Xtar vc4

[marcgee]

Hi all.....does anyone own a xtar vc4 ? If so I hope you can help !i have just purchased the above battery and seem to be having problems with it .How reliable are they ?
Problems are :-
1,I plug in the charger via my USB wall socket and the charger will only charge ports 1 and 2 at just under 0.2 v.
2,I plug the charger into a 3 pin wall socket and it charges at just under 5 volts.
3,I remove one of the batteries (18650) from one port and it will only charge at 7.5 volts.
4,when one of the batteries is charged it only read 499 amh.
5,if I remove the battery and put it back in the amh goes back to nought and starts counting again,this dosen't seem accurate.
6,When I remove one battery from one port the other dial on the other port goes up and down ,the volts go up and down and the red and green lights flash on and off.

To me it seems I have bought a knackered unit ,but I am new to this so some advice would be welcome please.if I need to return this I will ,if so would you recommend buying another one or an alternative.What I want is a charger that will charge all types of batteries and have a digital display.

Sorry about the long post and thanks in advance for your help.

Marc

 

[Tubbyengineer]

Hi all.....does anyone own a xtar vc4 ? If so I hope you can help !i have just purchased the above battery and seem to be having problems with it .How reliable are they ?
Problems are :-
1,I plug in the charger via my USB wall socket and the charger will only charge ports 1 and 2 at just under 0.2 v.
2,I plug the charger into a 3 pin wall socket and it charges at just under 5 volts.
3,I remove one of the batteries (18650) from one port and it will only charge at 7.5 volts.
4,when one of the batteries is charged it only read 499 amh.
5,if I remove the battery and put it back in the amh goes back to nought and starts counting again,this dosen't seem accurate.
6,When I remove one battery from one port the other dial on the other port goes up and down ,the volts go up and down and the red and green lights flash on and off.

To me it seems I have bought a knackered unit ,but I am new to this so some advice would be welcome please.if I need to return this I will ,if so would you recommend buying another one or an alternative.What I want is a charger that will charge all types of batteries and have a digital display.

Sorry about the long post and thanks in advance for your help.

Marc

Not sure of the precise normal functioning of this as I don't own one, but if charging Li-ion batteries then it should charge from 3.2v (the cut off voltage of most regulated devices) to 4.2v. It should do that on all channels regardless of whether you remove a battery part way through and should do that whether there are 1, 2, 3, or 4 batteries in it (at least when running from mains).

 

[Loco]

I researched this one a while ago with a mind of grabbing one at some point.

The usb power supply should be capable of 2a minimum and better quality ones pay off!

Not entirely sure what you meant in regards to some of the questions, but the charging curve drops off when near completion.

Found this in my bookmarks, may be of some use?

Review of Charger Xtar VC4

 

[bijou]

Hi all.....does anyone own a xtar vc4 ? If so I hope you can help !i have just purchased the above battery and seem to be having problems with it .How reliable are they ?
Problems are :-
1,I plug in the charger via my USB wall socket and the charger will only charge ports 1 and 2 at just under 0.2 v.
2,I plug the charger into a 3 pin wall socket and it charges at just under 5 volts.
3,I remove one of the batteries (18650) from one port and it will only charge at 7.5 volts.
4,when one of the batteries is charged it only read 499 amh.
5,if I remove the battery and put it back in the amh goes back to nought and starts counting again,this dosen't seem accurate.
6,When I remove one battery from one port the other dial on the other port goes up and down ,the volts go up and down and the red and green lights flash on and off.

To me it seems I have bought a knackered unit ,but I am new to this so some advice would be welcome please.if I need to return this I will ,if so would you recommend buying another one or an alternative.What I want is a charger that will charge all types of batteries and have a digital display.

Sorry about the long post and thanks in advance for your help.

Marc

1. The amperage being drawn from the power supply will be split between however many slots are being used. If the power supply is 0.5A (500mA) and you are using two slots, then the maximum each slot will be able to draw from it will (theoretically) be 0.25A. Although, as you have found, it's more likely to be 0.2A.

2. Are you sure you don't mean amps? It's possible that the maximum power supply being drawn from the wall plug is 1A (though, from Q3 it's likely to be less. Maybe 0.8A or 0.9A?) Therefore, split between the two slots it would indeed be just under 0.5A. (Check on the wall plug to see what the amp draw is.) You will only get the 1A charge rate in slots 1 & 4 simultaneously IF the charger is able to pull the full 2.1A. from the power supply. (Slots 2 & 3 can only charge at a maximum of 0.5A)

3. See above.

4+5. The milliamp counter will only tell you by how much the battery has been charged in that charging session. If you remove the battery, the counter will reset to zero.

6. I have no idea. I've only used my VC4 charger once, with one battery, and it overcharged it to 4.49v. (I waited until the red light went off and that's what it did to it ) If anyone has got a duff unit, it's me not you.

Hope this has helped.

 

[marcgee]

Thanks for the replies, just one more question RE answer 4 +5 I thought the amh was the battery capacity as in a 2500 amh battery.

 

[bijou]

Thanks for the replies, just one more question RE answer 4 +5 I thought the amh was the battery capacity as in a 2500 amh battery.

Basically, yes. But the VC2/4 claims to be able to measure the battery's capacity, which is why that section of the screen is there. But, it can only do it when charging a battery from 3v.

 

[marcgee]

What do you mean charging from 3v?? Sorry if this sounds thick

 

[bijou]

What do you mean charging from 3v?? Sorry if this sounds thick

It's not thick. I'm only just learning this stuff myself! Lol

On the dial above the charge ports, it shows 0v, 3v, 3.5v, 3.8v, 4.1v, 4.15v and 4.2v. A fully charged 18650 battery is usually 4.2v and as it discharges, the voltage decreases (becomes weaker).

So, in my answer above, what I meant was charging a battery from flat.