Liitokala Lii-500, Ni-MH AA, and EA81

bwalker

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I have a Nitecore EA81 that I'm running brand-new AmazonBasics Ni-MH AA High-capacity (1.2v 2400mAh) batteries in. They came pre-charged from Amazon so I through them right into the EA81. This was in January when I ran the light through a test run giving it a workout but not draining the cells too much. It was still hitting Turbo mode when I put it away. Then in June I had it out to compare with another light. I noticed that it was only hitting Mid-level output so I figured I'd need to charge the cells before using it again. This week I finally got around to pulling the cells out. I put the first four cells in the Lii-500 charger and they charged up fine. (I was in a hurry so I didn't even notice what the voltage level was when they started charging.) After they were done I put the next four in but the charger just displayed "null". Hmm, that's weird. I wonder "did my charger just up and die?"

I put in an 18650 and the charger gives it a quick top-off with no problem. I put one of the Ni-MH cells back in and still "null" is all I get. I tried all four one at a time and still nothing. Then, remembering that I had a very old Energizer slide-open AA/AAA Ni-MH charger in a drawer somewhere (unused for about 15 years) I decided to throw these four cells in there to see what would happen. After about eight hours the green light on the Energizer charger is still on. (Seems like I remember it's supposed to go out when done charging but it's been waaaay too long for me to remember if that's right.) I decide to pull them out and put them back into the Lii-500 charger. Now it recognizes them fine and reports they are nearly fully charged. So I leave them in until it tops them off the rest of the way.

So I threw the eight Ni-MH cells back into the EA81 and it fires up full power. What the heck is the deal with the Lii-500?!? I had to fall back on an archaic Energizer charger in order to get the AA Ni-MH cells charged. (Unfortunately I didn't check the voltage on them before trying to charge them as that would've been a good data point.) But the first four cells I pulled from the EA81 charged up fine in the Lii-500. Why did the second set of four not register? Perhaps the EA81 drains half the cells substantially more than the other half? But still, how could the Lii-500 let me down like that?! This was the first time charging the cells up as they were new when put into the EA81.

I love the Lii-500 as an 18650 charger but apparently I won't be throwing away my old Energizer charger as it really saved the day for these AA Ni-MH cells. Has anyone experienced any trouble charging depleted AA Ni-MH cells in the Lii-500? Suffice it to say I will be keeping the EA81 with the tail cap unscrewed when not in use. It really seemed to drain the cells from just sitting unused.
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ChrisGarrett

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Since you're not really checking things all that much, it seems that the second quad that hit NULL on your lil 500 probably dropped too much in voltage to trigger the charging cycle.

It happens and that's why you need a dumb charger and a digital voltage meter to adequately play around with this stuff.

January to August is about eight months. Depending on where they were at when you yanked them from the packages, could see them self discharge. Also, depending on where they were made--China, or Japan, could have some bearing on things.

Finally, your NiteCore EA81 has digital switches on it and those can slowly and minutely drain your batteries.

Chris
 

SoCalTiger

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As another note, I always charge my "pre-charged" NiMH batteries when I receive them. They always certainly have self-discharged to some extent and depending on which version of the AmazonBasics batteries that you got, they might not be the Japanese LSD cells.
 

bwalker

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Dec 6, 2016
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Thanks for the input. They are labeled "made in Japan" so I believe they are Amazon's version of the LSD Eneloop. For sure, the next time they come out for a charge I will be checking their status before trying to charge them so I at least have some data points to work off of. I just had no idea the Lii-500 could be so easily fooled. I wonder if the Opus BT-3100CT would have the same problem. Nevertheless, as Chris pointed out, keep the "dumb" charger around for when the "smart" charger lets you down.
 
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