I just got a Nitecore UM10, and while it's pretty good as a pure charger—gotta love that charge percentage display—I think there's a problem with the charger terminating at a high current, thereby not fully charging the battery. (The USB passthrough isn't working as expected, but that's not a feature I really care about.)
The voltage near the end of the charge is correct at 4.20 V on my multimeter, but my XTAR VI01 USB detector reads a 0.20 A load before charging stops and the charger reads 100%. Considering that the input and output amperages are typically very close, this is an indication that the termination current is too high. The battery measures 4.15 V immediately after charging terminates. For comparison, my XTAR MC1 terminates at about 30 mA.
Any idea as to what's going on? I'd strongly prefer not returning a $10 charger, and I know I can just work around this by using the MC1 to top off if needed. I suppose this has something to do with the internal resistance of the cell—it's a Nitecore NL189, which is based on the 3400 mAh Panasonic NCR18650B.
—DragonLord
The voltage near the end of the charge is correct at 4.20 V on my multimeter, but my XTAR VI01 USB detector reads a 0.20 A load before charging stops and the charger reads 100%. Considering that the input and output amperages are typically very close, this is an indication that the termination current is too high. The battery measures 4.15 V immediately after charging terminates. For comparison, my XTAR MC1 terminates at about 30 mA.
Any idea as to what's going on? I'd strongly prefer not returning a $10 charger, and I know I can just work around this by using the MC1 to top off if needed. I suppose this has something to do with the internal resistance of the cell—it's a Nitecore NL189, which is based on the 3400 mAh Panasonic NCR18650B.
—DragonLord
Last edited:
