sit for 8-10 minutes, charged at 1a.
charger put in 1577 and 1626 mah. Looks all good I guess
Thanks for your input!

Im curious does your lii 260 stop at exactly 4.2? While testing these 25r's i noticed the volts
go up to 4.24-4.25 at the end of the cycle for a brief 2-3 minutes and then drops back down
and finishes at 4.22. I check the batteries on my multimeter hot off the charger and they
read 4.17. I suppose that would be normal for the charger to overcharge a little bit and
when the batteries are off the charger for them to drop off a little?

 

[fq06]

Supposedly the charger cuts off at 4.19v, at least the test I saw online but that's the 250. I wouldn't think the 500 is any different. I would prefer it not breach 4.2v, maybe I'll have to test mine to see what it's doing when it's near the end of the charge.
How are you testing it while it's charging? Probes on the + & -?

Voltage will drop off a hair, some RC racers will charge up to 4.25 per cell so that they are at a legal 4.2 per cell by the time they walk up to the drivers stand. (hard core dudes that run stock class where you need every thing you got, not good for battery life but they don't care)

 

[judo]

Ohh I see from your pic there doesn't look like room to show more digits for voltage. The 500 shows to the hundredth on voltage.
I did try a multimeter a while ago on the 500 but there is zero room to get in without a flat contact for the probe.