More and more lights are taking multiple 18650 cells, and more are taking not just 2, but 3 or 4, and soon no doubt more. This means we now need to charge more cells to feed our light's hunger for power.
The Xtar S1 flashlight is one of these power houses and needs 3 cells at a time, so fully loaded, and with a spare set, that is 6 cells. There is an S1 currently on the test bench, and to help keep it fed, so is the Xtar 6-bay charger the WP6 II.
Initial Impressions:
In keeping with the popular WP2 MK II charger, the Xtar is a simple dark graphite colour. A nice feature is that is comes with spacers provided allowing you to charge cells smaller than an 18650.
Up to this point most of the li-ion chargers I have used have been 1 or 2 bay chargers, and multi-cell lights need lots of charging time. To achieve consistency of cells, I prefer to use the same charger, well the WP6 is a refreshing sight, with 6 independent bays, it allows you to charge a mixture of any 6 size of li-ions all at once. Now you can get your power-fix quickly and consistently.
What is in the box:
The WP6's box.
Sliding the plastic tray out of the box
The WP6 II has a car adaptor, mains adaptor, the WP6 itself as well as the instruction manual.
Looking at the top of the charger, the spacers are shown in place. They can be unscrewed and added together to achieve the length needed. Each bay has a single light, which can light up red or green.
Output Modes and User Interface:
The WP6 has two output modes, CC/CV and pulse charging.
Think of the WP6 as three groups of two bays, and each group, will use CC/CV if it has only a single cell. If two cells are placed into one group, then pulse charging is used.
Output current is 600mA per bay.
Measuring open circuit voltage (no cell inserted) reads 6.2V on the multi-meter. It is very difficult to measure the conditions as a cell is inserted as measurement with a terminated cell appears to be around 4.2V. This suggests that upon inserting a cell, this voltage will drop, and should reset any tripped protection circuits.
When powered, the lights for each bay show as green. On inserting a cell, the light will go red and remain so until the termination is triggered, when it will go back to green.
Using the Charger
Initial tests were run with a full complement of Xtar 3100mAh cells. These are one of the longer protected cells and fit easily.
As you should do, as the cells came off the charger, I tested their voltage. Disappointingly, the cells ranged in voltage from 3.87V – 4.18V, which is far from acceptable as mixing these would result in very unbalanced cells. However, I've come across a strange feature of Xtar high capacity cells, in that they appear initially reluctant to take charge and seem to under-charge on just about every charger for the first charge.
Unperturbed by this first result, after being re-inserted several times, and checked with a multi-meter, the Xtar cells were all at 4.19V and ready to power the S1.
In the mean time, several other cells were charged on the WP6 II. These were a mixture of cheap brands and AW's latest 3100mA and IMR cells.
All these other cells reliably came off the WP6 at 4.22V. This coupled with the second charging of the Xtar cells, which after a full discharge, then charged up to 4.2V without intervention.
The charger appears to function very well and even though the charging current is only 600mAh per cell, charging 6 at once still makes the a fast charger.
As with any charger, always check the final cell voltage yourself.
Xtar's chargers have proven well made, reliable, with good performance, and the WP6 II gives heavy users a great solution for charging lots of cells easily and quickly.
Anticipation rises as the indicator lights start to go green, meaning lots of light will soon be at hand!
Review sample provided for review by TorchDirect.
I'll update post 2 of this thread once I have some more comments to add....
The Xtar S1 flashlight is one of these power houses and needs 3 cells at a time, so fully loaded, and with a spare set, that is 6 cells. There is an S1 currently on the test bench, and to help keep it fed, so is the Xtar 6-bay charger the WP6 II.
Initial Impressions:
In keeping with the popular WP2 MK II charger, the Xtar is a simple dark graphite colour. A nice feature is that is comes with spacers provided allowing you to charge cells smaller than an 18650.
Up to this point most of the li-ion chargers I have used have been 1 or 2 bay chargers, and multi-cell lights need lots of charging time. To achieve consistency of cells, I prefer to use the same charger, well the WP6 is a refreshing sight, with 6 independent bays, it allows you to charge a mixture of any 6 size of li-ions all at once. Now you can get your power-fix quickly and consistently.
What is in the box:
The WP6's box.
Sliding the plastic tray out of the box
The WP6 II has a car adaptor, mains adaptor, the WP6 itself as well as the instruction manual.
Looking at the top of the charger, the spacers are shown in place. They can be unscrewed and added together to achieve the length needed. Each bay has a single light, which can light up red or green.
Output Modes and User Interface:
The WP6 has two output modes, CC/CV and pulse charging.
Think of the WP6 as three groups of two bays, and each group, will use CC/CV if it has only a single cell. If two cells are placed into one group, then pulse charging is used.
Output current is 600mA per bay.
Measuring open circuit voltage (no cell inserted) reads 6.2V on the multi-meter. It is very difficult to measure the conditions as a cell is inserted as measurement with a terminated cell appears to be around 4.2V. This suggests that upon inserting a cell, this voltage will drop, and should reset any tripped protection circuits.
When powered, the lights for each bay show as green. On inserting a cell, the light will go red and remain so until the termination is triggered, when it will go back to green.
Using the Charger
Initial tests were run with a full complement of Xtar 3100mAh cells. These are one of the longer protected cells and fit easily.
As you should do, as the cells came off the charger, I tested their voltage. Disappointingly, the cells ranged in voltage from 3.87V – 4.18V, which is far from acceptable as mixing these would result in very unbalanced cells. However, I've come across a strange feature of Xtar high capacity cells, in that they appear initially reluctant to take charge and seem to under-charge on just about every charger for the first charge.
Unperturbed by this first result, after being re-inserted several times, and checked with a multi-meter, the Xtar cells were all at 4.19V and ready to power the S1.
In the mean time, several other cells were charged on the WP6 II. These were a mixture of cheap brands and AW's latest 3100mA and IMR cells.
All these other cells reliably came off the WP6 at 4.22V. This coupled with the second charging of the Xtar cells, which after a full discharge, then charged up to 4.2V without intervention.
The charger appears to function very well and even though the charging current is only 600mAh per cell, charging 6 at once still makes the a fast charger.
As with any charger, always check the final cell voltage yourself.
Xtar's chargers have proven well made, reliable, with good performance, and the WP6 II gives heavy users a great solution for charging lots of cells easily and quickly.
Anticipation rises as the indicator lights start to go green, meaning lots of light will soon be at hand!
Review sample provided for review by TorchDirect.
I'll update post 2 of this thread once I have some more comments to add....