Xtar VC8S Battery Charger Tested
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- čas přidán 11. 04. 2024
- This 8-bay charger supports lithium ion and nickel metal hydride cells, and can charge up to 2 cells at 3 amps, up to 4 cells at 2 amps, and up to 8 cells at 1 amp. LiFePO4 can also be charged if the charger is in Storage mode. Sodium ion can also be mostly charged in Storage mode.
Cells can be graded (charged, discharged and capacity tested, then charged again) in Grad mode.
Amazon UK link: amzn.to/3TV43i5
Things I found out after I made this video:
In storage mode, nickel metal hydride is first charged fully, then discharged to 1.29 volts.
In storage mode, sodium ion is treated as NiMH until it reaches 2 volts. Between 2 volts and 2.5 volts, sodium ion is treated as a faulty lithium cell and will periodically flag an error. Above 2.5 volts, sodium ion is charged normally up to 3.65 volts. - Věda a technologie
Awesome review, Julian! Thanks! 😃
I won a charger and 4 cells from this brand, it arrived around a month ago I believe... And I've got no complaints. 😊
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Nice charger for Li-Ion - the storage mode for charging LiFePO4 cells is very handy. My only gripe is the fixed 500mA charge current for NiMH cells.
Nice charger.
Hello Julian, I just bought INR18650-35E lithium ion cells. Upon charging these cells. each cell voltage showing 4.05v 4.06v 4.10v 4.10v did I got fake or used cells? I heard that a 100% capacity voltage should reach 4.12v but non of my cells reached that level. Now, I am discharging testing each cell with my mini b6 balance charger individually.
Was that a Tronic AAA NiMh I saw briefly. All mine are junk, with such high IR's such that my smart charger refuses to charge them (and they're nearly new). Even warming the cells to reduce their IR doesn't help.
Yeah, Tronic from Lidl. I've not really used them in anger.
Aaawwwwaaa I wanted to see inside !!!!...............cheers
I'm tempted to say there's a circuit board covered in little black rectangles - but that would be facetious!
@@JulianIlett I guess you maybe correct 🙂
@@JulianIlett It would indeed, and I would have been tempted to say you miserable sod !! so all is well :)
8:15 "you really shouldn't charge lithium cells while you're asleep"
what a BS. tell that millions of smartphone users, who charge their phones overnight :D
I never leave lithium cells charging overnight - phone included.
@@JulianIlett Me neither, not worth the risk.
This make sense even if you do both things. If you charge raw cells without internal protection then it's more risky than phone since the charger doesn't have control over the cells as much as phone has. For example the charge has no ability to know the exact temperature of the cells and that's very important safety metric with lithium cells.
This type of battery charger is must very convenient and skyrc lipo charger
I assume yours USB-A to USB-C, am I correct? I wonder if USB-C to USB-C can be used?
If you use the power adapter from mains and you use the "store" mode to charge sodium ion cells and then you get a power failure. Will it then go back to "store" mode when the power gets back?
What happen if you put a cell the wrong way?
Maybe you could send an email to XTAR and ask what the different charging is for the ⅿΩ instead of guessing ...
A tip, when you put the cells in the charger, spin them around a few times for better contact.
sodium ion sounds like a bug in the firmware. Manual settings are always better than autodetect.
If I put a non rechargeable battery on it, to check what will happen? Example non chargeable AA
The manual says: "please avoid using this charger with non-rechargeable batteries and 1.5V rechargeable lithium ion batteries"
It'll think it's nimh most likely. Your battery will leak if you do this. You may not notice the leaking for ~ a week though.
Amazon show some bad reviews...
Shame about the ridiculous current limitations… Makes it almost useless in my opinion. It might look nice and have great features, but the internals are badly designed. This has been a limitation on their other chargers for years. If only it could negotiate a higher input power when connected to a better power supply, but its lack of active cooling and undersized power regulators stop this from being possible.
If it was to change All the batteries at 3amps. Then the charger would consume over 100 watts.. Most people do not have a 100.Watt charger To supply the power. And would cost way more to produce And no one would buy it at that price point. I think for what it is trying to do It is doing it well. I have purchased two devices like this before and ninety percent of them only charge at two amps. This one is probably one of the best ones on the market.
What is your use case? This unit has all the features I've been waiting for personally. The USB-C power supply is great. I have a stock of 18650 and 21700 cells I use for flashlights and being able to just stick them in here, up to 8 at a time, and forget about them until they are ready.
@@avoid3dsa I was thinking the same thing. Have you have to stick anymore features and it would cost an exorbitant amount of money.
I would say the charger is pretty limited with NiMH, since charging regular AA 2000-2500mAh cell would take long time with 500mA maximum charge current. For Li-ion it seems like one of the most powerful chargers even more powerful than SkyRC MC3000 that's why the NiMH limitation is odd.
@@brookerobertson2951 So what if it consumes a 100w? Would you accept a laptop charger that puts out 20w?
Current current ,English 🤣