Test/Review of Charger SkyRC MC3000

[TheGrave]

Fantastic review!

I have a few questions though - seems like this charger doesn't have even basic protection - reverse polarity, short circuits, etc:

http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/product/download&download_id=149


(page 20)

Does the charger have built-in protection against reverse polarity, short circuitry,overheat, overvoltage, overload, stupidity, ignorance, explorativity?
- Do not misuse, abuse, or mess around. The device was built for proper responsible usage.

Also page 19 with the error messages suggests the same.

Can you guys confirm? It seems to me impossible to overlook important things like this in such a sophisticated charger.

I currently own a MH-C9000 and have the stupidity to put batteries the other way around every once in a while. When this happens slot menu selection doesn't pop up at all and I feel well protected from my own stupidity Losing this + the super intuitive and simple operation menu of the Maha + still the extremely scarce reliable EU 18650 protected battery market keeps me away from what seems to be the better headlamps.

 

[kreisl]

- seems like this charger

- seems like you have misread the manual :huh:

anyway thanks for reading the manual. only few ppl nowadays read manuals, especially when it consists of many pages. the maha manual is just 1 sheet of folded paper.

Zebralight and Armytek have some decent headlamps. One does not need 18650's in headlamps. A 18650 weighs 50g already, crazy.

 

[TheGrave]

- seems like you have misread the manual :huh:

anyway thanks for reading the manual. only few ppl nowadays read manuals, especially when it consists of many pages. the maha manual is just 1 sheet of folded paper.

Zebralight and Armytek have some decent headlamps. One does not need 18650's in headlamps. A 18650 weighs 50g already, crazy.

You think? The answer provided inside makes me think it has none of the listed protections

Maha's manual is not that bad - it's whole 4 pages:

http://www.mahaenergy.com/content/manual_mhc9000.pdf

But then it's a much simpler charger with far less fine tuning you can make. It's severely discounted nowadays which makes me think Maha will come up something similar to the MC3000 soon. All in all the Maha is a great charger. The only complaint I have about it is that buttons seem to start failing (or more likely the circuitry behind them) after about 2-3 years of use - need to press them multiple times in order to do a selection.

I do own a Zebralight H52w which I've never used. My 8GBP XM-L T6 chinese knock-off 4xAA blows the pants out of it (so a 50G battery won't put me off). Seriously, the Zebra looks like a matchstick compared to the chinese one at 1/5 the cost. The problem with the chinese crap is poor soldering - every once in a while a cable gets away from the board and I need to re-solder it (hopefully to the right place ). Battery runtimes I'm not going to compare to modern flashlights as it's quite obvious they'll do much better. But still, with so many good AA Eneloop Pros sitting at home seems like a serious investment to migrate to another format for a questionable benefit. See what NKON have written about the Wizard v3 Pro on which I had my eyes set:

https://eu.nkon.nl/armytek-wizard-pro-v3-xhp50-led.html

I'm clarifying with them whether this is written before or after the latest manual from Armytek (which the *******s haven't intentionally put on their website) for which a link is provided on this webpage.

 

[kreisl]

makes me think

hehe

( btw page m01 mentions numerous safety mechanisms to protect user, device, and batteries from harm, so there you have it )

 

[TheGrave]

hehe

( btw page m01 mentions numerous safety mechanisms to protect user, device, and batteries from harm, so there you have it )

The safety mechanisms they refer to are capacity, voltage, time, and temperature cut-offs. There are numerous other stupid things you can do to damage both the charger and the batteries

 

[kreisl]

funny conversation

 

[StandardBattery]

funny conversation

The funny part is why you would start talking about zebralight and claim one does not need 18650 headlamps... that's your opinion but obviously based on how many they sell not everyone's. So it seem obvious some people do as great as their very small early models were. But the funny part really is why you bring it up as well and why you think it's funny since the manual for this charger does not give the impression you have a good sense of humor.

 

[kreisl]

StandardBattery i don't get you. this is too deep. or too heavy. or how does one say in English.

goonite :wave:

 

[JDodd]

HKJ, this review is worth money! Thank you so much for sharing this professional documentation!

 

[KiwiMark]

My MC3000 arrived yesterday, my first thought was: "wow, this is a beefy sized charger".
I've charged some Eneloops and a few different Li-Ion cells and it really does seem like a nice piece of equipment.

I've only created about 4 programs so far, but I've decided that I definitely need to be a bit organised about what settings I use in which programs to make things easy to remember.
I'm going to use the first ones for Li-Ion, so far #01 is Li-Ion 1A charging, #02 is Li-ion 2A charging. I might go with $03 = 0.3A charging (good for 14500 & 16340 cells).
I've set #30 to LiFePO4 1A charging and #29 to Eneloop 1A charging.
I might make 11-20 the discharging programs.
So I'll end up with 01-10 Li-Ion charging, 11-20 discharging, 21-30 other chemistry charging.
If I make it logical then I wont need to think too hard when choosing a program.
01, 02, 30 & 29 are all pretty quick to choose as they are all next to each other (30 is only down 1 from 01).

I also have 2 hobby chargers and a Xtar VC4 so I'm pretty well set up for charging.
My biggest light uses 8 x 18650 IMR cells(10-15 minutes run time on max output) which take a bit to charge, but the MC3000 can charge half of those at one time with a separate independent channel for each cell. If I use a hobby charger I can also charge 4 at once or even 8 on my iCharger 208B, but not fully independently - I'd have to charge in parallel or in series with balancing leads.

 

[kreisl]

Nice setup!
In the past weeks my saved programs were
[11] = LiIon 1.75A Charge with Zero termination :devil:
[12] = LiIon C>D Cycle with 0.01A termination
[13] = LiIon 0.50A discharge with 2.50V cut-off
[14] = LiIon 0.30A Charge with 0.03A termination, for charging 16340's

And in SETUP i set the memories to
SNB#1 = [11]
SNB#2 = [12]
SNB#3 = [13]
SNB#4 = [14]

Vely happy with that!
Note that you lose your saved programs when you update the firmware.
DataExplorer's function 'Backup&Restore' helps you to backup your 30 programs in file format (*.XML, *.TXT, or printout).

 

[ediaz]

I will love that somebody make a very good of programming with DataExplorer's function 'Backup&Restore'.

Takes a lot of time make a very good programs on the charge.

Nice setup!
In the past weeks my saved programs were
[11] = LiIon 1.75A Charge with Zero termination :devil:
[12] = LiIon C>D Cycle with 0.01A termination
[13] = LiIon 0.50A discharge with 2.50V cut-off
[14] = LiIon 0.30A Charge with 0.03A termination, for charging 16340's

And in SETUP i set the memories to
SNB#1 = [11]
SNB#2 = [12]
SNB#3 = [13]
SNB#4 = [14]

Vely happy with that!
Note that you lose your saved programs when you update the firmware.
DataExplorer's function 'Backup&Restore' helps you to backup your 30 programs in file format (*.XML, *.TXT, or printout).

 

[Driftermickh]

Re: Test/Review of Charger SkyRC MC3000 Quick Thanks...

HKJ, for the super review. First post, and happy to say I got the
charger. Little more than I need here, but a lot of fun to work with.
Read most of the thread; been reading and lurking here for a few
weeks. Did a search for the MC.3K and this poped up. So, 1 more
charger in my vast collection here. Thanks everyone for a great thread.
Answered most of my questions...

 

[david.allie]

I know this review was originally written several years ago. I believe the MC3000 is still considered king of the universal chargers and have been checking out prices. I've noticed that the price on Amazon is almost double what it's priced on the open market, sometimes even by retailers selling through Amazon.

Any ideas why the price on Amazon is double vs elsewhere?

 

[Nev]

Greedy

 

[terryoregon]

After pondering the purchase of the MC3000 for six months, finally ordered one. It's not easy finding a reputable source who currently has the latest version with two cooling fans. But did find them in stock at nkon.nl. Final price with shipping after conversion to US dollars was $121.03, not the cheapest I've seen others get it, but WAY cheaper than I've seen on Amazon (the last two listings were $170 and $190).

From NKON'S product listing:

Latest hardware version, two cooling fans, three raised points on positive terminal (and of course reinforced pins to prevent the broken slider problem in found very old versions)

And of course a couple of other CPF members have also recently ordered from NKON and confirmed the latest version.

 

[JoeRodge]

I just got mine from gearbest.com -- they just restocked after a month of being out of stock. Should be the newest model. I'm excited for when it comes in.

Came out to $99

 

[seery]

-- they just restocked after a month of being out of stock. Should be the newest model.

No guarantees. Chinese factories are notorious for "finding" and dumping large inventories of "old stock".

 

[LiteTheWay]

I got mine (my third one) from NKON. Definitely the latest version with two fans etc. I sold my first production version and have a 'June 2016 production' also from NKON as backup or if I need to charge 4 x D size batteries at once.

Always had good service from NKON.

 

[terryoregon]

Received mine today from NKON. Ordered March 1st, arrived 11 days later.
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You can never have enough stamps (from the Netherlands).

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NKON packaged it well.

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And of course two cooling fans.

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So pretty.

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Oops, not everything was perfect. NKON shipped me the wrong plug (EU version). I didn't see an option during the order process to select that. I think they were supposed to look at the shipping address to determine which plug to send. Fortunately, that's a very common two-prong AC chord (female end) and I already had one. The "brick" portion of the adapter takes 100-240V, so the brick works with either the EU or US type cord. Everything powered up OK. Emailed NKON to let them know, and told them they didn't need to do anything, it was just an FYI.

Edit update: Just got this reply from NKON:

Hi, We are an eu store, and sell 99% within Europe and Russia..

Don't have any USA or even UK plugs

Therefore, if you live in US and order from NKON, you will need to get your own US cord. On Amazon, they're typically in the $6-7 range.

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On to the fun part; learning how to use it.