SkyRC — IFA 2014 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

[Dubois]

were you complimenting my handy skills :kiss: or the slider quality, in either case thank you kindly for the compliment

Actually I meant that the slider implementation looked good. It looks as though cells can be loaded and unloaded rather easily - not just one handed, but one handed wearing a gardening glove. I guess your adroitness should get some kudos too.

 

[StandardBattery]

...
Not too many have watched the youtube video .... Maybe this is more interesting, some animated gif?
....

The video was OK coild have been edited a bit, and the speed-up could have been even faster.

The animated gif... you are updating from 1.00 to 1.00 does not make much sense.

 

[kreisl]

slider implementation looked good

During the course of the DC2 development the sliders were changed and improved many times until everybody was really satisfied with them. Much attention to detail was given treating various aspects of the suitable slider. They wanted a strong build, something which didn't look nor feel flimsy or cheap.

A thick material was the starting point, and by rounding all edges their eventual sharpness got eliminated. Also note the nicely protruding positive contact to suit flat-top cells:

In a shallow bay it is harder to center a slim battery between the contacts. A deeper flashlight reflector allows of better throw, a deeper battery bay allows of better seating of the inserted battery. While 26650's and C-size batteries are perfectly seated in the bays, 32650's and D-size batteries still fit as mentioned before. I am also going to test the fitment of a round 3xAA-battery holder 3s1p and share photos of such large batteries in the MC3000 tray, stay tuned.

Note the considerable size of the sliders. Somehow the competition looks frightened

Sliding action is nice and smooth too, the sliders don't get stuck, no matter how/where you exert pressure on them.

Awesome construction of sliders, bays and contacts. No room left for further improvement, personally i am very pleased.:goodjob:

 

[StandardBattery]

Nice; looks like there was some substantial increase in material, and certainly looks like the cylindrical battery bays were given the proper amount of review if they work for all the sizes stated. We've seen a few problems recently on some chargers with some cells now as they tried to accomodate larger cells. Personally I think they should look at the X design also on the LUC S2, contrary to comments on the forum, my temp probs would seem to indicate the design is interesting and worth further analysis. Slightly different materials or maybe a fan (would love no fan) could maybe even make it better. Of course I'm sure it won't be in the first release.... now when did you say that was... Nov 2014 was it?

 

[kreisl]

my temp probs would seem to indicate the design is interesting and worth further analysis. Slightly different materials or maybe a fan (would love no fan) could maybe even make it better. Of course I'm sure it won't be in the first release

I am confused, temp - temporary, temperature, probs - problems, probes? Which design, whose materials, fan, or first release are you talking about, the Efest LUC S2? Yes the X design of LUC S2 is interesting and worth exploring
The MC3000 does have a smart fan as you know, at the backside of the PCB, near the top; the General Settings menu of the older version firmware offered few options to control the fan behavior, its cooling hysterisis.

I also noted that users could easily expand the built-in metal heat sink plate. However that's not needed. Especially during charge 4×(2.5…3.0A) there are no temperature problems with the MC3000 and the fan usually stays off, depending on the room temperature. Generated heat becomes a factor at high discharge rates, 4×-1.0A, so the smart fan would turn on. Don't worry, the topic temperature/thermals/cooling has been fully addressed in the design of the device from the very start, and i don't expect any further changes. I tested charges and discharges at full load, and everything is cool :thumbsup:

The animated GIF was my first attempt to record and share a real-time video at small file size (277KB ), i could do this also for sharing (animated) graphs of the PC link software, possibly with accelerated sections too, if you guys find curves and graphs similar to HKJ's battery/charger reviews interesting. Firmware updating from 1.00 to 1.00 does not make sense, i agree, it was only to show how the present PC link software user interface works for the firmware updating. I'll post a more sensible GIF when the next firmware update becomes accessible online, my pleasure.

All right, i am off to the supermarket. Need to buy a couple of new D-size batteries. Hehe.

 

[LiteTheWay]

When will we be able to buy this charger? - and do we have a guesstimated price?

 

[Dubois]

When will we be able to buy this charger? - and do we have a guesstimated price?

It's probably fair to say that nobody really knows when this charger will be launched. Hopefully before the end of the year, but nothing is certain. HKJ has given an educated guess in post 68 above that he expects it to cost in excess of $100.

 

[kreisl]

still fit as mentioned before.

I had to edit the mentioned post. I took C-size cells and taped them with transparent film to increase their diameter up to 26.5mm, because that's the typical diameter of 26650 batteries. I went to the supermarket and bought a pair of brand new D cell Alkalines; the cells happen to have a diameter of 33.0mm! With these cells i simulated the insertion of 26650 and 32650 in the MC3000 battery tray, and to my surprise I found out that 2×(32650+26650) actually fit in the tray as long as the 32650's do not lie next to each other. Clearly, D/D/C/C, C/C/D/D or C/D/D/C are a nogo, but D/C/D/C, C/D/C/D or D/C/C/D are fine tray configurations:

The above config has the disadvantage that the first C-cell (or 26650 or 26730) is interlocked between the two D-cells (or 32650 or 33730) and cannot be removed without removing one of the bigger cells.

The below config has the advantage that the middle cells can be exchanged at any time and in any order while leaving the outer cells in place. The symmetrical arrangement may also be advantageous for heat transfer to the environment:

In the above two photos the LCD shows the TOV, the Total Overview. The four channels are ready to proceed with the charge program. To signal the readiness, the SNB led's (Slot Number Button LED's) blink RED-GREEN-RED-GREEN-RED-GREEN-etc while the info row shows a blinking slot number w/ program symbol plus a blinking "READY".
From here, you could click (= short-press) SNB#3 to start the program in slot#3, or long-press SNB#3 to switch to SPV (Slot Programming View) of slot#3 for changing the parameters and parameter options of the program in slot#3, or press the SETUP-button to enter the GSV (General/Global Settings View), or press the ENTER-button to start all 'ready-slots' at the same time, or press blablah to activate bluetooth, or press etc.

@7histology
Thanks for your interest in the product! :huh:
The release date is still in the making and the consumer's end price can be freely chosen by the seller since there is no MAP. My guess is that no seller will be capable of fixing or dictating it. Competition and the market, -demand and supply- , are going to level the price. And in the beginning there should be (forum) group buys, coupon codes, holiday discounts, or similar promotional things going on. Once the product has been released, we could hunt for the best deals together and point to them on CPFMP.

Will be some fun! :thumbsup:

 

[shelm]

When will we be able to buy this charger?

There is a prospected release date given in the updated PDF catalog:
http://www.skyrc.com/download/catalog.pdf

 

[Mayor]

There is a prospected release date given in the updated PDF catalog:
http://www.skyrc.com/download/catalog.pdf

But I want it nowwwwwwwww

 

[StandardBattery]

Maybe we'll get and early release? :tinfoil: Oh well I can come back in 6 months, it will give me more time with using my existing chargers, and maybe i'll have more cells that are less standard for testing.

 

[kreisl]

Spring begins in 4 months and ends by the end of May, that's seven months away omg. A long time to keep filling this thread with more info, answers, news, updates, and details, please don't get bored :tired:

Let me know if you guys want some other pics, animations or videos

 

[_UPz]

i would like to see the PCB

You forgot me or what? :tired:

 

[kreisl]

hola UPz_!!

for your consideration

PBV = Power Bank View

 

[oKtosiTe]

i was talking about the PBV, did you mean the PBV? could be in catalão it is spelled this way similar to EEUU and USA, ONU and UN, SIDA and etc
StandardBattery had shared a youtube of the PBV :huh:

here a tiny demo of various LED lighting modi and manual 0V activation of tripped PCB's:

Eh? PCB is a very commonly used acronym for printed circuit board. I've never seen PBV before this thread.

When someone asks you for a picture of the PCB, they basically expect you to open up the device and take a picture of its guts.

Liking the functionality here by the way, although it's a bit hard to determine the user-friendliness.

 

[kreisl]

GOOD NEWS. From what i have learned, the retail shipping package is going to include a free external PSU adapter hooray. With the adapter which i got one could easily switch the wall socket cable to adapt to different plug types (US/EU/UK/AU/.. plug) without changing the whole adapter construction, genius. With the total weight of the installed product being ~0.883kg, plus printed manual, cardboard box, accessories and whatnot, the international shipping weight will exceed 1.0kg in a heartbeat. Posting this as sub 2kg Registered Letter, ouch not cheap. Because of warranty and stuff, personally i'd wouldn't mind acquiring such a big heavy thing from a national or local dealer than a Chinese etailer.

Today i painted the numbers/symbols of the 8 buttons with thinned down tippex correction fluid, white color. Looks sweet imho :huh:
I guess that most viewers would prefer the black-in-black stealth style as seen in the catalog?

When i got the final production version, i'll take photos of the guts, no problem.

charger model	max dimensions W×H×L	weight	comments
XTAR XP4	92.4 × 34.6 × 125.0 mm³	170g unit + 149 mains adapter	tiny. heat issues.
Nitcore i4 V2	96.3 × 36.6 × 136.5 mm³	160g unit + 67g mains cable	light. cheap. it is!
Opus BT-C3100	100.1 × 42.9 × 150.0 mm³	230g unit + 194g mains adapter	likable product, no doubt.
Maha MH-C9000	109.8 × 41.7 × 165.0 mm³	364g unit + 153g mains adapter	2006 release. big.
Skyrc MC3000	124.0 × 68.8 × 200.3 mm³	601g unit + 215g PSU + 67g mains cable	whopper. 2014 release?

 

[StandardBattery]

Impressive, i like the idea of a charger that stays put and has no over heating issues. i hope they have a good US distributor or dealer lined up.

 

[Dubois]

Good news about the power supply being included in the package. It would be nice to see some European distributors for this (UK even better), but if I have to order from China, well, it won't be the first time.

 

[kreisl]

while waiting myself for the latest updates from the skyrc offices i stumbled upon this beautiful 1.0 product release documentary which in manifold ways reminded me of the dc2 development team, offices and ongoing 1.0 release. hope you enjoy it as much as i did, please lemme share:



and sorry for the ot

 

[kreisl]

I placed a FT order for the 4 round 3s1p-holders and the USB tester and meanwhile i will be testing powerbanking from 10440's. Maybe such low capacity cells are the key to the solution of the mentioned logistic challenges. I'll replace the video then with an updated better clip.

woah. 450 views since my last post. some of you must be interested in the updates in this thread as it seems, thanks :thumbsup:
2 news items for today:

1.
i got the round battery holders and the USB tester to test with the power bank. I am gonna share report or photo or vid of the test, stay tuned:

2.
i've got word that an updated firmware will be out within 1 week for the testers to test. It's been over a month since the last FW update and i've been getting desperate since
hallelujah.

lol.