Test/Review of Charger Opus BT-C3100 V2.1

[realista]

and this is strange. seems to not detect the fully charged battery. could interfere the protection circuit installed in some batteries?

UPDATE. i noticed the charger do take a long time do display FULL battery. seems that at about 4,1v does take too much time to arrive to 4,15, 4,2........ i dont think it is normal. ok the final curve could be slower...but it is a lot slower. I should manually leave the battery also if do not show "full" but it is imho 99,5% full!

 

[Julian Holtz]

When does fan start?

Hello HKJ,

thanks a lot for your expertise here.
I have a question concerning the fan. When I charge 2 cells LiIon or NiMh in the standard setting with 0.5A, will this be enough for the fan to start, or will it stay off?

Thanks,

Julian

 

[realista]

Re: When does fan start?

i reply to ur quwstion. yes, the fan does start with 2 nimh charging at 500mah. it sounds strange........ but true. i am charging 2 eneloop xx 2500mah...and sometimes the fan do start. then stops, then restart.....

 

[Julian Holtz]

Re: When does fan start?

Thanks for your information! That's really a bummer - I like to keep my chargers at my nightstand. Oh well, the market is big enough.

 

[tatasal]

Re: When does fan start?

The fan is programmed to engage if internal temperature reaches 40 celsius.

 

[Julian Holtz]

Re: When does fan start?

Well, 40°C is not that much. I wonder what would happen if I were to install a switch for the fan, to manually disable it for charge currents <= 500mA.
There are other chargers without fans that have no problems with these currents. Even if the electronics heated up to 60°C, which I doubt, this would still not be a problem for today's semiconductors.

 

[realista]

Re: When does fan start?

in fact, my maha c900 think go over 40c but does not ave fan. i thought fan was for over 1000mah current. the opus output 2000mah on 1 and 4 slot. i never imagined fan do start at 500mah charge current.
THE FAN IS REALLY LITTLE. are there any replacement of this fan? it is precisely 2,4 cm x 2,4

 

[Julian Holtz]

Re: When does fan start?

I just ordered this one, it is supposed to be very silent:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/231085074387

 

[oKtosiTe]

Re: When does fan start?

I just ordered this one, it is supposed to be very silent:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/231085074387

Sunon isn't exactly top-of-the-line, but you could do a lot worse with many no-name fans.
An option if temperature is less of an issue than fan noise is to add a resistor to run it at lower speed. This is what I did with an amplifier; it originally came with a no-name fan that died within months. It was one out of four amplifiers (80,120,240,500W at 8Ω) built with the exact same case. Because of its lower wattage and the high-end fan I replaced the old one with, a lower fan speed was perfectly fine. So now my living room is quiet once more.

 

[Julian Holtz]

Re: When does fan start?

I use Sunon fans in all of my iChargers, and they never failed me in many years. :thumbsup:

I will check how hot the charger gets if the fan is purposely disconnected at 0,5A charge current. As it switches of automatically at 60°C, I don't think I run the risk of a meltdown here. I'll also check the type of the SOP-8 transistors and see if I can add a heatsink to them.

So I will enable the fan only when I don't need total silence and when I'll charge at higher currents or discharge. My charger should arrive tomorrow, I'll see then.

 

[UnknownVT]

Thank you for that heads-up -
seems like a very good charger to try out at this coupon price.

Does anyone know if the manual is available on-line please?
or be willing to scan and post it?

I just received my v2.1 using the discount coupon code - thanks.

So I have scanned the brief (and not very clear) manual and put it into a pdf file -

Opus BT-CT3100v2.1 Manual - Download pdf (1.05MB)

 

[realista]

thank u good work.

 

[tatasal]

Henry Xu of Opus sent me two pre-production v2.1 chargers. As you can see in the first pic, it does not yet have the Opus logo printed in the upper right hand portion in the housing of the production model. (mine is the same non-logo model reviewed by HKJ in this thread)

The stock fan of the v2.1 is actually much quieter than the ones in the original versions. I also have the v2.0, btw.

I experimented with one of the charger's cooling by putting a 12VDC, .13A, brush-less fan salvaged from common ATX PC power supplies at the bottom of the charger. I cut the wires that powers the stock fan then connected it to the new fan at the bottom. The air sucked by the new fan passes from the top, through the charger's 4 cradle rails, cooling the cell/s and electronics below and finally exiting through the original horizontal cooling and round holes I made. My project will not win workmanship awards but nevertheless attained my goal of using a quieter fan.

Since the fan pulls in more cooling air than the stock one, it is not only more quiet but it turns off automatically much earlier since it cools the charger much faster, triggering the sensors that control the fan to turn off the power to the fan much earlier.

 

[Conte]

I've noticed these chargers popping up in ebay now with different names on then. I wonder they are the same thing re labeled or crappier quality knockoffs.

 

[UnknownVT]

Just got mine (thanks to the discount code)


I was using it to test some lithium IMR batteries I recently acquired - AW and TrustFire
when I got this....


An AW IMR16340 tested capacity was 1028mAh!!!
Is this even possible?
the rating was 550mAh printed on the side of the battery
(FWIW - I was using 300mA current for all those IMR batteries)

I waited until the other IMR batteries were complete -

This shows the other 3 IMR batteries gave "sensible" measurements
including another AW IMR16340 (=506mAh).

I had already used that slot to test an old unprotected 16340 and that was 543mAh -
so that slot seems "sensible"

This is why I am so taken aback by this test measurement.
(I don't think a capacity of 1028mAh for an IMR 16340 is even remotely possible)

Of course this could just be a glitch -
so I've put that AW IMR 16340 back in for another Test cycle in another slot -
while I am testing a TrustFire IMR16340 in the slot that gave 1028mAh.

Will report when those are complete.

Observation of the Test cycle - the Opus BT-C3100v2.1 does not seem to give any "Rest" period
between initially charging and the discharge
then between fully discharged and charging back up - whereas the
Maha/PowerEX C9000

with the Maha/PowerEX C9000 the Charge and Discharge current rates are programmable -

BUT on the Opus BT-C31000v2.1 the discharge current is the same as the charge current.

 

[HKJ]

Try checking the battery in another slot and see if it gives the same result again.

 

[kaichu dento]

Try checking the battery in another slot and see if it gives the same result again.

Exactly what I was thinking - might be a problem with the particular slot as opposed to the battery, or the charger as a whole.

 

[kreisl]

Observation of the Test cycle - the Opus BT-C3100v2.1 does not seem to give any "Rest" period
between initially charging and the discharge
then between fully discharged and charging back up - whereas the
Maha/PowerEX C3000

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ger-analyzer&p=4510981&viewfull=1#post4510981

 

[UnknownVT]

Of course this could just be a glitch -
so I've put that AW IMR 16340 back in for another Test cycle in another slot -
while I am testing a TrustFire IMR16340 in the slot that gave 1028mAh.

Will report when those are complete.

Try checking the battery in another slot and see if it gives the same result again.

Exactly what I was thinking - might be a problem with the particular slot as opposed to the battery, or the charger as a whole.

Thank you gentlemen for the advice - as you see we are thinking along the same lines.

These were the measurements that I got overnight:


That AW IMR16340, which got a reading of 1028mAh in Slot #1, is now in Slot #4 and its measurement is now 544mAh -
which is a much more realistic reading.

BUT the TrustFire IMR16340 that I did a Test Mode in Slot #1 at the same time gives a measurement of 1099mAh!!!! simply not realistic or "sensible" -
I think this shows there is a problem with Slot #1 on my brand new only just received Opus BT-C3100v2.1.

So I guess with the bad behavior of Slot #1 on my brand new just received Opus BT-C3100v2.1 -
I'll be contacting Gearbest.com to see about addressing the issue.


I had also said about Slot #1:

I had already used that slot to test an old unprotected 16340 and that was 543mAh -
so that slot seems "sensible"

That old unprotected LIR 123A/16340 is now in Slot #3 -
and its reading in that slot is now 156mAh!
So the so-called "sensible" reading of 543mAh that I got in Slot #1 was also wrong, and WAY over capacity -
it seems that that old LIR 123A/16340 is at the end of its life-cycle.

Just out of interest Slot #2 showing the -- -- mAh - actually had a reading (I can't remember exactly but it was in the region of 2-3XXmAh)
as I was just about to take the photo - setting the lights and and my camera -
the reading changed to -- --mAh and indicating it was charging.

My uneducated take is that the voltage had dropped below 4.0V and the charger decided to charge it back up to 4.2V
as per manual:

then went back into the Test Mode and was discharging the battery (as I took the pic - that's why it says Discharge in Slot #2)

Literally right after I removed the other 3 batteries - that slot gave a reading - so it was only a matter of minutes definitely <20mins

cough! - I think that battery is on its last legs......

Thanks for the help and suggestions so far.

 

[UnknownVT]

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ger-analyzer&p=4510981&viewfull=1#post4510981

Thank you very much for the useful link.

My observation for the Test Mode of the Opus BT-C3100v2.1 is
it does a final full charge of the battery
so to use your nomenclature -

short: C > nR > D > nR > C
(addition highlighted in Red)

At the end of the cycle the display (using the Display button)
flashes between Full and the capacity in mAh.

Thanks