Advanced (dis)charger/battery analyzer for 6+

Hi,I got the Ansmann Powerline 4 Pro for now which is a nice start, but it lacks the posibility of repeated charging and ofc also lithium which I will need soon. So now if I want to do long-tests of cells I have to manualy restart it every day. Got through few charge reviews but did not find any which would offer what I seek (see below) in one device, any tips?

- charges lithium (does NOT need to also handle Ni-CD, Ni-MH, may be Li-Ion only), at least 18650 cells (larger cells would be good but not immediatelly needed)
- 6+ cells, independent channels (banks)
- can do charge/discharge tests and measure capacity of each cell independently
- if possible can also be programmed to do like 2, 10, 50 repeated charge/discharge tests in a row for each bank (instead of manual restarts after the cycle ends)
- price is not limited but ofc the cheaper the better

The only analyzer I'm aware off that will do all the above, is the SkyRc MC3000. However it only has 4 independent bays, not 6 as you request.

http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=219

Thanks, looks nice, pity it's only 4bank. Maybe somebody else will know of some with more…

So any other candidates other than the 4bank? We will have virtually hundreds of cells very soon so with 4 banks we will process that for ages…and getting 10 chargers gets slightly expensive on the other hand…maybe we'll have some luck to get discount from SkyRC, but still.

I know of no 6 cell bank chargers of any sort. There is an 8 cell charger but it is nimh and no analyzing function. My advice is get 2 4cell chargers to do the job or a 4 cell and a 2 cell if you have limited space.

Why do you need the cycle function for lithium-ion cells? A basic refresh/charge/discharge should be sufficient, no? I can see it mostly for NiMH, where spreading the electrolytes around might be more fruitful in some circumstances, but not for lithium.

Get one good analyzing charger, like the SkyRC, Littokala 500, Opus BT, or the Dragon Killer from Xtar and then buy the less expensive 4 bay chargers that charge up at 1A, well, but don't cost a bunch of cash. Hell, you can get the Xtar XP4 Panzer that does 1A for pretty cheap (might be discontinued) or just buy a few Opus BT-3100s for $35 and go that route.

Or buy 6 USB Liitokala Lii 202, a good USB power hub and there are 12 slots at $28 shipped, plus the hub.

You can spot check cells with the analyzing charger, if you're employing lots of cells in the field.

Chris

I also agree with Chris. You don't need to cycle lithium ion batteries and also don't need 6 total bays to do a one time "test" of batteries. I'm pretty much broke but I ordered a Opus BT-C100 (single cell) and tested about 80 batteries with it one at a time it took me several months to do this but I found a short cut in that the charger gives you result after discharging the battery so after I got the capacity I took it out of the charger/analyzer and put the battery in a power bank case to finish recharging it to full while starting to test another cell.
One good thing about having several smaller chargers instead of one mega charger is if you need to take a charger with you, you can leave the other at home. I like my one cell charger as it can run off 5vdc either power jack or micro usb plug input I can use it in a car or off a 12v or 5v other source.

Cells which have been stored somewhere for years, often undercharged, can do weird things. And it is easier to just set-up some test like C-D-C 5 times and see the result. Though the MC3000 is highly programmable so we'll see whatcan it do, after unbricking

As for the numbers, as the project looks promissing, we'll have thousands of cells to process. This is business, time's money, using 1slot charger is nonsense.

But while talking about chargers, to not open a new thread. I've seen a project here for another advanced USB 1cell or 2cell lithium analyser, not sure exactly now, it was available as DIY assembly kit, but I can't find it now. Anybody remembers which one that was?